Flick on over to Marvel Entertainment’s YouTube channel. You’ll find one of the digital brand’s biggest series. TL;DR, short for Too Long; Didn’t Read, has been summarising classic comics for the past few years.
Creator, writer, producer, director and animator Noah Sterling is the talented man behind these videos. Plus, he’s the voice bringing these stories to life! He’s also responsible for a whole host of other digital content for both Marvel and beyond.
We spoke with Noah Sterling and today we’re looking at the creator behind these successful series and taking a deeper dive into the industry and his career.
Sterling is a self-professed nerd and has been a fan of Marvel for most of his life. Production was clearly an interest early on as a young Noah enrolled into the Savannah College of Arts and Design. He achieved a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Cinematography and Film/Video Production before moving on to a Masters degree in Motion Media. Noah still teaches his skills at the college today.
This initial experience jump-started an impressive career. He made the most of his opportunities at college, turning his hand to a number of commercials and other projects which would widen his portfolio.
Sterling has the incredible brag of producing content for massive brands, such as Coca-Cola, indie developers, such as Z2 Comics, and even digital giants, such as Mashable, where he honed his craft as an intern, freelance editor and animator.
Despite this impressive career, Noah’s biggest opportunity came with Marvel Entertainment, who offered him a short term internship while he was still in college. This was the big break needed to launch Sterling’s career further. He’d already amassed a wide range of skills from his studies and other freelance work, but the timing could not have been more perfect.
Due to Marvel expanding their digital content slate, Noah managed to pitch his way into his own series; the incredibly successful TL;DR. The show consistently does the best numbers on Marvel’s YouTube channel and is both hilarious and brilliantly animated. The creator admits that he’s incredibly grateful for the platform Marvel afforded him so early into his career.
Sterling works with a number of talented individuals stationed around the world to produce this fantastic content. It’s a production model that the creator clearly favours, as it allows him to work with some of the best talent for the job without being limited by location. In fact, Sterling seems to believe that this is the future of the industry, as the model continues to define how his career progresses and is being carried over onto a number of other brands and mediums.
But there’s much more to his content than just recaps. With two more upcoming series and a number of other videos on the channel to boast, Noah is firmly stationed in the Marvel brand. There’s still plenty for him to achieve under this banner as he moves ahead.
That doesn’t mean that he hasn’t set his sights elsewhere, however. As a lover of comic books, he’s worked with a number of other brands, including the previously mentioned Z2 comics, animating trailers for their upcoming projects. He’s still contributing to a number of commercials and has previously worked on some short films.
What’s more, Noah Sterling has his own YouTube channel that he continues to experiment with, trying his hand at alternative content. Ever the fan, the animator has even produced some recap videos about DC’s famous characters.
Indeed, Sterling’s ambitions reach further than just the house of ideas, as he also has hopes of getting to play in the DC sandbox one day. Sterling’s style of video making would be a brilliant fit for the villains and heroes of this comics universe and it’s likely only a matter of time before we see more DC content in his portfolio.
Despite the digital empire that Sterling is amassing, his ultimate ambition is to move away from digital series and into longer form, televised content. Favouring adult animation (although with a fair few ideas for shows aimed at kids) Sterling is working hard on producing pitches for his own TV shows. While the traditional formats of cable and conventional television certainly appeal, perhaps the biggest opportunities lay with the increase in streaming services. With the comic book content that Sterling produces both Disney Plus and HBO Max could provide opportunities down the line.
Make sure to check out some of Noah’s content, catch up with some of Marvel’s greatest stories with TL;DR and lookout for some of the upcoming projects that Noah has on the horizon.
Credit: Photographer: Dan Wright; WrightShots Photography
