APAture 2002 : Artists

Featured Artists   |   Participating Artists

Jason Shiga : Zine/Comic

You may recognize Shiga's work from his strips in the San Francisco Examiner and Asian Week. But you may not; they were both cancelled within one year. Jason Shiga has been drawing comics since 1996 when he read Optic Nerve. Since then, his life has been a whirlwind of paper cuts, hunched backs and RSI. In his six year career, Shiga has amassed an impressive 21 titles. The works range from strips to graphic novels to insane paper machines with moving parts. Although he has made some comics about his place in the APA community, he is best known for his interactive comics.

Artist Statement

Jason Shiga makes interactive comics for people without computers. It isn't easy. He has used every trick in the book from die cut holes, tabs, flaps and folds to rotating wheels in his attempt to bring interactivity to the masses. His Meanwhile Matrix boasts an alarming 237 unique non-periodic storylines. Choose Your Own Adventure books of his youth are a primary influence on this gifted young artist and it is Shiga's sincere hope that this once thriving genre will make its comeback. Jason Shiga has been drawing comics since 1996. His works include crowd pleasers such as Phillip's Head and Double Happiness as well as crowd confusers like Meanwhile and Fleep. His hilariously unreproducable Theater Eroika has 5 moving parts, requires 113 unique cuts and had a print run of one. His newest project is a comic with memory. The reader must pack a boy's lunch box in such a way that he returns home with the ingredients for a cake. After hours of grueling labor, tedious construction and trimming of strategy trees, and seemingly never ending movement of flaps, the reader is rewarded with a panel depicting the main character eating a cake.

For APAture

The Meanwhile Matrix is the world's largest interactive comic. Spanning roughly 25 square feet, this monstrosity of a comic will leave viewers stunned, amazed then confused. The Meanwhile Matrix tells a story in 800 pictures laid in a complex array of twisting pipes and ghost panels. But it is the viewers themselves that choose how to follow the story. Follow the pipes one way and the main characters destroys the world. Follow the pipes another way and the main character eats a vanilla ice cream cone. The Meanwhile Matrix represents a years worth of labor and planning. Yet only a select few have actually viewed the legendary masterpiece in person until now!

Links

www.shigabooks.com