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| Kris Straub | |
|---|---|
 Straub at the 2018 PAX West | |
| Born | (1979-01-17) January 17, 1979 (age 45) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | UCLA |
| Occupation(s) | Cartoonist, graphic designer, story writer |
| Years active | 2007–present |
| Known for | Creator of Starslip, Checkerboard Nightmare, Chainsawsuit, Broodhollow, Local58 and F Chords |
| Website | http://www.krisstraub.com |
Kristofer Straub (born January 17, 1979) is an American Web Cartoonist, performer, and content creator. His key web comic projects include Checkerboard Nightmare, Starslip, Chainsawsuit, Broodhollow, and F Chords. Other notable projects include the creepypasta "Candle Cove" as well as collaborations with Scott Kurtz ("Blamimations"), Mikey Neumann ("The Chainsawsuit Podcast"), Paul Verhoeven ("28 Plays Later"), and Penny Arcade ("Strip Search", "Kris and Scott's Scott and Kris Show," "Acquisitions Incorporated: The C-Team").
He currently writes and produces the YouTube analog horror series Local 58 TV. He also works with Penny Arcade, co-hosting the PAX gaming conventions as well as appearing in their Dungeons and Dragons collaborations with Wizards of the Coast.
Career
Straub graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a degree in computer science.
As a cartoonist
Straub launched his first comic, Checkerboard Nightmare, online in 2000. The strip was self-aware and used metahumour to follow the main character Chex's obsession with gaining fame as a webcomic character.
In 2005, Straub began creating Starslip Crisis (eventually shortened to Starslip), a daily science fiction/comedy webcomic. Starslip was first set in the 3440s and followed the crew of starship-museum IDS Fuseli, named after painter Henry Fuseli, which largely featured 20th and 21st century art. Starslip Crisis was part of the webcomics cooperation collective Blank Label Comics until Straub split away from Blank Label to merge Starslip with his new collective, Halfpixel, in November 2007.
The comic initially ran under the name Starshift Crisis. The nearly identical Starslip Crisis appeared early in the strip's run, with its own website and associated content, differing only in that the term "starslip" replaced "starshift". The two ran in parallel, until a strip in August 2005 which definitively ended the plot of Starshift Crisis, but which played out differently in Starslip Crisis. Reportedly, the name change was caused by a legal issue.
In 2008, Straub began writing another webcomic, Chainsawsuit, publishing three strips a week. The comic featured simple black and white drawings and slapstick humor. It ran for 11 years and achieved particular notoriety for its strip All Houses Matter upon release in 2016 and then again during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.
Writer and producer
In December 2006, Straub was named co-writer and co-producer alongside Scott Kurtz on PvP: The Series, a series of animated shorts featuring the PvP characters. In 2007, to coincide with his move to Dallas, Straub repurposed the Halfpixel site to serve as a hub for his and Kurtz's joint creative projects. Halfpixel later expanded to include webcartoonists Brad Guigar and Dave Kellett of the comics Evil Inc. and Sheldon, respectively. The four published How To Make Webcomics through Image Comics in the first quarter of 2008. The book covers a variety of topics of interest for beginning and intermediate webcartoonists.
Straub went on to co-produce Blamimations and the Kris and Scott’s Scott and Kris Show for Penny Arcade TV. In 2012, ShiftyLook announced that Straub and Kurtz were co-producing a new animated web series, Mappy: The Beat, in which they also voice all the characters. The series premiered in July 2013 and aired for 13 episodes.
Straub manages and writes for his own horror fiction website Ichor Falls, which features his most notable work of short fiction, Candle Cove. Straub's original short story is in the form of a series of forum posts by people reminiscing about a children's show called Candle Cove. Although it seems at first to be a normal children's program, they gradually recall disturbing aspects of the program and a bizarre episode in particular, before discovering that Candle Cove was merely half an hour of TV static which the children believed was a program.
Podcast host
Straub has co-hosted numerous podcasts, most of which center around the online comic industry, daily life, or comedy talk shows.
In 2005, while part of the comic collective Blank Label Comics, Straub and Dave Kellett co-hosted the Blank Label Comics Podcast. The podcast interviewed fellow webcomic creators about their comics and creative process.
In 2007, leading up to the release of How To Make Webcomics, Straub - alongside the books co-authors, Scott Kurtz, Brad Guigar, and Dave Kellett - produced the podcast Webcomics Weekly. The show featured comic industry news, techniques and general advice on how to create and maintain a successful comic online. In this same time period, Straub and Kurtz also produced two joint podcasts, The Kris and Scott Power Hour and Daily Affirmation.
From 2009 to 2012, Straub also hosted the comedy internet radio talk show Tweet Me Harder with David Malki. The show was recorded live and had the hosts interact with a Twitter feed of listeners' reactions to the broadcast, occasionally using comments as a springboard for their conversations. Following Tweet Me Harder, Straub then co-hosted Chainsawsuit: The Podcast with Mikey Neumann. The show began in April 2013 and spanned to December 2014 and included contents such as comedic sketches, satire, movie reviews, and general discussion. Beginning in January 2015, Straub and Neumann began hosting Morning Rush, which ended in June 2015 after 16 episodes.
In 2016, from July to December, Straub co-hosted the horror podcast Scared Yet? with cartoonist Abby Howard. It lasted 6 episodes, with Straub and Howard discussing horror storytelling, writing advice, personal favorite horror stories, as well as personal experiences with writing horror.
From 2017 to 2021, Straub played 'K'thriss Drow'b', on podcast and live DnD twitch stream, Acquisitions Incorporated: The "C" Team.
References
- "Killing Time with Kristofer Straub, Part 1". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
- http://www.starslip.com/concepts.shtml
- Kris Straub (May 24, 2005). "Starslip – Tuesday, May 24, 2005". Archived from the original on July 24, 2009. Retrieved February 8, 2008.
- Kris Straub (November 16, 2005). "Starslip – Wednesday, November 16, 2005". Archived from the original on May 14, 2009. Retrieved February 8, 2008.
- "Blank Label Comics is Formed". Editor & Publisher. May 31, 2005. Retrieved February 8, 2008.
- "Three Cartoonists Leave Blank Label Comics to Form New Halfpixel". Halfpixel. November 1, 2007. Retrieved February 8, 2008.
- "Starshift Crisis Changes Its Name?". Comixtalk. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
- Lopez, German (September 4, 2015). "Next time someone tells you "all lives matter," show them this cartoon". Vox. Retrieved December 14, 2022.
- "Yes, all lives matter, but black lives REALLY matter, right now". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved December 14, 2022.
- Drawn.ca review of How To Make Webcomics
- "ShiftyLook Announces First 2 Animated Series". icv2. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
- Candle Cove Archived December 3, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Kris Straub
- "Blank Label Comics Launches Podcast". Digital Strips. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
- Webcomics Weekly Archived May 1, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
- "The Kris and Scott Power Hour - Live & Recorded Episodes".
- "Daily Affirmation with Scott and Kris - Live & Recorded Episodes".
- "Scared Yet - A horror podcast". Chainsawsuit.com.
- Acquisitions Incorporated: The C Team (Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy), March 18, 2017, retrieved November 7, 2022