We were lucky to catch up with Chris Jones recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Chris, thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I’ve always wanted to be an artist…I think. I’ve literally been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil and once I realized drawing came naturally, that’s probably when I decided “oh yeah, I’m gonna draw comics and cartoons when I grow up.” In my youth, I’d often send in fan art of Ninja Turtles characters to Archie Comics when they were publishing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, and they’d always send back a postcard with some original line art on the other side and the editor at the time would write back “You’re pretty good for you age, keep it up and one day you might be working on Ninja Turtles”. Sadly those cards were all lost in a flood back in 1994, but I took those words to heart and just kept at it, eventually earning a degree in animation. I’m currently drawing covers for the current Ninja Turtles Saturday Morning Adventures comic series every so often with IDW Publishing, so in a way, I did end up working on Ninja Turtles officially.

Chris, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

So I’m kind of a lot of things. Primarily I’m an artist, but I’m also a collector who’s heavily into action figures, video games, anime, cartoons, comics, and all things related. A lot of my inspiration comes from those things. I guess for anyone who doesn’t know me, you’ve more than likely run across something I’ve done online. I’m constantly drawing stuff from my childhood, leaning heavily into the nostalgia, and it tends to get picked up and shared by a lot of people. I’ve also been able to connect with a lot of people who were involved with my childhood that I never in a million years thought I’d ever meet/talk to or even do illustrations for and that’s another thing that keeps me going. As far as my professional career, comics is the most recent thing I’ve gotten into and that’s because someone from Paramount ran across my work and felt I’d be a good fit for the Ninja Turtles given that I tend to draw on-model based on the original cartoon. That’s to date, the thing I’m most proud of, because Ninja Turtles was/is such a huge part of who I am and being able to work on it officially is an achievement I’ve kinda secretly been trying to reach for decades. I think what sets me apart for others, and this goes for any job I’ve ever had, is that I’m quick/efficient. I’ve always found a system that lets me finish things rather quickly, usually surprising anyone I’m working for, which often led to more opportunities and advancements. At one point I worked as a graphic artist for an advertising company here in Houston and I created my own system that allowed me to finish at least 10-15 different designs during a shift while the requirement was only 5, which always resulted in me helping out the other departments catch up. I pretty much use the same concept with everything I draw as well, following the same exact steps for each project every time, so the more I do it, the faster I become. Some people tell me I’m a machine, and I’m starting to think they may be correct.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Honestly, I’d like to work on as many properties from my childhood that I can that are still being worked on today. Ninja Turtles was priority one, but I’m also a huge Sonic the Hedgehog fan and that’s next on my list of goals, but seeing my wife, who’s also a full time comic artist, constantly putting out stuff, along with all the friends I’ve made in the industry, push me to do even better to hopefully land some other gigs based on my interests.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I grew up in a really small town, very rural, called Thompsons, TX with a population of maybe 150, though I often felt that number on the sign was inaccurate and it was probably more like 70. That being said, we were so far away from the city, and didn’t really have decent internet access if at all so in my high school days, the only place I knew of that I could go for animation/art college-wise, was the Art Institute of Houston. I won’t go too far into detail but it wasn’t the best choice. It was all that was available at the time but I wish I had known about some of the other schools, maybe even those out of state, that probably would have helped me get started in my career a lot sooner and with a lot more training/preparation.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mistajonz.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/mista__jonz
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/immistajonz
• Twitter: @mistajonz

Image Credits
Ninja Turtles comic covers copyright IDW Publishing NEON comic cover copyright Steven Coburn Rangerstop Badge created for Rangerstop & Pop Convention