Jim Connolly (born 1978) is an English illustrator, designer and commercial artist from

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

. He is best known for creating comic book style designs for album/single covers, concert posters, magazine articles and

silkscreen Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen in a "flood stroke" ...

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 Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction **Psychological horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Christmas horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Analog horror, a subgenre of horror fiction * ...

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 The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

via several E-Learning companies.

Early work

Connolly studied illustration and animation at

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Education ...

under the tuition of illustrator Ian Whadcock. During his time in Manchester he first began creating and contributing to many

underground comics Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...

and

fanzines A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleas ...

. This early work later evolved into the creation of concert posters and album/single artwork for several bands.

Concert posters and album artwork

Having seen Connolly's designs for the Ape Drape Escape,

The Barbs The Barbs was an indie rock band from Medway, Kent, England and New South Wales, Australia. Though never particularly successful in their home country, the band gained wider recognition in the Philippines in late 2004, with the single "Massive ...

commissioned him to work on two singles and an album cover. Their single 'Massive Crush' reached No. 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 are an English electro duo formed in 2002 by Pulp's Jarvis Cocker and All Seeing I's Jason Buckle. In early 2003, Relaxed Muscle began playing gigs. Cocker and Buckle maintained anonymity by assuming the alter-egos 'Darren Spoo ...

, a side-project of

Jarvis Cocker Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963) is an English musician. As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp (band), Pulp, he became a reluctant figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Cocker h ...

Richard Hawley Richard Willis Hawley (born 17 January 1967) is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. After his first band Treebound Story (formed while he was still at school) broke up, Hawley found success as a member of Britpop band Long ...

and

Jason Buckle The All Seeing I are a British electronic music group from Sheffield, England, comprising Dean Honer, Jason Buckle and DJ Parrot (real name Richard Barratt). Biography The band released their first single "I Walk" in 1997, but it was not unti ...

, 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 Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

led him also to design posters for appearances by

The Buzzcocks Buzzcocks are an English punk rock band that singer-songwriter-guitarist Pete Shelley and singer-songwriter Howard Devoto formed in Manchester in 1976. During their career, the band combined elements of punk rock, power pop, and pop punk. They ...

, 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 James Robert Morrison, known as Jim Bob, is a British musician and author. He was the singer of indie punk band Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine. Biography Jim Bob played in various bands during the late 1970s and early 1980s, including J ...

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 book film adaptions. Sandman Magazine has also recently used Connolly's work in articles featuring

Madchester Madchester was a musical and cultural scene that emerged in the English city of Manchester during the late 1980s, closely associated with the indie dance movement. Indie dance (also referred to as indie rave) blended indie rock with elements o ...

icon

Clint Boon Clinton David Boon (born 28 June 1959) is an English musician, DJ and radio presenter. Boon originally rose to fame as the keyboard player (and sometimes vocalist) of Inspiral Carpets. Music career Born in Oldham, Lancashire, Boon joined the Ins ...

and all-female

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

band Hotpants Romance.

Art prints

In 2008, The Archipelago Press Company released a

print by Connolly satirising the destruction of Sheffield's iconic Tinsley cooling towers. In Jim's version of events the towers are destroyed dramatically by

UFOs An unidentified flying object (UFO) is an object or phenomenon seen in the sky but not yet identified or explained. The term was coined when United States Air Force (USAF) investigations into flying saucers found too broad a range of shapes ...

and onlookers are seen fleeing for their lives. The popularity of the original print led to the release of a

Henderson's Relish Henderson's Relish is a condiment sauce produced in Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is similar in appearance and flavour to Worcestershire sauce, but unlike many Worcestershire sauces contains no anchovies. It is made of water, sugar ...

inspired print titled 'Use the Sauce' in November 2008, again via The Archipelago Press Company which has stated that a further four prints (six in total) will be produced continuing the

/comic book satirical theme. In April 2009 a third print was released entitled 'Bargains of the Damned', which features a mock

zombie A zombie (Haitian French: ; ; Kikongo: ''zumbi'') is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies appear in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folkl ...

film poster with a parody of

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

mall

Meadowhall shopping centre Meadowhall is an indoor shopping centre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It lies north-east of Sheffield city centre, and from Rotherham town centre. It is the largest shopping centre in Yorkshire, and currently the twelfth-largest in ...

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 ''Kerrang!'' is a British music webzine and quarterly magazine that primarily covers rock, punk and heavy metal music. Since 2017, the magazine has been published by Wasted Talent Ltd (the same company that owns electronic music publication ...

magazine (from reviewer Camilla Pia) on 25 October 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. He 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.