June 23, 2018

JP Coovert ’08 is probably best known for his work at One Percent Press and also for illustrating the Charlie Joe Jackson books, written by Tommy Greenwald. He has also be working on a journal comic, Simple Routines, for almost thirteen years!

He recently completed the following interview with Angela Boyle ′16.

Do you have any new comics that you plan to release soon?

I have an ongoing journal comic (a few months away from 13 year anniversary!) called Simple Routines that I release twice a week. I’m also finishing up a book for First Second’s Maker Comics series, all about making your own comic books! It comes out in the Fall/Winter of next year.

Comic from Simple Routines by JP Coovert

Can we look forward to another Charlie Joe Jackson book?

The author, Tommy Greenwald, always has something cool going on.

How does your process differ between illustrating a book and making your own comic?

For the most part, I work entirely on the computer, in Photoshop with a Cintiq. For me, it’s just so much faster and looks as good, or better, than drawing with pen on paper. Simple Routines is different though. I can’t spend all my time on the computer! So that’s the comic I draw with pencil and pen.

What is coming out next from One Percent Press?

We just released Nearly Miss by a wonderful Italian cartoonist, Cristina Portolano. And reprinted a fellow CCS alum, Penina Gal’s ′08, awesome risograph book Orbiting. There will be a new collection of Simple Routines later in the year.

What is happening in your world of skating?

I work as the graphic designer for ReVive Skateboards and Force Wheels. We always have new boards, wheels, and apparel on the way. We just released our big video game–inspired summer series. More fun, spooky stuff coming in the fall. While I’ve been working on the First Second Maker book I haven’t been skating as much (I’m terrified of injuring my drawing hand!), but I did recently learn a fakie bigspin.

Any other projects you are working on?

I stream on Twitch twice a week, where I’ve been drawing a lot of Dungeons and Dragons monster miniatures for my D&D game. I’m almost ready to release them as a printable set: everything you’d need to play through the D&D Starter Set. I’ve got a Youtube channel I make fun videos for as well!

Sample panels from JP’s Maker book