Ryan Estrada
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ryanestrada.com
Ryan Estrada
@ryanestrada.com
Eisner-nominated author/artist/adventurer behind Banned Book Club, Occulted, Student Ambassador, No Rules Tonight, Good Old Fashioned Korean Spirit. Worked on Garfield, Star Trek, Popeye. Represented by Janine Kamouh at WME. Find me at ryanestrada.com
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Welcome, new Blooskers!
So many of you fine folks just followed me through starter packs, so you may not know who the heck I am or what the heck I do!

I'm an artist, author and adventurer who travels the world making comics.
A very happy birthday to my favorite banned book badass, Kim Hyun Sook!

(Seen here inside Anthony McCall's Line Describing a Cone installation at Ulsan Art Museum)
February 7, 2026 at 10:33 AM
Hot take: every supernatural Stephen King story except The Shining has one too many characters with the shining.

If you already have a supernatural hook, then "also this other guy has an unrelated case of the shining" is a hat on a hat.
February 7, 2026 at 4:18 AM
At a webcartoonist dinner.
All these brand new Korean webtoon artists talking about their 4-figure-per-update deals, asking why I quit webcomics for print.

Awkwardly explaining that out of thousand of pages of webcomics, the only time I was ever paid was Hiveworks, which came out to $1.50 per page.
February 6, 2026 at 12:46 PM
I'm at an in-person cartoonist solidarity organization meeting.

50% was heartwarming and wonderful.

Everything after that was discussing how to use AI to turn your comic into an animated series, and now I'm in the hallway doing breathing exercises to calmy decide how many bridges to burn.
February 6, 2026 at 8:47 AM
Reposted by Ryan Estrada
The word don't is censored. Don't, or Don T. If you're looking for just some fun proof they're doing control+f censoring
February 5, 2026 at 11:30 PM
The most Jim Henson thing about New Muppets is evident when you see any marketing image where Disney's trying to show a group shot and there's some creepy dead-eyed weirdo in the center who's never appeared on a t-shirt that they can't crop out. Perfection.
February 6, 2026 at 12:35 AM
Imagine living in a world where people become billionaires by causing human suffering...

writing books so popular you become the rare billionaire who gets rich without causing human suffering...

and then deciding to use those billions to cause human suffering anyway just for the love of the game.
February 5, 2026 at 9:45 AM
Reposted by Ryan Estrada
RUN. RUN FAR AWAY FROM THIS CONTEST.
Venerable magazine Harper's Bazaar is running its short story contest again, with the winner receiving "the chance" of publication in the magazine. Just one catch: per the wording of the guidelines, _just by entering_ you transfer copyright ownership of your story to Harper's parent, Hearst. 1/3
February 4, 2026 at 11:47 PM
Reposted by Ryan Estrada
NEW PODCAST EPISODE DROP! Artist & Author Ryan Estrada (Banned Book Club) joins the show to chat about his early start, amazing experiences & a story about trolling Vladimir Putin?

Find it & all episodes of the Patrick Scott Patterson Project on all major podcast platforms.
February 4, 2026 at 5:08 PM
Oh god, so many of my friends and mutuals have blurbs about their books in the files just because a horrible monster didn't unsubscribe from a bunch of book website mailing lists. This is gross, and I'm so glad no one published me until after he was dead.
Hey, just a heads up to authors and cartoonists...

That guy with the emails? He subscribed to a bunch of new book release mailing lists. So a lot of folks' names technically show up "in the files" because Goodreads sent out an email blast about their comic book and the DOJ released them.
February 4, 2026 at 2:27 PM
Why do publishers give us access to sales trackers that are inaccurate to the point of uselessness?

I've spent the last year freaking out thinking that my last two books were disastrous bombs because the author portal was giving me numbers at least 10 times less than reality.
February 4, 2026 at 2:05 PM
Hey, just a heads up to authors and cartoonists...

That guy with the emails? He subscribed to a bunch of new book release mailing lists. So a lot of folks' names technically show up "in the files" because Goodreads sent out an email blast about their comic book and the DOJ released them.
February 4, 2026 at 6:16 AM
Reposted by Ryan Estrada
South Korea, 1983. Hyun Sook joins a book club at her university, and learns that there's all sorts of reasons why a totalitarian administration would call seemingly harmless titles 'illicit' and ban them.

You are not ████ to ███████. 🔇
store.ironcircus.com/products/ban...
February 3, 2026 at 7:27 PM
My friend Silas and I went on the Afternoona Asks podcast to tell stories about life as a foreign K-Drama actor/extra respectively.
February 3, 2026 at 2:03 PM
When I crowdfunded a radio drama, I had a "thanks in the credits" option. Then as a joke, a "NO thanks in the credits" option where I'd dunk on you instead.

No thanks tier sold out on the first day. Thanks never did.

Just a lesson on connecting to your audience... People like fun, silly things.
February 3, 2026 at 7:37 AM
Bro "responding to allegations" exactly six months later reeks of "my reputation crisis management firm told me to stay quiet for six months."

Also it's not "staying quiet to let the facts come out" if you hire a reputation crisis management firm to try to redirect the conversation.
February 3, 2026 at 3:12 AM
Reposted by Ryan Estrada
January 31, 2026 at 1:03 AM
Reposted by Ryan Estrada
Popeye Rush for Spinach with Ryan Estrada

Grab your canned vegetables and your questionable licensed tie-ins, because this week on Play Comics we’re diving headfirst into Popeye: Rush for Spinach on the Game Boy Advance—the game that looked at a classic comic strip about a gruff sailor punching…
Popeye Rush for Spinach with Ryan Estrada
Grab your canned vegetables and your questionable licensed tie-ins, because this week on Play Comics we’re diving headfirst into Popeye: Rush for Spinach on the Game Boy Advance—the game that looked at a classic comic strip about a gruff sailor punching his problems and said, “Actually, what if everyone just… ran a lot instead?” This is a world where the Sea Hag steals the global spinach supply, the solution is apparently time-traveling track meets, and Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto, and Wimpy all agree that the best way to settle things is to sprint through history like someone off-screen yelled “last one there buys lunch.” Helping us untangle this leafy green disaster is the wonderful Ryan Estrada from the comic-making side of the internet, a man who knows exactly what it looks like when characters escape the page and do something absolutely no one asked them to do. Ryan’s here to help figure out how a comic icon who started life in newspaper strips, got famous selling spinach, and spent decades punching sea monsters somehow wound up in a handheld racing game that feels like it was brainstormed during a very strange lunch break. So power up that tiny GBA screen, flex those forearms, and get ready for an episode that’s equal parts comic history lesson, adaptation autopsy, and incredulous laughter at the phrase “Popeye racing game.”
playcomics.com
February 1, 2026 at 7:15 AM
Reposted by Ryan Estrada
At the same time the Epstein Files are reinforcing how protected sexual abusers really are, Neil Gaiman is using the nightmarish sexual violence allegations against him to market his next book. His DARVO defense is the first selling point. Rape culture is everywhere and unavoidable.
February 2, 2026 at 11:42 PM
One of the book banner creeps I deal with is now helping doxx everyone organizing community safety in Minneapolis.

I was tempted to post his tipline phone number to flood with fake reports in response, but he's too dangerous and obsessive to encourage anyone to get in touch in any way.
February 2, 2026 at 12:06 PM
I'm happy for everyone in Wuthering Heights, but it does put a damper on my dream comic strip movie.

A Heathcliff movie that's marketed just like a 00's hybrid reboot but is secretly a straight Emily Bronte adaptation with the only difference being Heathcliff is a silent aloof CG cat.
February 1, 2026 at 10:52 AM
There two movies are in cinemas next door to one another simultaneously in my neighborhood.

A 2026 slasher and a 1973 science documentary.

There are going to be some confused audiences this week.
February 1, 2026 at 5:33 AM
The same day the Melania propaganda doc came out, all of Korea was glued to a documentary about how much former first lady
Kim Keon Hee sucks and deserves life in prison.

(She got 1 year 8 months and everyone is mad)
January 30, 2026 at 10:18 PM
Dorks will be like "AI is expanding what’s possible and allowing storytellers to go places they simply couldn’t before" and then use it to recreate the year 1776, something that has been possible since the year 1776.

They still sell the hats at the store and everything.
January 30, 2026 at 6:49 AM
A notorious book banner is smearing these literal second graders who love hiking and horses as "insurrectionists" because they live in a city his talking points said he hates now.

Buy cookies from these kids! Get them shipped or click a button to donate them to the Minneapolis community!
Hey, library friends! As if supporting a diverse Brownie troop in Minneapolis weren’t motivation enough, turns out buying (and — worse — donating) their cookies really pisses off that vile clown who’s been attacking librarians for 20+ years. So go ahead, order a few boxes. Spread the word!
Order your Faves on my Digital Cookie Site Today
That's right! You can order your favorite Girl Scout Cookies from me online, all while helping my troop and I do great things in our community and beyond! Check it out.
digitalcookie.girlscouts.org
January 30, 2026 at 12:35 AM