jj www.​james​jean.com

Hi James, thanks for taking the time to do this interview.

Thanks for having me!

To start with I just want to men­tion that nearly every time I’ve asked one of my inter­vie­wees who there favourite living illus­tra­tors and artists are your name seems to always pop up regard­less of their influ­ences. So my first ques­tion is how does it feel to be the Brad Pitt of the illus­tra­tion world and how did it happen?

I was dis­cov­ered by Ralph Bakshi when he cast me in Cool World. But before I started adopt­ing chil­dren from devel­op­ing nations and giving them mo-​hawks, I painted covers for Fables, pub­lished by Ver­tigo comics. I lived for a year by doing one cover a month while receiv­ing some atten­tion for my work through my web­site. Then the edi­to­r­ial work started coming in, and a few years later, more book cover and adver­tis­ing work as well. By then, I had accu­mu­lated some awards for my comic cover and illus­tra­tion work, and my work con­tin­ued to spread on the internets.

If you had the time and you wanted to how much would it cost me to have you paint my living room?

If I had the time and actu­ally wanted to paint your living room, I’d prob­a­bly do it for a good meal.

It has been years since you did the Bat­girl Covers and I know you don’t like rep­e­ti­tion in your work, but would you do them any dif­fer­ently if you revis­ited them and are you fed up with always being asked about the Bat­girl covers?

No, I don’t mind — It’s great that the covers con­tinue to live on, even though it’s been a few years and my run on the series wasn’t that long. Cer­tainly, I would approach the covers dif­fer­ently now . . .they might be more col­or­ful now, the melo­drama height­ened towards the unusual and ridiculous.

Apart from illus­tra­tion what other things are you into?

I play the trum­pet when I can, but every­thing I do usu­ally has to do with making pictures.

Who are your favourite artists/illustrators alive today, please note the name James Jean is excluded  ?

I’m usu­ally look­ing at old Chi­nese scroll paint­ings, Japan­ese wood­block prints, and anatom­i­cal lith­o­graphs and mez­zot­ints. But I enjoy the work of Brian Cronin, Tomer Hanuka (with whom I went to school), Chris Ware, the list goes on.

Is your wife inspir­ing? Mine is! Oh… and does she ever talk about kids and if you had a son or daugh­ter would you let them become an Artist?

My wife has great taste and has amassed an inspir­ing col­lec­tion of art books in our home. The vicis­si­tudes of mar­riage also inform my work as well. If I had kids, I’d only let them pursue art seri­ously if they had the dili­gence and talent for it.

Has any of your work ever been ani­mated or have you ever thought about ani­mat­ing your work?

I’ve had the plea­sure to work with Motion Theory on a few projects, and they brought my designs to life. Other than that, I’m very happy craft­ing single images.

Is there any par­tic­u­lar Artist or Illus­tra­tor you would like to col­lab­o­rate with or is col­lab­o­ra­tion not your cup of tea?

The only artist I’ve seri­ously col­lab­o­rated with is Kenichi Hoshine, but we each create our own pieces for our site, www.​politewin​ter.com

Can you tell us a bit more about Process Recess?

Keep­ing my blog has been a small effort of mine to con­tribute to the illus­tra­tion com­mu­nity that has sup­ported me all along and also a way to answer the many ques­tions I receive on a daily basis. It’s a doc­u­ment of my life to a cer­tain extant, though I never dis­cuss any­thing too per­sonal on there. It’s always about the art and its evo­lu­tion, and hope­fully I can offer some­thing rel­e­vant and inter­est­ing to the culture.

Could you live with­out your computer?

Sure, but even a paint brush can be con­sid­ered a piece of advanced technology.

What’s next in the pipeline for James Jean?

My 2nd book will be out this summer, and I have mate­r­ial for a 3rd book soon after. At the moment, I’m con­cen­trat­ing mostly on adver­tis­ing work while trying to return to my per­sonal painting.

Batman or Batgirl?

Bat­girl.

Bows or arrows?

Some­times I feel like a target.

Fish­ing or fighting?

Fight to fish another day.

You can see more of Jame Jean’s work at
www.​james​jean.com and www.​process​re​cess.com

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Cats: Editor's Choice, LCS Interviews
Tags: advertising work, Brian Cronin, Chris Ware, Interviews, James Jean, Kenichi Hoshine, paint brush, Ralph Bakshi, Tomer Hanuka, Vertigo, www.jamesjean.com, www.politewinter.com, www.processrecess.com