HOW DID JAMIE GET INVOLVED?

I had a really good idea of the style of illustrations I wanted for Jim Reaper. As a huge fan of Mr Gum and the How To Train Your Dragon series, I wanted Jim's stories to have that same characterful loose artwork - cartoony line-drawings, casual, scruffy and full of fun.  My editor, Matilda and I looked at various illustrators. We had great fun making lists of artists we liked. 
And then Jamie came up.

                                                  "Shall we try him?" Matilda asked.
                                                   I said: "Call him right now!"
                                                                                         (I added a please)

As predicted, Jamie brought Jim Reaper and his bonkers friends and family to life with oodles of fun and personality. He also managed to make it look a bit spooky without losing the humour.
My favourite drawn character is Granny Maggot. When I was trying to describe what I had in mind for her, I said: a bit like the queen but with a naughty glint in her eye and bee in her bonnet. 
He got her spot on, don't you think!

Scroll to see Jamie's sketches and see how he bought Jim Reaper to life!
(Hover the mouse over images for captions and click them to see them in full).

THE COVER!

We didn't know what we wanted until we saw it. So that meant Jamie had to play around with ideas long into the night! Good job he isn't afraid of the dark! Take a look at some ideas he tried out.

THE CHARACTERS

This was a little easier for Jamie to draw. 1. because he's amazing at drawing characters, and
2. because I already had a good idea in my head of what the characters should look like and I could explain exactly how I imagined them. Here are some of the sketches and pictures
Jamie did as the characters came to life. ​Even the minor characters were major stars!

THE BACKGROUND

Setting the scene is super important, especially because Jim's world has so many scenes!... His home life, his friend's house, the fun fair, the retirement home,  The Dead End Office... Jamie is so talented, he managed to capture every single scene exactly as I pictured them as I was writing the books. When the sketches arrived, I didn't want to change a thing.

AND MY FAVOURITE PICTURE IS....

THIS ONE. It may not have men in dark cloaks, sweets, snails or funfair lights. It's not Hetty doing something silly, Mum whizzing a revolting health smoothie or Will gazing at the stars...
It's just Jim, Will and Fiona.

This picture is at the end of Saving Granny Maggot, when they are looking back at what's been a pretty crazy day, and it sums up what's at the heart of this bonkers series about Death. Life.

That's right. Life.
It's about everything that makes life wonderful, like friendship and making people smile and being there for each other when things go a bit wrong.
​
And there's nothing spooky about that.