James Jean was born in Taiwan in 1979, but grew up in Parsippany, New Jersey. He studied his craft at the School of Visual Arts in New York and immediately upon graduating in 2001, became a cover artist at DC Comics. Best known for his covers on Vertigo’s Fables and Jack of Fables, he has also done covers for a myriad of other comics. Among them are: The Umbrella Academy (2007) and Escapists (2006), published by Dark Horse, Runaways (2005) and Machine Teen (2005), published by Marvel and Green Arrow and Batgirl, published by DC.
The collections of Jean’s illustrations are the following: Process Recess Volume One, Process Recess Volume Two (regular and special editions), Process Recess Volume Three, Fables: Covers and XOXO.
His clients outside of the comic book industry include The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, Time Magazine, Atlantic Records, Target, Playboy, ESPN and Prada among numerous others.
The amount of awards James has won in his 30 years of existence is staggering.
In 2001, he won his first Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators in Los Angeles.
In 2004, he received his first Eisner Award for Best Cover Artist.
In 2005 and 2006, he won both the Eisner and the Harvey in the category of Best Cover Artist.
In 2007, he won 2 Eisners, one for Best Cover Artist and one for Best Short Story. He also won a Harvey Award for Best Cover Artist. Additionally, he received 2 Gold Medals from the Society of Illustrators, one in Los Angeles and one in New York City.
In 2008, he once again won 2 Eisners. One was for Best Cover Artist. The other was for Best Publication Design. He also won the Bronze Lion at the Cannes Lions Festival and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Packaging Design.
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