Jamie Hewlett facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jamie Hewlett
Jamie Hewlett in 2014 signing copies of The Cream of Tank Girl
Born	Jamie Christopher Hewlett (1968-04-03) 3 April 1968 (age 57) Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales
Area(s)	Comic book artist, illustrator, songwriter
Pseudonym(s)	Hewll, J.C. Hewlett, J. Weasel
Notable works	Gorillaz Tank Girl Monkey: Journey to the West Get the Freebies / Phoo Action
Awards	Design Museum's Designer of the Year (2006) Ivor Novello's Songwriter of the Year (2006)
Spouse(s)	Emma de Caunes ​ (m. 2011)​
Children	2

Jamie Christopher Hewlett (born 3 April 1968) is a British comic book artist and illustrator. He is famous for co-creating the comic book Tank Girl with Alan Martin. He also co-created the virtual band Gorillaz with Blur frontman Damon Albarn.

Jamie Hewlett's Early Life and Art

Growing Up and First Steps in Art

Jamie Hewlett grew up in Horsham, West Sussex, England. He went to Tanbridge House School, which is a public school for students aged 11 to 16. In 1983, when he was young, he worked at the Wardour Street studios. These studios belonged to Bob Godfrey, an animator who won an Oscar.

Jamie Hewlett created the first drawings for a cartoon TV show pilot. This show was for Thames Television and was directed by Bob Godfrey. The voices for the characters were done by Peter Hawkins, who also voiced characters like Bill & Ben from Flower Pot Men. Hewlett also studied art at Horsham Arts School and Worthing Art College.

Starting Out in Comics

While studying at Northbrook College Worthing, Jamie Hewlett, Alan Martin, and another student named Philip Bond made a fan magazine called Atomtan. This magazine helped him get noticed by Brett Ewins, another artist. After college, Ewins invited Hewlett and Martin to create comics for a new magazine he was starting in 1988 with Steve Dillon.

Jamie Hewlett's Career in Comics

Creating Tank Girl

The new magazine was called Deadline. It featured a mix of comic strips by English artists like Hewlett, along with articles about music and culture. Martin and Hewlett created Tank Girl for this magazine. It was a wild comic strip about a teenage punk girl who drove a tank. Her boyfriend was a mutant kangaroo.

Tank Girl quickly became very popular and was the most talked-about part of Deadline. Hewlett's unique art style was a hit. He started working with bands like Senseless Things and Cud, designing covers for their music. He also drew art for Commodore User magazine sometimes.

Designing for Nightclubs and More Comics

Jamie Hewlett also designed the look for a nightclub called The Factory in Worthing. The club had red and green stripes, a wall covered with large pictures from Tank Girl, and 1970s wallpaper. A Ford Escort car was even hung from the ceiling! The bathrooms were decorated with pages from old comic books.

By 1992, Hewlett was a big name in the comics world. He worked with writer Peter Milligan on a comic called Hewligan's Haircut for 2000 AD magazine. He also drew covers and art for Shade, the Changing Man for DC Comics.

Tank Girl Movie and Other Projects

The comic Tank Girl was chosen to be made into a movie by MGM. The film came out in 1995 and starred Lori Petty as Tank Girl. However, the movie was not very successful and many fans felt it did not capture the spirit of the original comic. Jamie Hewlett was not very involved in making the film.

Hewlett also drew a Tank Girl mini-series for Vertigo Comics, which is part of DC Comics. He opened a secondhand clothing store called 49, but it closed within a year. He continued to work with English bands in the mid-1990s, even drawing a comic strip version of Pulp's song "Common People".

Deadline magazine stopped being published in 1996. Hewlett then focused on advertising and designs for television. He notably worked on the children's TV show SMTV Live, which featured Ant & Dec. In 1996, he created a comic strip called Get the Freebies for The Face fashion magazine. This strip followed Terry Phoo, a kung-fu police officer, and his sidekick Whitey Action.

On March 2, 1996, Jamie Hewlett's first son, Denholm Sweeney Hewlett, was born.

Jamie Hewlett's 21st Century Work

Creating Gorillaz

In 1998, Jamie Hewlett moved into a flat with Blur's Damon Albarn. While living together, they came up with the idea for Gorillaz, a virtual band. Albarn would create the music, and Hewlett would design the characters and their look. They both came up with ideas for the band members.

The first Gorillaz music was released in 2000, followed by their first album, Gorillaz, in 2001. In 2005, their second big album, Demon Days, came out.

On April 2, 2000, his second son, Rocky Serpico Hewlett, was born.

Awards and New Projects

In January 2006, Jamie Hewlett's artwork for Gorillaz was nominated for the Design Museum's Designer of the Year award. In May 2006, he won the Designer of the Year award. On May 25, 2006, Hewlett and Albarn also won the Songwriters of the Year award at the Ivor Novello Awards.

In 2007, Hewlett and Albarn showed their first major project after Gorillaz. It was called Monkey: Journey to the West. This was a new version of an old Chinese story called Journey to the West. Albarn wrote the music, while Hewlett designed the stage, animations, and costumes. The show featured 45 Chinese circus acrobats, Shaolin monks, and Chinese singers. It first opened in Manchester on June 28, 2007.

Hewlett's Get the Freebies comic strip was made into a TV pilot called Phoo Action by BBC Three in February 2008. Hewlett and Albarn also created the animated video that the BBC used to introduce their coverage of the Beijing 2008 Olympics. This video, called Journey to the East, used the Monkey character from Monkey: Journey to the West.

Jamie Hewlett married French TV presenter and actress Emma de Caunes on September 10, 2011.

Recent Work and Exhibitions

In 2014, a Kickstarter campaign successfully raised money for a new Tank Girl book called 21st Century Tank Girl. This book featured work by Hewlett and Martin, along with other artists.

In November 2015, Hewlett had his first art exhibition called The Suggestionists at the Saatchi Gallery in London. The exhibition then moved to the Woodward Gallery in Manhattan in May 2016.

In 2017, a large book about Hewlett's artwork over 25 years was published by Taschen. The Gorillaz Art Book was released in 2022. It showed Hewlett’s original art alongside works by over 40 artists who were inspired by the world of Gorillaz. In 2023, Jamie Hewlett launched his official website, which features a collection of his limited edition artworks.

Jamie Hewlett's Artistic Influences

Jamie Hewlett has shared that many artists and works have inspired him. He mentioned cartoonists like Mort Drucker, Carl Giles, and Jack Davis. He also said that MAD Magazine, an American satirical magazine by Harvey Kurtzman, was a big influence on his art.

Hewlett is also greatly influenced by the works of American animator Chuck Jones, who created many Looney Tunes cartoons. He also likes the works of British comic book artists Ronald Searle and Mike McMahon. He has said that Chuck Jones's entire collection of films and MAD Magazine are the biggest overall influences on his work.

Other artists and creators who influenced Hewlett include American filmmaker Stanley Kubrick and author Hunter S. Thompson. He also mentioned artists like Robert Crumb, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Martin Kippenberger, and Richard Caton Woodville.

In an interview, he also listed the first Star Wars film, A New Hope, as another main influence on his artwork. Hewlett is a big fan of Brendan McCarthy's comic book Strange Days. He also finds French comic book artist Moebius incredibly inspiring and considers him one of the greatest.

Other influences include artists Tony Hart and Tanino Liberatore. Hewlett has also mentioned being a fan of American animator Brad Bird and his work on Family Dog. He also likes Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strips.

Hewlett said that the 1973 French animated film Fantastic Planet was the first animated movie that showed him animation could be for adults too.

Jamie Hewlett's Creative Works

Comic Books

Here are some of the comic books Jamie Hewlett has worked on:

• Tank Girl (art, with Alan Martin, in Deadline, 1988–1995)
• Judge Dredd: "Spock's Mock Chocs" (art, with writer Alan Grant, in 2000 AD #614, 1989)
• Sooner or Later: "Swifty's Return" (art, with writer Peter Milligan, in 2000 AD #614–617, 1989)
• King Pant (writer, with art by Philip Bond, in A1 #2, Atomeka Press, 1989)
• Hellcity (art, with writer Alan Martin, in A1 #4, Atomeka Press, 1990)
• Hell City II (art, with writer Alan Martin, in A1 True Life Bikini Confidential, Atomeka Press, 1990)
• Hewligan's Haircut (with writer Peter Milligan, in 2000 AD #700–707, 1990)
• Doom Patrol #50 (with Grant Morrison, Vertigo, December 1991)
• Tank Girl: She's Great (writer & art, in A1 #6, Atomeka Press, 1992)
• King Leon (art, with writer Peter Milligan, in A1 #2–4, Epic Comics, 1992)
• Tank Girl: The Odyssey (art, with writer Peter Milligan, 4-issue mini-series, Vertigo, 1995)
• Get the Freebies (writer & art, in The Face Vol. 2 #94 - Vol. 3 #5, 1996-1997)

Comic Book Covers

Jamie Hewlett has also designed covers for comics, including:

• Shade, the Changing Man #14–22 (DC Comics, August 1991 – April 1992)
• Doom Patrol #52, 60 (with Grant Morrison, Vertigo, 1992)

Music Projects

His musical projects include:

• Gorillaz
• Monkey: Journey to the West
• The front and back cover art for the second Mindless Self Indulgence album, Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely ...
• The back cover of The Good, the Bad & the Queen by The Good, the Bad & the Queen
• Guitar Man logo for the annual Royal Albert Hall concerts for Teenage Cancer Trust

Art Exhibitions

Jamie Hewlett's artistic projects include:

• Under Water Colours – Old Truman Brewery – East London, 17–31 October 2009
• Honey – 2015
• Tarot – 2015
• Pines – 2015

Awards and Recognition

See also

In Spanish: Jamie Hewlett para niños