Hit comic app Bitstrips is creation of a trailblazing Jewish artist

One of the most popular apps ruling the Internet today is actually the byproduct of a frustrated artist looking for a convenient way to work. Bitstrips, digital comic strips made from computer bits, has achieved virtual global fame in no small part due to a discouraged Jewish cartoonist, Bitstrips CEO and creative director Jacob “BA” Blackstock. 

As a result of Blackstock’s intense focus and frustration with a slow-moving project, now users can just spend a few minutes on Bitstrips to create comics. Now anyone can be an artist.

A Canadian venture, Bitstrips allows users to create avatars of themselves and others to produce a comic based on various customizable scenarios. New ones are provided nearly every day. The users can make adjustments to their facial expressions or gestures, choose who to include in the scene and add dialogue or thought bubbles to create a cartoon to encapsulate a moment, a holiday sentiment, or a mood.

While not everyone is a cartoon fan, for those who are Bitstrips have proven a popular vehicle from which to demonstrate one’s wit and talent — or lack thereof.

Born and raised in Toronto where Bitstrips was founded in 2007 and where its headquarters remains, BA — Blackstock’s nickname since childhood — has enjoyed a lifelong passion for comics.

“I’ve been drawing and creating comics since I was a little kid. Our team has been friends for decades and a love of comics has always been central to our friendship. We’ve always enjoyed making comics for each other, whether in the classroom in high school or later on in life,” Blackstock told The Times of Israel.

Bitstrips CEO Jacob ‘BA’ Blackstock. (courtesy Bitstrips)

Bitstrips executive team is comprised of Blackstock, David Kennedy (VP Technology), Shahan Panth (VP Marketing) and Dorian Baldwin (Lead Interactive Developer), who were all co-founders.

Bitstrips essentially came about while Blackstock was developing a quicker way to make his own comics. He “realized that this technology could be used to make comics accessible to everyone — and enable them to have the fun of social comic creating and sharing that my friends and I had already been experiencing for years.”

While the company started up in 2007, Bitstrips.com was formally launched in March 2008 at SXSW (“South by Southwest”), which sponsors festivals and conferences for film, interactive media, and music in Austin, Texas.

However, though its Facebook app had been around since December 2012, Bitstrips’ popularity took off almost overnight when Bitstrips iOS mobile app launched for the iPhone in October 2013.

The sudden fame exceeded Blackstock’s expectations.

“We launched in stealth mode with no PR or marketing with the sole purpose of testing out the app and letting it grow organically. We never expected the explosion in users once the mobile app launched so we definitely weren’t initially prepared.”

But after the iPhone release, use of Bitstrips grew almost exponentially.

A Bitstrips scenario for North America’s annual Black Friday. (courtesy Bitstrips)

“Within two months of the apps launch, we saw over 30 million avatars created through the app (iOS & Android). It quickly became the #1 free app in over 40 countries,” including the US, “and the #1 entertainment app in over 90 countries. Many of the world’s biggest cities, including New York, Chicago, London, Hong Kong, and Mexico City, now have hundreds of thousands of citizens with Bitstrips avatars.”

Today Bitstrips are visible everywhere and are shared via email, SMS and on all the major social media channels. Additionally, “Bitstrips for Schools,” which hit the education market in fall 2009 to teach children with the aid of comics, is another division that continues to thrive.

Even before it became fashionable, Bitstrips had already attracted the attention of investors with a $3 million infusion by Horizon Ventures, a global investment firm headquartered in Hong Kong.

“They discovered us last summer, before we’d finished the mobile app, as Bitstrips were already popping up all over Facebook,” said Blackstock.

This infusion of capital has enabled the Canadian-based company to expand.

“We will use this round of funding to add to the engineering team, hire more artists, enhance the product and of course increase the number of servers to help us handle the dramatic growth in users we have been experiencing,” explained Blackstock.

But what attracts so many social media users to Bitstrips?

‘Comics are an incredibly powerful way to communicate’

“Everyone needs to express themselves, how ever they can — and comics are an incredibly powerful way to communicate. Bitstrips is giving people a genuinely new way to communicate, one that is more visual and relevant than simple text, photos and emoticons,” says Blackstock.

“It’s a visual language that everyone understands. But even more importantly, it’s you — your Bitstrips look like you, and reflect your personality. And not only is it a new form of self-expression, it’s a new way to interact with your friends. Combine all those things and you have something that people all over the world will enjoy.”

Dialogue can still only be in English, though other languages are in the company’s future.

“The amazing thing about Bitstrips is that people in many different countries and different cultures have been adapting the same comics, adding their own text, to make their own personal creations,” notes BA. “It’s been the #1 entertainment app in 100 countries.”

Inevitably, with such popularity also comes a measure of disdain.

Blackstock acknowledges this development. “While Bitstrips is extremely popular, which is great, some enthusiastic users were oversharing on their Facebook feeds and some people who don’t love Bitstrips were getting quite upset. In terms of a solution, Facebook sharing can be turned off. Also, we rolled out an update that makes in-app sharing the default with Facebook sharing an option users need to select.”

The scenarios for Bitstrips cartoons come primarily from the creative minds of a team of four, including Blackstock, Shahan Panth (one of Bitstrips cofounders), TJ Garcia and James Spencer. The rest of the company team is also invited to contribute ideas on a regular basis.

The Bitstrips team in its Toronto office. (courtesy Bitstrips)

These days, says Blackstock, the company is “entirely focused on making Bitstrips a seamless and awesome experience.” From a business perspective, he adds, “We have lots of ideas for monetization down the road, potentially including in-app purchases — but whatever we do to monetize, we will make sure it is done in a way that enhances the user experience and remains true to our brand.”

Blackstock is confident that the future of Bitstrips remains bright. As he says, “we’ve only scratched the surface when it comes to Bitstrips’ popularity.”

Asked about his own background and attraction to the comic medium, BA says it began “through mass consumption of comics” until he realized early on that he enjoyed making comics himself.

“I’ve been making comics, animation and games since I was a kid. Before creating Bitstrips I spent 10 years developing another epic cartoon project called Griddleville, which I partially funded by running animation workshops in schools.”

Blackstock himself spent considerable time in school drawing instead of studying. Following high school he studied film at York University in Toronto only to drop out, he explains, “when I became too busy with other projects that were much more exciting than what was happening in my classes.”

Jews have played an influential role in the history of the cartoon genre and have had a profound influence on Blackstock. His primary inspirations were “the amazing old cartoons by the Fleischer Brothers,” Max and Dave Fleischer whose New York-based Fleischer Studios produced theatrical shorts and feature films until the animation company was acquired by Paramount Pictures. Other significant influences were Mad Magazine’s founder, William Gaines, and Stan Lee’s Marvel Comics. One of Blackstock’s favorite modern cartoonists is Daniel Clowes, known for graphic novels such as Ghost World.

But the work of a cartoonist is neither easy nor fast, which Blackstock experienced while working on Griddleville, a cartoon from his own imagination.

‘Comics could one day be one of the main forms of social media, just like photos or videos’

“To create it,” Blackstock relates, “I locked myself in a small room and taught myself classical animation along with all kinds of software. In the end it took three years to produce 11 minutes of animation. The resulting impatience was a contributing factor to the creation of Bitstrips.”

The burgeoning popularity of social media was also a strong influence.

“The concept of Bitstrips from the beginning was to connect comics to social media — that comics could one day be one of the main forms of social media, just like photos or videos.”

Those who follow Bitstrips daily, weekly or close to holidays might notice themes. While Blackstock is Jewish, he can’t limit Bitstrips to one audience.

“Bitstrips are enjoyed by all cultures across the world — we try to make them as universal as possible, so that anyone anywhere can find a comic to express themselves through.”

Yet Blackstock gives a nod to members of his tribe. “We do have some scenes in the app based on Jewish holidays, which I think are pretty funny.”