Cartoonist Tim Jackson was born in Dayton, Ohio. "I can't remember ever wanting to do anything else but draw," He says. Whenever asked how long he has been drawing cartoons, his usual response is, forever. He practiced cartooning on his own, throughout his childhood. At the age of 14, a local Dayton newspaper published one of his comics. This recognition, and the letters that followed gave him the taste to do more. During high school, he drew cartoons for the original Dayton Black Press newspaper and developed a youth editorial comic for the Dayton Daily News.
In spite of these accomplishments, opportunities for an artist in Dayton was limited to the elite of the art community, so Tim rarely found a job in the art field. This set back never dimmed his dreams of becoming a cartoonist. Encouraged by other cartoonists, such as Morrie Turner (Wee Pals) and Mike Peters (Mother Goose & Grimm) he continued to perfect his skill by drawing comics and gags at whatever job he could find. Often these cartoons were only seen on the employee bulletin board or company newsletter. "To me I was just expressing myself. If I didn't draw I'd go nutty," He declares. "Never did I think that I was teaching myself what people found funny, or how to present ideas. Perfecting style, anatomy, fashion design, calligraphy, script writing, gag writing, inking, graphic design... all that stuff people pay zillions of dollars to learn, I did it out of the necessity to express my feelings on paper."
In 1978, he applied and was accepted into the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Tim majored in Film making, with an emphasis on animation. "Saturday mornings are filled with cartoons, but none of them ever positively reflected people of Color," He says. During this period, Tim drew a comic strip that appeared in the Chicago Defender for two years, while continuing to develop the strip created in high school; 'What Are Friends For ?' This comic was designed to speak about social issues, with people of Color in the lead roles One story line, the one about the 'WAFF?' crew taking an after school course in sign language, was published under the title, Friends Are For, Signing by the National Association of the Deaf in 1982. "When Signing was in my hands, and on library shelves, every discouraging word said to me about never making it as a Black cartoonist lost relevance. I was renewed in the child's innocence that I could accomplish anything I put my mind to."
Tim began to self-publish his comics under the name of his freelance company Creative License Studio. To date, he has published 12 different 'What Are Friends For?' titles. Three are being used by the Chicago Department of Health, one is used by the Chicago Public Schools and one by the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA). The subject matter ranges from self-esteem, to sexuality to recycling. "Topics that are en vogue now, but nobody'd touch when I started out. Too controversial. I remember one hospital chose not to purchase 'AIDS Just the Facts Jack' because of one image of a man holding the hand of a dying friend (also male) because they felt it implied homosexuality. I drew that scene because, not having had a close friend die of anything- I envisioned being there to offer support in that way is what you'd do. Heaven forbid I used the 'C' word (condom)."
From childhood, Tim Jackson was aware of the great lack of positive African American images in all forms of media, TV, movies, animated programs, comics and comic books. Nearly every direction he took was to groom himself to changing this viewpoint. His cartoons, albeit multi-cultural, made the role of problem solver a person of Color. Simply because in every situation named above, if a Black person was included at all, his role was of no relevance to the story, or absolutely negative. Since 1989 Tim's focus changed to mass education. He designed posters, flyers and ads aimed at the African American community on issues of social awareness, particularly HIV/AIDS. "The media seemed to take delight in telling the world that African Americans were the fastest growing group in reported infection rates, but that same effort was not used to educate us on how not to become infected in the first place. I transferred my cartoon format into high impact graphic images." He created a series of AIDS Awareness posters. Some are used by the American Red Cross.
As a result of increased work coming into the one-man Creative License Studio, Tim needed to produce quality work faster. He tried using computer clip art, only to discover the limitations that posed. Images of people of Color were unavailable or limited to an image of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a basketball player. He found it necessary to first draw his own illustration and transfer that to his computer in order to create a design around it. by 1990, he had accumulated two file draws of drawings. Thinking that maybe there were other people with the same problem of finding positive images of people of Color in clip art collections, a new entrepreneurial opportunity was born. Reusing old illustrations and categorizing them, in 1993, Tim created Afrocentric Clips. In partnership with international marketing consultant, Keith Coleman, Afrocentrex Inc. was formed to produce and market the collection of computer clip art images that exclusively featured African Americans. "As in everything I've done over the years, there have always been those who are there to discourage. 'Why only Black people ? Nobody will want it unless it's multi-cultural. You should go for the biggest market.' It's sad that these voices come from people who are themselves Black. But you've gotta go for what you believe. I knew there was a market for Afrocentric clip art, simply because the climate in America was changing. Multi-culturalisim was the politically correct image to present. I planned to be already there waiting with the product when the call came." There are 4 volumes of Afrocentric Clips available, including business & professional, images of the Black Church, Black families, and a variety of Kinté patterns.
What will the future see from the prolific creations of Tim Jackson ? "I still think about animation. In fact I have a computer capable of producing animated work. Now that the big 2 (Marvel and DC comics) are starting to see the financial benefits of Afrocentric comic books, perhaps I will pursue that direction again. Trouble is, I have no intentions of drawing a superhero comic. I feel our children need more realistic images to model, even in fantasy, not some person who can solve problems with awesome powers, or by pulling out an enchanted sword and zapping the bad guy out of existence. My comics have promoted education, and offer real solutions to follow. The comic publisher's bread and butter are steroidal guys in colorful spandex and enormously endowed women wearing even less. There's no bucks in a kid in glasses who talks out his problems with his parents, and arrives at a workable solution without the obligatory slug-fest."
"I don't think the newspaper syndicates will ever smell the coffee. I suspect the reason for this is the lack of Persons of Color on the high level of decision making. A 'not Black' person can't decide on a comic strip for or about Black people that he feels is appealing to everyone. "
Since 1991, Tim has been self-syndicating his social commentary cartoon feature, "Things That Make You Go Hmm..." to newspapers around the country. "'Things' speaking on issues of society from headline events, to topics social change from an Afrocentric point of view. "I'm a cartoonist who also happens to be an African American. The often used term, 'Black Cartoonist' is too limiting. It gives the impression that I only talk about Black issues. At times the comic may not show a Black person at all, but my goal is to say it from where we see it. One of the things I hate to see is this unfortunate tendency in this country to confine you to a specific place. Cartoons and comic books about African Americans reflect that thinking. All the stories remain boyz in the hood situations. The Black superhero fights crime in the ghetto. Rival gangs with guns warring mindlessly over turf in the inner-city. The Unemployed science student uses high tech weapons to take on the gang members or the drug dealers. This is an editor's view of what a Black Cartoonist is. In my comic, 'Friends & Choices', where the drugs came from or who brought them to the party was irrelevant. What was important was the main character couldn't duck into a nearby phone booth to save the day. She had to become educated about what is happening to her world to help her friends help themselves.'
As for the future, he insists that his ultimate goal as an artist is to build a career in which he can live anywhere he wants and fax, messenger, modem or mail his work to where ever it is wanted. Whatever the location, what Tim Jackson desires the most is be judged by the content and quality of his work, and to be allowed to create it without the obstructions of labels and limited categorizations.