My name is Jake Roades and my goal as an illustrator is to create sequential art that innovates what the medium is known for and accentuates what is possible through sequential storytelling. Horror media has always interested me. Even at a young age, shows like The Twilight Zone showed me how much more a scary story could encompass than just an accelerated heartbeat.

I aim to use this platform to push the stories and ideas that ground us as a species. As sequential artists, we have this amazing opportunity to show the world how to tell stories in a medium that is easily accessible and affordable to nearly everyone on the planet, and we have relegated it to almost exclusively power fantasies in the same action genre. I would love nothing more than to push the medium in a direction in which it can be more than an endless pit of the same stories over and over again. My niche as a storyteller is in the mystery and horror genres. Stories in those genres can encompass the human experience while remaining visually interesting and engaging. The crux of fiction is often found in using hyperbolic concepts and settings to portray very grounded and human problems. Those are the ideas I would like to bring to my work.

Similarly, I feel strongly about the need to continue to create, advocate, and push sequential art as a medium. The cultural relevance cannot be understated when it comes to this subject. Some of the most significant global media events (movies, TV, theater) have been based on, inspired by, or directly adapted from sequential art. As this trend continues, the opportunity to impact through this format only grows each year. My goal as an artist isn’t to make the biggest blockbuster or create some Marvel-level franchise for millennials and Disney adults to cling to for a personality for years to come.

About me

I am originally from the Bay Area in California. I moved to Southwest Colorado in my late teens/early twenties. I recently graduated from Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design with a bachelor’s degree in Illustration with a focus on Sequential Art. During my time at RMCAD, I was awarded a portfolio scholarship, several marketing features, and a few placements in the school’s gallery shows in the form of the Red Shoe Awards, Student Exhibition, and Graduation Portfolio. Beyond studying at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, I also helped in the development of the curriculum for a class in the Illustration Department in the form of a Horror 101 class. I love sequential art. I’ve been consuming all of the sequential content available to me for at least the last 10 years.