JayJay Jackson
Some background
JayJay Jackson is an artist and writer who has skipped like a stone across the surfaces of many creative ponds. She has been the Art Director of Advertising for Marvel Comics, Art Director and Editor at Valiant Comics, the Creative Director of Defiant Comics and an Executive Editor at Broadway Comics. She did covers, illustrations, pin-up pages and color art for Marvel and other companies as well. She was named one of the top movers and shakers of the comic book industry in the 90s by Wizard Magazine.
She was the partner/co-founder of a small ad agency, Serious Advertising, that later morphed into the boutique design group Serious Design. For a time she was the art director for M2, a design group that specialized in the music and fashion industry. She did work for Sony, Atlantic, Ecko Unlimited, Priority Records, and Puff Daddy’s companies, Bad Boy and Sean John. Later she became an award-winning concert poster illustrator and her work appears in several poster art books.
She was a producer on a film called Being Michael Madsen (starring the same, as himself) and was the entire art department on an independent film called Welcome to Earth. She also made her acting debut as an extra in Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy.
She has designed and built websites since the 90s, many for recording artists and musicians. One of her early high-profile projects was a site for Tyrese’s 2k Watts project to help restore and preserve the Watts Towers in Los Angeles.
She has done illustrations for Vibe Magazine, Royal Flush Magazine and several books. She wrote comic books at Defiant and Broadway Comics. A few years ago she wrote, painted, lettered and designed a 50 page graphic novel called Stardoll for Papercutz.
More stuff
She got her start in graphics as a cartographer drawing highway and street maps back in the dark days before GPS. She also used to draw illustrations of oilfield equipment from blueprints, which sometimes involved building and photographing models as reference to get complex angles right.
In recent years she has turned her focus to her lifelong dream of writing and intends to get these all these books she’s been living with for years written down or die trying. Being a long-time graphic designer helps in the sense that she is able to design covers and websites, as well as do ebook conversions for herself as she has done many times for others.
A few of her favorite authors are Donna Tartt, David Wong, Kurt Vonnegut, Sarah Lyons Fleming, Cory Doctorow and Pat Conroy. She would also add Anthony Burgess to the list except she hasn’t read any of his books except A Clockwork Orange, which she has reread obsessively since she was a teenager. Which may explain a lot.
Gigposters
For many years JayJay did gigposters for bands including The Misfits, Anthrax, Henry Rollins/Black Flag, Clutch, Hot Tuna, Danzig, The Exploited, Murphey’s Law,
Kings X, 6 Feet Under, Electric Frankenstein and others.
Some work
JayJay has done a variety of art.
La Muerta Madonna
Sad Kitty
Sarah Palin illustration for Royal Flush Magazine
Misfits Poster