Jim Rugg is an American cartoonist and illustrator from Pittsburgh known for his tongue-in-cheek evocation of 1970s-era comics

Comics

Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...

 and pop culture. His graphic novels and comics collections include Street Angel

Street Angel (comics)

Street Angel is an alternative comic book limited series by Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca. It was published in 2004 by Slave Labor Graphics, and lasted five issues.-Plot:...

, Afrodisiac

Afrodisiac

Afrodisiac is the fourth studio album by American recording artist Brandy Norwood, released by Atlantic Records on June 28, 2004 on most international territories and on June 29, 2004 in Canada and the United States...

, The P.L.A.I.N. Janes and Janes in Love, One Model Nation, and The Guild.

Rugg has also produced short comics for VH1

VH1

VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...

, New York

New York (magazine)

New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...

magazine, True Porn, Meathaus

Meathaus

Meathaus is a comics anthology created by the Meathaus Collective. The Meathaus Collective is a group of artists who attended New York City's School of Visual Arts in or around 2000...

, Cinema Sewer

Cinema Sewer

Cinema Sewer is a movie magazine published by Robin Bougie of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, that has been in publication either quarterly or yearly since 1997...

, Strange Tales

Strange Tales

Strange Tales is the name of several comic book anthology series published by Marvel Comics. It introduced the features "Doctor Strange" and "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.", and was a showcase for the science fiction/suspense stories of artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, and for the...

, the SPX Annual

Small Press Expo

The Small Press Expo is an alternative comics convention that takes place every September or October in Bethesda, Maryland. It rivals the Alternative Press Expo as the premiere convention for alternative comics creators and fans. SPX is the home of the Ignatz Awards, which have been presented...

, Project: Superior, Dark Horse Presents

Dark Horse Presents

Dark Horse Presents was the first comic book published by Dark Horse Comics in 1986 and was their flagship title until its September 2000 cancellation. The second incarnation was published on MySpace, running from July 2007 until August 2010...

, and the Next Issue Project

Next Issue Project

The Next Issue Project is a series of American comic-book anthology one-shots published by Image Comics beginning in February, 2008. The multi-title project, edited by Erik Larsen, creator of Savage Dragon, features comic book characters that have fallen into the public domain.The premise behind...

.

Biography

Rugg's influences include Frank Miller

Frank Miller (comics)

Frank Miller is an American comic book artist, writer and film director best known for his dark, film noir-style comic book stories and graphic novels Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300...

, Erik Larsen

Erik Larsen

Erik J. Larsen is an American comic book writer, artist and publisher. He is best known for his work on Savage Dragon, as one of the founders of Image Comics, and for his work on Spider-Man for Marvel Comics.-Early life:...

, David Lapham

David Lapham

David Lapham is an Eisner Award winning American comic book writer, artist, and cartoonist, best known for his work on his groundbreaking independent comic book Stray Bullets.-Biography:...

, Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....

, David Mazzuchelli, Mike Mignola

Mike Mignola

Michael Joseph "Mike" Mignola is an American comic book artist and writer who created the comic book series Hellboy for Dark Horse Comics. He has worked for animation projects such as Atlantis: The Lost Empire and the adaptation of his one shot comic book, The Amazing Screw-On Head.-Career:Mignola...

, the Hernandez brothers

Los Bros Hernandez

Los Bros Hernandez is the collective name given to the Hernandez brothers responsible for the acclaimed independent comic series Love and Rockets. The artists behind the series are Jaime and Gilbert , and, to a lesser extent, Mario....

, Robert Crumb

Robert Crumb

Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...

, Dan Clowes, Chris Ware

Chris Ware

Franklin Christenson Ware , is an American comic book artist and cartoonist, widely known for his Acme Novelty Library series and the graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he resides in the Chicago area, Illinois...

, and Julie Doucet

Julie Doucet

Julie Doucet is a Canadian former underground cartoonist and artist, best known for her autobiographical works such as Dirty Plotte and My New York Diary...

. Rugg is also inspired by television shows like The Office

The Office

The Office is a popular mockumentary/situation comedy TV show that was first made in the UK and has now been re-made in many other countries, with overall viewership in the hundreds of millions worldwide. The original version of The Office was created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. It...

and Arrested Development, the films of Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson

Wesley Wales Anderson is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer of features, short films and commercials....

, Kobo Abe

Kobo Abe

, pseudonym of was a Japanese writer, playwright, photographer and inventor. Abe has been often compared to Franz Kafka and Alberto Moravia for his surreal, often nightmarish explorations of individuals in contemporary society and his modernist sensibilities....

’s writing, Todd Hido

Todd Hido

Todd Hido is an American contemporary artist and photographer. Currently based in San Francisco, much of Hido’s work involves urban and suburban housing across the U.S., of which the artist produces large, highly detailed and luminous color photographs."Hido's photographs reveal isolation and...

’s photography, and Toba Khedoori

Toba Khedoori

Toba Khedoori is an Australian-born artist of Iraqi heritage, known primarily for highly-detailed mixed-media paintings executed on large sheets of wax-coated paper. Khedoori's works often fill the spectator's entire field of vision; a 'typical' Khedoori painting combines elements of drawing,...

's drawings and paintings. He has a BFA

Bachelor of Fine Arts

In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...

 in graphic design and painting from a small liberal arts college.

While working as a graphic designer, Rugg met and began working with writer Brian Maruca. The result, Street Angel

Street Angel (comics)

Street Angel is an alternative comic book limited series by Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca. It was published in 2004 by Slave Labor Graphics, and lasted five issues.-Plot:...

, was self-published as a mini-comic, where it eventually found its way to the publisher Slave Labor Graphics

Slave Labor Graphics

Slave Labor Graphics is an independent American comic book publisher, well-known for publishing darkly humorous, offbeat comics.-Company history:...

. The first five issues of Street Angel were collected as a trade paperback by SLG Publishing in 2005.

After the cancellation of a video game project and The P.L.A.I.N. Janes series in 2008, Rugg considered leaving the comics business. His fortunes began turning around in 2009, when he began working on Image Comics

Image Comics

Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...

' One Model Nation and Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...

' The Guild.

In 2010 Rugg (along with co-writer Maruca) released Afrodisiac, collecting stories previously publishes in anthologies along with new material. (The character first appeared in the pages of Street Angel). The book is a detailed pastiche of 1970s "trash" culture, especially the blaxploitation

Blaxploitation

Blaxploitation or blacksploitation is a film genre which emerged in the United States circa 1970. It is considered an ethnic sub-genre of the general category of exploitation films. Blaxploitation films were originally made specifically for an urban black audience, although the genre's audience...

 heroic archetype. The titular hero is an over-the-top '70s-era, kung fu-fighting pimp

Pimp

A pimp is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The pimp may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing a location where she may engage clients...

 character depicted in adventures that cross multiple comics styles, from space aliens and flying saucers to dinosaurs to Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

 to Hercules to giant monsters to Dracula. Afrodisiac's production design faithfully evokes the visual style of old comic books, down to faded color schemes and wrinkled, creased covers.

Awards

Rugg was nominated for a 2010 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Minicomic for Rambo 3.5.

He served on the Ignatz Award jury in 2006.

External links