Q&A with Jamie Smart

Congratulations on being the first ever Creative of the Fair! As both an illustrator and author, how do you think both of these skills have influenced each other when creating new stories? 

Thank you so much! I'm very excited. As for being an illustrator and author, the two things just always worked in tandem for me. I've always drawn pictures and I've always wanted to tell stories, so comics are the perfect medium for me to do that. Usually the idea for the character or story forms in my head first, and then it's a case of sketching out some visual ideas for how it all looks. But every now and then you'll draw a silly little doodle, just randomly, and a whole world of stories will spring out from it. That's the best feeling in the world.

Could you talk us through how your illustration career started? 

I've been drawing cartoons since I was old enough to hold a pencil. I went to art college for four years, and managed to get away with skewing all my projects towards cartoons. At my final show, a friend's father saw my work and asked me to contribute comic strips to the magazines he published. So that was the first time I went into WHSmith and saw my work on the shelves. But alongside that I'd already been sending examples of my work out everywhere and anywhere. Over time I started to get the occasional good responses, at first from a greetings card company, who I ended up working with for years, and then The Dandy and The Funday Times, where I really started developing my children's comics.

What do you love so much about the comic form? 

To me, it feels like the purest way to tell the story. You're the writer, director, all of it, cramming your vision into a single panel for people to see. And then, doing it all over again in the next panel. And the next. Until you have a fully-formed comic for someone to read. And comics have this unique feel, I think, where you can really stretch the boundaries of reality, you can squash and squeeze characters, emotions and action in all different directions, and it's totally okay to do that. Comics are an unlimited canvas where anything can happen.

Could you talk us through how you develop an idea? Does an image come to you first? How do you know when you’ve got something good?

I don't know when I've come up with something good, but I do know when I've come up with something that excites me, and that's all I can ask for. I think creators should be creating work for themselves, not trying to think what other people might like, and so if the work you're making tickles you then you're doing something right. With something like Bunny Vs Monkey the world and the characters are already so established by now that often the stories write themselves. I'm very lucky with that. It's like a big playground, you can jump from one ride to the next, a different adventure each episode. Other stories can be a little harder to come up with, but usually if the character is good, then the story comes from them. 

As well as comics, you also write other illustrated children’s books for different age groups. What advice would you give to fellow creatives keen to experiment in different forms and across different formats?

All I've ever done is make the things that make me happy. It so happens that for most of those things, comics are the best medium. But sometimes an idea comes along which feels like it belongs in a different space, and so I'll try different things. I wrote novels for my 'Flember' stories because they seemed a better fit for the scale of that world. I've run online projects like my 'Find Chaffy' search, sending toys of my chaffy character around the world and asking people to 'find' them. It's just a case of finding what works for your idea. And also, finding the mediums you enjoy working in, rather than trying to force yourself through ones you don't.

What’s next for you?

Well this year there'll be more Bunny Vs Monkey books for sure, along with another in my Max And Chaffy series for younger readers, as well as the fifth and final Flember novel. I'm also excited about a TV show on Nick Jr called Super Duper Bunny League, based on one of my books. And there's a project I've been working on for the last few years which is due to be released later this year, but I'm not meant to talk about it yet so I'd better not! But it's a really busy year, and I'm just constantly amazed that I get to make all these fun things. I feel very lucky.

Jamie Smart was named Illustrator of the Year at the British Book Awards 2024, and won Illustrated Children's Book of the Year for Bunny vs Monkey: Multiverse Mix-up. His comic Fish-Head Steve was the first comic to be shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Jamie has illustrated comics for The Sunday Times, the Dandy and the Beano. His well-loved Bunny vs Monkey and Looshkin stories are regularly published in The Phoenix comic, and as bestselling graphic novels.