Jared Witkosfy
We took a moment with local comic book artist, podcaster and Upstate California Creative Corps grantee Jared Witkofsky to talk about process, inspiration, and his newest comic Falling, which takes the reader through his experience of becoming disabled, his frustrations and challenges navigating the American healthcare system, and the unexpected moments of hope and despair that people with disabilities often face.
Witkofsky has made comics since he was a kid. A collaboration with his friends while in high school resulted in the comic Sperble Elite, his longest running and largest project to date. “We would trade off drawing panels and I came up with this whole narrative. It ended up being my first self-published comic book. I love to write and draw, so comics were a perfect fit.”
We asked Witkofsky about his process and it seems that he is perpetually creating, from doodling to podcast production there is always a project or two in the works. “I feel like if you put yourself out there, the world can be a shockingly absurd and hilarious place. Every project I’ve done has a lot of my lived experiences in them. Visually, I’m always looking for inspiration. I read a lot of comics and do studies of my favorite artists to learn their tricks and techniques.” Drawing inspiration from everyday life, Witkofsky’s narrative podcast Playing with Madness comes out weekly.
We wanted to know more about Witkofsky’s most recent project, the Upstate California Creative Corps grant funded Falling. “At the moment, this is what I’m most proud of. It was a hard story to tell, for a few reasons, and the first project I’ve done like this with a time limit. It was also my first fully-colored comic book. I am also very proud to be making about half my income from art. Now that the grant is over, I have to figure out how to keep that going.”
Witkofsky named a few of the local artists that he admires, both of whom received recognition and gratitude at the end of Falling. The first is multimedia artist and creator of strange and wonderful creatures, Jori Phillips who told Witkofsky about the Creative Corps grant and encouraged him to apply. The other is Witkofsky’s wife, Isadora Goldschneider, a designer, fiber artist and multi instrumentalist who is “currently learning to install light reactive circuits in fabric.”
When asked what he loves most about the creative community, Witkofsky’s response was one we hear often: it is how many amazing artists there are in the GVNC Cultural District. “People are unusually supportive of the arts here and I want to do all I can to make our artistic community more collaborative and interactive.” Witkofsky is currently working on a club for people to come together and work on their projects in a creative environment. Witkofsky has some exciting things on the horizon and we are so proud to be a part of his creative journey. He has recently been invited to participate at a festival in Montreal focused on people living with disabilities. He is also on the waitlist for San Francisco Zine Fest and his next comic, the second Sperble Elite Graphic Novel graphic novel is slated to come out soon.
You can check out his tabletop roleplaying game Carbon City on Etsy and he is also making a Cinema Cat comic for The Onyx. “I am grateful to be invited to the disabilities festival in Montreal and am hopeful to make that happen. The next Sperble Elite has been years in the making and will be by far my longest book. I also have a new episode of the Playing with Madness podcast coming out each week, so I guess I have a lot going on.”
To learn more check out his instagram @sperble_elite
This story originally appeared in the August 15th, 2024 edition of the GVNC Culture Connection newsletter.