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A Brief Bio or Personal Summary
After getting engineering degrees I decided to make a comic instead. PIES is a full length, black and white, wordless graphic novel. A sort of brushpen vision quest, I've been told.
Personal Facebook URL
https://www.facebook.com/ian.king.5099
Publishing History
Yes, self-published (Web or Print)
Influences & Inspirations
Animation always pushes me to be better technically. It helps me think about composing visual information. To streamline, how to pace things, to think about motion and action. But comics are all about storytelling and in the end the story always wins out. A great story is what you talk about years later with people you don't even know. Seriously, read One Piece. Have you read Nausicaa? It is SO much better than the movie. (Miyazaki didn't start it till he was 40, so don't feel like you're lagging behind!) SuperMutant Magic Academy and anything by Jen Lee are current favorites. My comic PIES was really influenced by architecture, design, and film. It's a huge visual comic. I was inspired by Watterson's ideas of simple tools and big expressive panels. I'm not going to keep the tools simple forever, but I haven't given up on ink and paper so far.
What are you currently working on?
I enjoy challenging myself so I'm currently writing. Nothing like a stark, silent comic to make you appreciate writing dialog, describing colors, and making jokes. I'm also working on group projects in interactive media. It's still a lot of effort, but working in a group is amazing. The creative process can be stressful and extremely tedious at times. Having others at all different skill levels, helping out and learning together is incredibly rewarding.
Why should people vote for you?
Well, I made a full length graphic novel with just printer paper, a brushpen, off the shelf pens and a computer running GIMP. Imagine what I could do with a proper tablet and actual software. Or heck, just a bigger scanner. Most importantly though, I'd really like to organize more opportunities for emerging comic artists. Publishing and distribution that gets people working together and making something bigger.
Ian King
