About Me

Hi there! My name is Mya Lixian Gosling. I'm the artist and author of Good Tickle Brain and Sketchy Beta, and the artist and co-author of Keep Calm and Muslim On. In a recent past life I was a library cataloger, but I'm now working full-time drawing stick figure comics, which is pretty cool when you stop to think about it.

My father introduced me to Shakespeare when I was eight or nine years old, and I've been addicted ever since. Initially it was just the classics, Henry V  and Hamlet  and Twelfth Night and so forth, but then I got really into the history cycles and now I'm hitting the hard stuff, like Cymbeline.

In addition to Shakespeare, I also love geeking out about operetta, musical theatre, soccer, board games, languages, fantasy and historical fiction, and a number of other things.

When not drawing comics, I can be found climbing at my local climbing gym. I'm primarily an indoor climber, due to living in a fairly flat state, but I'm hoping to get outdoors more often. 

As you can probably tell, I'm really not much of an artist. However, a lack of talent has never stopped anyone on the internet before. 

About the Comics

I am currently drawing three comics, because apparently one is not enough. 

Good Tickle Brain, my "main" comic, is the world's foremost (and possibly only) stick-figure Shakespeare webcomic. It was created in 2013 and updates every Tuesday and Thursday. 

Keep Calm and Muslim On is a mostly light-hearted look at life as a Muslim American, and is co-authored by my friends, Andrea Annaba and Sarah Anjum. It is currently on hiatus.

Sketchy Beta is my newest comic and documents my experiences as a rock climber. It was created in 2018 and updates every Sunday.

Contact Me

I'd love to hear from you! Stop by my Facebook page, follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram, or use the contact form below:

Support Good Tickle Brain

If you'd like to support my efforts to continue working full-time on Good Tickle Brain, please considering supporting me on Patreon. For a small monthly subscription, you'll get access to cool bonus content like early comics, an exclusive patrons-only comic every week, video drawing tutorials, and my undying gratitude. 

Check out this short video to (a) see what I look like and (b) find out more about Patreon!

Podcasts

I've been fortunate enough to have appeared as a guest on several podcasts. Check them out here! 

My exceptionally awesome pocket dramaturg Kate Pitt is also getting into the podcast game!

Interviews

I've done some print (well... digital print, at least) and video interviews as well! Check them out here!

Other Stuff

I contributed some comics to HowlRound's 2018 weekly series of blog posts on decolonizing theatre.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What does "Good Tickle Brain" mean?

A: It's a quote from Shakespeare's Henry IV, part 1. In Act 2, Scene 4, Falstaff is play-acting as King Henry IV, only his grandiose delivery keeps getting punctuated by interjections from Mistress Quickly, so he turns to her and says "Peace good pint-pot, peace good tickle-braine." It turns out that "tickle brain" is actually slang for a strong alcoholic drink, but, despite not being much of a drinker, I always thought it was a fantastically charming insult and appropriated for my own nefarious purposes.

Q: May I used my comics for ______?

I love being asked this! If you're interested in using my comics, please contact me via the form above. I generally say "yes" to almost all non-commercial requests, but I really appreciate being asked. I also encourage you to check out this Dork Tower comic for advice on how to best share webcomics.

Q: I love your stuff and want a poster/book/t-shirt/mug! Where can I get one?

Take a look at the Shoppe! This is where I sell all the merchandise that I design and produce. If there's something you're interested in that I don't currently sell, send me a message via the contact form above, but do keep in mind that making new products available does take a lot of time and money on my part, and depends a lot on demand, so please don't be impatient! 

Q: In your Hamlet 3-Panel Play, you say "Hamlet revenges his father." It should be "avenges." Revenge isn't a verb.

Prominent Shakespearean linguist disagrees with you! I direct you to my source material: "If thou didst ever thy dear father love... Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder." This is, funnily enough, one of my most often received comments. I'm all in favor of people pointing out typos (and my work is riddled with them, embarrassingly enough) but please cease the smug revenge/avenge recriminations, thank you.