James Jarvis is awesome

Last night I went down to Santa Monica to meet James Jarvis, who was signing at Kid Robot. Turns out that not only was he signing, he was doing detailed sketches for every fan who turned up. What a lovely, lovely guy. I had a chance to talk with him and gleamed a couple of interesting facts: he thinks of himself as an illustrator or a cartoonist as opposed to a true fine artist, and drew a further distinction between theory-based art and (not his words here) ‘true art,’ a concept I whole-heartedly agree with. He brought up Doré as an example of an illustrator who made good with beautiful paintings. I complimented him on his Beach Boys cover for Relax Magazine and asked if he still had it and he said that he’s kept all of his originals(!) and wants to put out a big sketchbook with reproductions. Bring it on! As for the toys, he told me he thought of them as total mass produced fun items, anyone who wanted them should have them, and that limited editions flew in the face of that – huge cosign. Special shouts to my linemates who made the long wait fun – Carl, Color Ninja, Stephanie. Here’s the piece he did for me – getting it framed! I asked him to stick in the moon and he went all out with the starfield. Thanks James – it was a pleasure!