Ten Questions: Ryan Sias

This week we talk to Ryan Sias of Silent Kimbly. Ryan is a creative within the field of animation.  He’s best known for designing and storyboarding the characters in the animated sequence in the Oscar-winning film “Bowling for Columbine”.  From there he went on to storyboard for 20th Century Fox and Bluesky Studio’s movie Robots.  The he worked on “Pinky Dinky Doo” for Noggin.
His cartoons have appeared in Mad Magazine, Nickelodeon Magazine, Found Magazine, and the “Flight Anthology” for Random House.
Ryan is currently working a freelance Illustrator and writing and drawing Children’s picture books!To see Ryan’s Illustration portfolio go to www.ryansias.com.

1] Tell us a bit about yourself.

I draw funny pictures ever since I was a little kid. I’ve been working in animation for the last 15 years. I’m best known for designing and storyboarding the characters in the animated sequence in the Oscar-winning film “Bowling for Columbine”. From there I went on to storyboard for 20th Century Fox and Bluesky Studio’s movie Robots. My cartoons have appeared in Mad Magazine, Nickelodeon Magazine, Found Magazine, and the “Flight Anthology” for Random House.

I currently draw Silent Kimblys while writing and drawing Children’s picture books and TV show pilots!

 2] What’s Silent Kimbly all about?

Kimbly is a place where visual puns and cute wordplay literally come to life. Follow Kimbly , a spunky space girl, her pet “Binx”, & her adorably fuzzy friend “Tenderness” as they find the joy in everyday.

It’s fun drawings with puns, for all ages

3] It’s very interactive! How do the fans like it? Do most of them get the jokes?

The fans seem to really enjoy it. On wed I post a “guess the pun” comic where I post the comic with out the pun and everyone gets to guess, It normally gets 75-150 guesses. Which is really great!

I’d say about 80% or more get it right. So everyone wins! J

4] Why are you so keen on puns anyway?

That’s the strange part. I’m not practically keen on puns. I don’t make any puns in real life. I grew up watching the Muppets, so I think that has something to do with it. But drawing puns, it’s been an evolution. Kimbly started out more as “sayings” then over the years turned into puns. I’m not sure how it happened, but that seems to its thing now, so I’m going with it! ; )

Now I see it a challenge, take a BAD pun and make it visually funny. The more I’ve done it the stranger I find our language to be. Where do these words come from? Mostly I do words that seem like other words and play with that.

5] Can you pick your three favorite strips you’ve done?

Humm, this is hard. They are normally more current ones; I always love the NEW bad pun. But some of my favorites are Pancake, Caterpillar, and Fisherman’s Warf.

But I love all most all of them. I just got the proofs for a new book collecting last year’s comics, and as I was reading it was chucking at a lot of them.

6] What other projects do you have?

I’m always working on new properties. I’m currently work on some TV show pitches, kids books and a novel. So all that plus Kimbly keep me very busy!

7] what are some of your favorite web comics? What makes a webcomic good?

My favs are American elf, Dinosaur comics (which always get a laugh outta me) Diesel sweeties, dreamland chronicles, kawaiinot,

Sinfest, pvp, BOASAS, and tons more, I’m always finding new webcomics!

I think what makes a web comic good is a unique perspective, plus some good art. That and being consistence. I like comics that update at least once a week.

8] Do you see kid-friendly web comics as a rarity? Any reason why they would be? How vital are groups like Lunchbox Funnies to likeminded creators?

Yeah, All age’s comics are kind of rare on the web. I don’t think they need to be, but even I realize the most people who surf the web are guys 16-36, so it’s kind of hard to get TONS of traffic. Yes I realize everyone is on the web, but these guys make up like 2/3d of it. But I’m seeing more and more kids, so who knows.

I don’t know if LBF is vital, but it’s good to have someplace to go to find a few others all ages comics.

9] Make up a science-themed pun for us! Please?

If you have ideas let me know. I’m always looking for more puns!

10] What’s your favorite sci-fi/fantasy show/book/film?

I have a few favorites. I became a sci-fan from the Hitchhikers guide the galaxy books” so I’ll always love those. I also love the Foundation series, which I read every few years. But I really love modern Sci-fi, stuff written in the last 10 years or so. Out of those books, Single to noise blew my mind, as did Blood music. I think but my current fav is William Gibson’s “pattern recognition” Which I know takes place “now” but he makes it feel sci-fi . It all about looking for the creator of a web movies. It’s awesome.

Special thanks to Ryan for participating. Do you think you know a creator who should be interviewed? Contact us and let us know!

Tags: Cute, Industry, interview, Puns, Ryan Sias, Silent Kimbly, Ten Questions