Jason Shiga (born 1976) is an American

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

who incorporates puzzles, mysteries and unconventional narrative techniques into his work.

Early life

Jason Shiga is from

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. His father, Seiji Shiga, was an animator who worked on the 1964 Rankin-Bass production ''

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a fictional reindeer created by Robert L. May. Rudolph is usually depicted as the ninth and youngest of Santa Claus's reindeer, using his luminous red nose to lead the reindeer team and guide Santa's sleigh on ...

''. Jason Shiga was a

pure mathematics Pure mathematics is the study of mathematical concepts independently of any application outside mathematics. These concepts may originate in real-world concerns, and the results obtained may later turn out to be useful for practical applications, ...

major at the University of California at Berkeley, from which he graduated in 1998.

Career

Shiga is credited as the "Maze Specialist" for Issue #18 (Winter 2005/2006) of the literary journal '' McSweeney's Quarterly'', which features a solved maze on the front cover and a (slightly different) unsolved maze on the back. The title page of each story in the journal is headed by a maze segment labeled with numbers leading to the first pages of other stories. Shiga has also drawn and written several comics and illustrated features for ''

Nickelodeon Magazine ''Nickelodeon Magazine'' is a defunct American children's magazine inspired by the children's television network Nickelodeon. Its first incarnation appeared in 1990 and was distributed at participating Pizza Hut restaurants; the version of the ma ...

'', some of which feature his original creations, and some starring Nickelodeon characters such as

SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It chronicles the adventures of the title character a ...

and the ''

Fairly OddParents ''The Fairly OddParents'' is an American animated television series created by Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon. The series follows the adventures of Timmy Turner, a 10-year-old boy with two Fairy godmother, fairy godparents named List of The Fai ...

''. Shiga makes a cameo appearance in the

Derek Kirk Kim Derek Kirk Kim is a Korean-American writer, director, and artist. He is the recipient of the Eisner (2004), the Harvey (2004), and the Ignatz Award (2003) for his debut graphic novel ''Same Difference and Other Stories.'' (The contents of which ...

comic ''Ungrateful Appreciation'' as a

Rubik's Cube The Rubik's Cube is a Three-dimensional space, 3-D combination puzzle originally invented in 1974 by Hungarians, Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube, the puzzle was licensed by Rubik t ...

-solving nerd.

Techniques and materials

According to the rear credits page of ''Empire State: A Love Story'', Shiga, who was inspired by an actual

Greyhound Bus Greyhound Lines, Inc. (commonly known as simply Greyhound) operates the largest intercity bus service in North America, including Greyhound Mexico. It also operates charter bus services, Amtrak Thruway services, commuter bus services, and pac ...

trip from Oakland to New York to create that story,

pencilled A penciller (or penciler) is an artist who works on the creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms, with a focus on the initial pencil illustrations, usually in collaboration with other artists, who provide inks, colors ...

it with a yellow No. 2 pencil on copy paper. He then inked it with a

lightbox A lightbox is a translucent surface illuminated from behind, used for situations where a shape laid upon the surface needs to be seen with high contrast. Types Several varieties exist, depending on their purpose: * Various backlit viewing d ...

and a 222 size

Winsor & Newton Winsor & Newton (also abbreviated W&N) is an English manufacturing company based in London that produces a wide variety of fine art products, including acrylics, oils, watercolour, gouache, brushes, canvases, papers, inks, graphite and coloured ...

brush, and lettered it with a

Micron The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American spelling), also commonly known as a micron, is a unit of length in the International System of Unit ...

felt-tip pen A marker pen, fine liner, marking pen, felt-tip pen, felt pen, flow marker, sign pen (in South Korea), vivid (in New Zealand), texta (in Australia), sketch pen (in South Asia) or koki (in South Africa), is a pen which has its own ink source a ...

. The colors were applied digitally by John Pham.

Awards

Won

* 2019 Gran Guinigi winner: Best Series, ''Demon''. * 2017 Eisner Comic Industry Award winner: Best Graphic Album-Reprint, ''Demon'' * 2014

Ignatz Award The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping a ...

winner: Outstanding Series, ''Demon''. * 2007 Stumptown Comics Award winner: Best Writing, ''Bookhunter''. * 2003

winner: Outstanding Story, ''Fleep''. * 2003 Eisner Comic Industry Award winner: Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition. * 1999

Xeric Award The Xeric Foundation is a private, nonprofit corporation based in Northampton, Massachusetts, which for twenty years List of Xeric grant winners, awarded self-publishing grants to comic book creators, as well as qualified charitable and nonprofit ...

winner: ''Double Happiness''.

Nominated

* 2018 Angouleme Festival Sélection Officielle, ''Demon''. * 2018 Angouleme Festival Prix du Public, ''Demon''. * 2016

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Since 1980, the ''Los Angeles Times'' has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The Prizes currently have nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), history, mystery/thriller ( ...

nominee: Graphic Novel/Comics, ''Demon''. * 2016

nominee: Outstanding Series, ''Demon''. * 2014

nominee: Outstanding Webcomic, ''Demon''. * 2012 Harvey Award nominee: Best Letterer, Best Inker, Best Writer, Best Artist, ''Empire State''. * 2011 Harvey Award nominee: Best Original Graphic Publication for Younger Readers, ''Meanwhile''. * 2007 Eisner Comic Industry Award nominee: Best Graphic Album, ''Bookhunter''. * 2007

nominee: Outstanding Graphic Novel, ''Bookhunter''. * 2004 Eisner Comic Industry Award nominee: Best Single Issue or One-Shot, ''Fleep''.

Bibliography

Books

*''Double Happiness'', 2000 Shigabooks *''Fleep'', 2002

Sparkplug Comics Sparkplug Comic Books is a defunct publisher and distributor of alternative comics founded by cartoonist Dylan Williams (comics), Dylan Williams.Spurgeon, Tom"Dylan Williams, 1970-2011,"''The Comics Reporter'' (September 18, 2011). Based in Portla ...

*''Bookhunter'', 2007 Sparkplug Comics (French translation, éditions Cambourakis, 2008) *''Meanwhile'', 2010 Amulet Books (French translation as ''Vanille ou chocolat'', éditions Cambourakis, 2012) *''Empire State - A Love Story (or Not)'', 2011 Abrams *''Demon, Volume 1'', 2016

First Second First Second Books is an American publisher of graphic novels. An imprint of Roaring Brook Press, part of Holtzbrinck Publishers, First Second publishes fiction, biographies, personal memoirs, history, visual essays, and comics journalism. It als ...

*''Demon, Volume 2'', 2017 First Second *''Demon, Volume 3'', 2017 First Second *''Demon, Volume 4'', 2017 First Second *''Adventuregame Comics: Leviathan'', 2022 Amulet Books (French translation as ''Leviathan'', éditions Cambourakis, 2022), ISBN 978-1-4197-5779-2

Self-published minicomics

*''Phillip's Head'', 1997 *''The Adventures of Doorknob Bob'', 1997 *''Mortimer Mouse'', 1997 *''The Family Circus (parody)'', 1997 *''The Last Supper'', 1997 *''Grave of the Crickets'', 1998 *''The Bum's Rush'', 1998 *''The Date'', 1999 *''Meanwhile...'', 2001 *''Hello World'', 2003 *''Bus Stop'', 2004 *''Knock Knock'', 2006

References

External links

*
Fleep, the collected comic

(February 2001)
Comixpedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shiga, Jason 1976 births Alternative cartoonists American bloggers American webcomic creators Artists from Oakland, California University of California, Berkeley alumni Living people Eisner Award winners for Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition American people of Japanese descent Ignatz Award winners Date of birth missing (living people)