We recently connected with Jeff Victor and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jeff , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I’ve been working on two meaningful things in the past few years. One is I was hired in Oct 2022 at my dream company, Funko, hired to design Funko Pops, mystery minis, and other collectibles. If you’re familiar with my years of doing my Pop Culture Evolution series, you’ll know that I’m obsessed with turning just about every pop culture character into a cute and cuddly version of itself. Funko took note of this and reached out to me, saying I might be a good fit for their company. It was incredibly gratifying, and I’ve spent the last year or so getting to design toys of some of my favorite tv and movie characters.

The other meaningful project in my life is I made my very first graphic novel called “You Wish”, set to be released in Jan 2024. I’ve been a comic book reader my whole life, and I’ve always thought some day I’d like to write and draw my own comic series, but I never really believed in my ability to do so. Kicking around ideas for years, but never able to settle on any one thing, I finally solidified an idea during the Covid lockdown, and with nothing to do but stay in and not see friends, I thought, it’s now or never. I worked for several years, writing, designing characters, world building a fantasy environment unlike anything anyone has ever seen. When I finished, I was immensely proud of it, but I wasn’t sure if it was any good. I sent out a page sample submission to IDW/Top Shelf comics and they were so impressed by what I had done they agreed to publish it and any other stories I wanted to tell in this series. To say I was blown away was an understatement. It was incredibly validating to be told I was a born storyteller. I’ve always wanted to use my art to affect people emotionally, and now I have the perfect opportunity.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve worn many hats in my career thus far. I’ve designed for animation, video games, children’s books, toys, and now comic books, but it all started with a huge amount of passion for these indelible pop culture characters. As a child of the 80’s I grew up with Star Wars, He-Man, Ninja Turtles, and many other movies and shows that really fired my imagination. I was told by my college professor that drawing cartoons was a waste of time, and especially drawing superheroes was just embarrassing to a “fine artist”. I didn’t care, I loved drawing Batman in my own cartoony style, and now I get paid to do it.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I first became known on social media when my Pop Culture Evolution series started taking off in 2012. I had been doing these visual timelines of famous actors through the years and the famous characters they played all standing in a line, and something about it really struck a chord with people. The images were shared hundreds of thousands of times, even being retweeted by the likes of Robert Downey Jr, John Hurt, Sylvester Stallone, and many more. It was all very sudden and very organic; I didn’t pay a single dollar to promote my art, or buy any followers. I wasn’t planning to keep going with this series as long as I did (over 10 years), but the positive response from people was enriching. I didn’t want to be a one trick pony though, so I would also do a lot of other art to keep from becoming stagnant, which is important to me creatively.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My main goal in my creative journey has always been draw things that are fun. My upcoming graphic novel is written in such a way that I excluded all the things I find difficult to draw, and only focus on the things I enjoy- cute kids and animals, crazy monsters, and magic powers. I think it’s important to get a solid foundation (learn your anatomy and perspective kids!), but after that, loosen up and just have fun making art and see how far you can push yourself!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: JeffVictorArt
• Facebook: JeffVictorArt
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-victor-7752a72
• Twitter: JeffVictorArt
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@jeeves720?si=wgm1BXTBoOqbQ1bg
• Online store: https://shopjeffvictor.bigcartel.com/
• Amazon preorder for graphic novel: You Wish (Book 1) (You Wish, 1) https://a.co/d/aDOJLjk

Image Credits
All images but one are by Jeff Victor. The Evolutions: the Art of Jeff Victor book photo is by Daniel Mead.