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Jim Connolly (illustrator)
Encyclopedia
Jim Connolly is an illustrator
, designer
and commercial artist
from Sheffield
, England
. He is best known for creating comic book
style designs for album/single covers, concert posters, magazine articles and silkscreen prints. His style features loud and brash bubblegum colours and comical characters usually drawn with a sharp vectorized look. The dominant features of his work usually include comic book
, science fiction
and horror
references, often with a UK slant. Beyond his comic book
style work he has also worked in a variety of different styles as an illustrator and designer, mainly on outsourced E-Learning games for the BBC and Channel 4
via several E-Learning companies.
under the tuition of illustrator Ian Whadcock. During his time in Manchester he first began creating and contributing to many underground comics and fanzines. This early work later evolved into the creation of concert posters and album/single artwork for several bands.
Having seen Connolly's designs for the Ape Drape Escape, The Barbs
commissioned him to work on two singles and an album cover. Their single 'Massive Crush' reached #1 in the Philippines music chart in late 2004. In September 2004 Big Cheese Magazine (in issue 55) featured an article about the relationship between the Barb's music and Jim Connolly's artwork.
Relaxed Muscle
, a side-project of Jarvis Cocker
, Richard Hawley
and Jason Buckle, used a Connolly-penned depiction of the band on the digital content on their album A Heavy Night With...
. This can be seen alongside the band's quirky music videos.
Connolly's love of punk rock
led him also to design posters for appearances by The Buzzcocks, The Damned, The Misfits and Zombina and the Skeletones
. Swampy bluesmith Mr David Viner also received the poster treatment on a visit to Sheffield University Students Union. This led to other commissions from Sheffield University Students Union including the consistent logo design for their annual 'Band Comp'.
In 2006 Jim Bob
re-worked a gig poster designed by Connolly into the cover of a 'best of' solo album Best of Jim Bob.
film adaptions. Sandman Magazine has also recently used Connolly's work in articles featuring Madchester
icon Clint Boon
and all-female Manchester
punk
band Hotpants Romance.
In 2008, The Archipelago Press Company released a silkscreen print by Connolly satorising the destruction of Sheffield's iconic Tinsley cooling towers. In Jim's version of events the towers are destroyed dramatically by UFOs and onlookers are seen fleeing for their lives.
The popularity of the original print led to the release of a Henderson's Relish
inspired print titled 'Use the Sauce' in November 2008, again via The Archipelago Press Company which has stated that a further 4 prints (6 in total) will be produced continuing the Sheffield
/comic book
satirical theme.
In April 2009 a third print was released entitled 'Bargains of the Damned', which features a mock zombie
film poster with a parody of South Yorkshire
mall Meadowhall shopping centre as the focus. The film Dawn of the Dead is stated as a key influence on the image.
An exhibition will be held (in an as-yet unknown venue) in Sheffield sometime in late 2009 when the series is completed.
Jim is also an occasional magazine article writer
and comic book
enthusiast. He managed to combine the two by interviewing influential comic artist (and fellow Sheffielder) Paul Grist
in July 2008.
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
, designer
Designer
A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...
and commercial artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
from Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. He is best known for creating comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
style designs for album/single covers, concert posters, magazine articles and silkscreen prints. His style features loud and brash bubblegum colours and comical characters usually drawn with a sharp vectorized look. The dominant features of his work usually include comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
, science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
references, often with a UK slant. Beyond his comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
style work he has also worked in a variety of different styles as an illustrator and designer, mainly on outsourced E-Learning games for the BBC and Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
via several E-Learning companies.
Early work
Connolly studied illustration and animation at Manchester Metropolitan UniversityManchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University is a university in North West England. Its headquarters and central campus is in the city of Manchester, but there are outlying facilities in the county of Cheshire. It is the third largest university in the United Kingdom in terms of student numbers, behind the...
under the tuition of illustrator Ian Whadcock. During his time in Manchester he first began creating and contributing to many underground comics and fanzines. This early work later evolved into the creation of concert posters and album/single artwork for several bands.
Concert posters and album artwork
The Barbs
The Barbs were a band mostly from Medway, Kent, however, Amy was from outback NSW Australia. Beat and punk-pop influenceslthough they were never particularly successful in their home country, they reached #1 in the Philippines music chart in late 2004 with the single Massive Crush...
commissioned him to work on two singles and an album cover. Their single 'Massive Crush' reached #1 in the Philippines music chart in late 2004. In September 2004 Big Cheese Magazine (in issue 55) featured an article about the relationship between the Barb's music and Jim Connolly's artwork.
Relaxed Muscle
Relaxed Muscle
Relaxed Muscle are a British electro duo formed in 2002 by Pulp's Jarvis Cocker and Jason Buckle.In early 2003, Relaxed Muscle began playing gigs. Cocker and Buckle maintained anonymity by assuming the alter-egos 'Darren Spooner' and 'Wayne Marsden' respectively...
, a side-project of Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Branson Cocker is an English musician and frontman for the band Pulp. Through his work with the band, Cocker became a figurehead of the Britpop movement of the mid-1990s. Following Pulp's hiatus Cocker has led a successful solo career...
, Richard Hawley
Richard Hawley
Richard Hawley is a guitarist, singer-songwriter and producer. After his first band Treebound Story broke up, Hawley found success as a member of Britpop band Longpigs in the 1990s. He later joined the band Pulp, led by his friend Jarvis Cocker...
and Jason Buckle, used a Connolly-penned depiction of the band on the digital content on their album A Heavy Night With...
A Heavy Night With...
A Heavy Nite With... is the debut album by British band Relaxed Muscle fronted by Pulp's Jarvis Cocker, using the pseudonym Darren Spooner. The other member is Jason Buckle...
. This can be seen alongside the band's quirky music videos.
Connolly's love of punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
led him also to design posters for appearances by The Buzzcocks, The Damned, The Misfits and Zombina and the Skeletones
Zombina and The Skeletones
Zombina and the Skeletones are a horror rock band from Liverpool, England, formed in 1998 around the nucleus of vocalist Zombina and songwriter Doc Horror. The majority of their tongue in cheek lyrical content deals with themes of horror and science fiction, yet their musical style is upbeat and...
. Swampy bluesmith Mr David Viner also received the poster treatment on a visit to Sheffield University Students Union. This led to other commissions from Sheffield University Students Union including the consistent logo design for their annual 'Band Comp'.
In 2006 Jim Bob
Jim Bob
Jim Bob is the stage name for James Morrison, the London born writer and musician best known as the singer of indie punk band Carter USM.-Biography:Jim Bob was born James Neil Morrison in the city of London, on 22 November 1960...
re-worked a gig poster designed by Connolly into the cover of a 'best of' solo album Best of Jim Bob.
Editorial illustration
Exposed Magazine commissioned several designs primarily as profile pictures for their reviewers and then for their film column, where they have used Connolly mainly to visualise the latest comic bookComic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
film adaptions. Sandman Magazine has also recently used Connolly's work in articles featuring Madchester
Madchester
Madchester was a music scene that developed in Manchester, England, towards the end of the 1980s and into the early 1990s. The music that emerged from the scene mixed alternative rock, psychedelic rock and dance music...
icon Clint Boon
Clint Boon
Clint Boon is an English musician and DJ. Boon originally rose to notability as the keyboards player with Inspiral Carpets.-Career:...
and all-female Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band Hotpants Romance.
Art prints
The popularity of the original print led to the release of a Henderson's Relish
Henderson's Relish
Henderson's Relish, known locally as Hendo's, 'Hendies' 'Enderson's or simply "Relish", is a spicy and fruity condiment, similar in appearance to Worcestershire sauce, but as it contains no anchovies, it is vegan. Produced in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, some adherents favour it due to its unique...
inspired print titled 'Use the Sauce' in November 2008, again via The Archipelago Press Company which has stated that a further 4 prints (6 in total) will be produced continuing the Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
/comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
satirical theme.
In April 2009 a third print was released entitled 'Bargains of the Damned', which features a mock zombie
Zombie
Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli...
film poster with a parody of South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...
mall Meadowhall shopping centre as the focus. The film Dawn of the Dead is stated as a key influence on the image.
An exhibition will be held (in an as-yet unknown venue) in Sheffield sometime in late 2009 when the series is completed.
Future work
Alongside future art prints Connolly is also collaborating with graphic novelist Anjan Sarkar on a comic project titled 'Moronoid'. Previously the two have collaborated on single covers for the Ape Drape Escape.Music and writing
Connolly is an original member of the alternative band the Ape Drape Escape and played drums on their debut E.P. 'The Fracture Clinic', which received four 'K's from Kerrang magazine (from reviewer Camilla Pia) on October 25, 2003. He left the band but continues to make music with the comedy punk band the Friends of Batman, in which he is a co-singer/songwriter. They have been labelled 'ramshackle' by Sandman Magazine for their unrehearsed and drunken performances.Jim is also an occasional magazine article writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
enthusiast. He managed to combine the two by interviewing influential comic artist (and fellow Sheffielder) Paul Grist
Paul Grist
Paul Grist is a British comic book creator, noted for his hard-boiled police series Kane and his unorthodox superhero series Jack Staff.-Biography:...
in July 2008.