Jason Shiga

Jason Shiga is an Asian American cartoonist from Oakland, California. Mr. Shiga's comics are known for their intricate, often "interactive" plots and occasionally random, unexpected violence. A mathematics major from the University of California at Berkeley, Mr. Shiga shares his love of logic and problem solving with his readers through puzzles, mysteries and unconventional narrative techniques. [Arnold, Andrew D., "The Puzzling World of Jason Shiga", Time.com, Nov. 01, 2002]

Awards

* 2007 Ignatz Award nominee: Outstanding Graphic Novel, Bookhunter.
* 2007 Stumptown Comics Award winner: Best Writing, Bookhunter.
* 2004 Eisner Comic Industry Award winner: Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition.
* 2004 Eisner Comic Industry Award nominee: Best Single Issue or One-Shot, Fleep.
* 2004 Ignatz Award winner: Outstanding Story, Fleep.
* 1999 Xeric Award winner: Double Happiness.

Biography

Jason Shiga's life has been shrouded in mystery and speculation. According to his book jacket, he was a reclusive math genius who had died on the verge of his greatest discovery in June 1967. However, upon winning a 2003 Eisner award for talent deserving of wider recognition, a man claiming to be Jason Shiga appeared in front of an audience alive and well only to tell them that he had been living on an island in the South China Seas for the past 40 years. The man who accepted his award was later discovered to be an impostor who had disguised himself as Jason Shiga.
* At the age of 12, Shiga was the 7th highest ranked child go player in Oakland.
* Jason Shiga makes a cameo appearance in the Derek Kirk Kim comic, "Ungrateful Appreciation" as a Rubik's Cube solving nerd.
* 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.
* Jason Shiga's father, Seiji Shiga, was an animator who worked on the 1964 Rankin-Bass production "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".

Works

;Books
*"Double Happiness", 2000 Shigabooks
*"Fleep", 2002 Sparkplug Comics
*"Bookhunter", 2007 Sparkplug Comics (French translation, éditions Cambourakis, 2008);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

Goofs

* In Fleep, Jimmy uses a Foucault pendulum to calculate his latitude. However, to swing through even a tenth of a radian would take several hours at 50 North.
* The brand of tattle tape featured in Bookhunter wasn't available until 1976, three years after the story takes place.

References

External links

* [http://www.shigabooks.com/ Official website]
* [http://www.livejournal.com/users/shiga/ Jason's Blog]
* [http://www.aaronsw.com/2002/fleep Fleep, the collected comic]
* [http://www.nichibeitimes.com/articles/artsent.php?subaction=showfull&id=1158874800&archive=&start_from=&ucat=3& Nichi Bei Times interview]
* [http://www.time.com/time/columnist/arnold/article/0,9565,386289,00.html Time article on Jason, web exclusive]
* [http://www.asianweek.com/2001_01_26/ae1_shiga_doublehappiness.html Asian Week Article] (Feb. 2001)
* [http://www.comixpedia.org/index.php?title=Jason_Shiga Comixpedia]
* [http://www.youthradio.org/books/001024_shiga.shtml Jason Shiga: Genius? Or Madman?] (Youth Radio)
* [http://www.asianamericancomics.com/creators/jason-shiga/ Asian American Comics]