Author: JayJay Jackson Page 1 of 2

JayJay Jackson is an eclectic artist, designer and writer who works in all the coolest media. She lives an unstable existence companioned by a couple of sexy beasts, if Freddy and the cat can be called that. She is available for book signings, illustration work and jaunts to Paris.

Jim Shooter passed away on June 30, 2025

By JayJay Jackson

On July 11, 2025

In Uncategorized

How do you measure the worth of a life? Jim Shooter changed mine, for the better. I met him in 1983 and he encouraged me, mentored me, supported me, and employed me for over 40 years. He has improved the lives of many people more significant than I am, but I doubt he has transformed anyone’s life so completely. I am beyond grateful to him. The loss of his knowledge and experience is a severe blow and a loss to the world. -JayJay Jackson

Jim Shooter: A Second Opinion

By JayJay Jackson

On June 8, 2016

In 13 Guest Posts

Hi everyone,

Here’s a recent blog article by R. S. Martin titled Jim Shooter: A Second Opinion. It’s about Jim’s time as editor in chief of Marvel Comics. Jim thought it might be of interest to readers of the blog.

It’s a revised and expanded version of an article that was originally published at The Hooded Utilitarian on January 7, 2013.

Enjoy.

-JayJay

http://rsmwriter.blogspot.com/2016/06/jim-shooter-second-opinion.html

New! Storytelling Lecture.

By JayJay Jackson

On May 8, 2016

In 04 Storytelling Lecture

JayJay here. Look! Up in the navigation bar!

I’ve created a separate web page section of the blog just for Jim’s storytelling lecture. It’s all of the information and images, without the fluff or announcements, in one easy-to-find spot. I thought it would be easier for people to to explore the content and browse only the information they want.

The wisdom of the ancients presented for your elucidation.

http://storytelling.jimshooter.com

A Look Back

By JayJay Jackson

On April 26, 2016

In 06 VALIANT, 15 Video

Here’s a recent YouTube interview filmed at the 2015 Florida Supercon with Supercon Mike where Jim talks about his past and some comic book industry history. He tells the story of the acquisition of the Gold Key characters for VALIANT, the early days of the direct market, the creation of GI Joe, Secret Wars and other stuff. -JayJay

Find out more information about Florida Supercon at www.floridasupercon.com

Mark Twain’s Rules of Literary Art

By JayJay Jackson

On November 3, 2011

In 04 Storytelling Lecture, 13 Guest Posts

Excerpted from “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses” by Mark Twain.

JayJay here. Over the years Jim has had a few classic sources of advice on writing that he would refer writers to. Here is one of them. Good things to keep in mind.And I recommend reading the essay that these guidelines are taken from even if you have never read any Fenimore Cooper. It’s very funny. Over the years Jim has had many people ROTFL when he performed dramatic readings of it. Makes my sides hurt to even remember.

The rules governing literary art in the domain of romantic fiction require:

1. That a tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere.
2. They require that the episodes of a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale and shall help to develop it.
3. They require that the personages of a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others.
4. They require that the personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit sufficient excuse for being there.
5. They require that when personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject in hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when people cannot think of anything more to say.
6. They require that when the author describes the character of a personage in his tale, the conduct and conversation of that personage shall justify said description.
7. They require that when a personage talks like an illustrated, gilt-edged, tree-calf, hand tooled, seven dollar Friendship’s Offering in the beginning of a paragraph, he shall not talk like a negro minstrel in the end of it.
8. They require that crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader as “the craft of the woodsman, the delicate art of the forest” by either the author or the people in the tale.
9. They require that the personages of a tale shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the author must so plausibly set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable.
10. They require that the author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages in his tale and in their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones.
11. They require that the characters in a tale shall be so clearly defined that the reader can tell beforehand what each will do in a given emergency.In addition to the large rules there are some little ones. These require that the author shall:

Say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it.
Use the right word, not its second cousin.
Eschew surplusage.
Not omit necessary details.
Avoid slovenliness of form.
Use good grammar.
Employ a simple and straightforward style.

The Anti Gravity Room with Broadway Comics

By JayJay Jackson

On October 28, 2011

In 13 Guest Posts, 15 Video

JayJay Here. Back when Jim and I were working on Broadway Comics a Canadian TV show called The Anti Gravity Room came to film a segment with us. The episode is about how comics are made. I found an old video tape of the show a while back and got it transferred to DVD. It has Rob Liefeld and Ty Templeton. Jim and I are in the middle part (Part 2) of the show. The last part has an interesting bit about how comics are printed.

Marvel Layoffs – 1996

By JayJay Jackson

On October 26, 2011

In 03 Marvel Comics, 13 Guest Posts

JayJay here. Jim is taking care of other business today so I found another old news article for you. I thought it was an interesting aspect of Marvel history in the wake of some of Marvels’ most recent layoffs.

Marvel’s 25th Anniversary in Variety

By JayJay Jackson

On October 13, 2011

In 03 Marvel Comics, 13 Guest Posts

JayJay here. Jim is otherwise occupied today so I thought I would come up with something to fill in and also spotlight what one of our readers, the wonderful JediJones, has accomplished… He has compiled a list of Jim’s work that is available on Amazon. We appreciate all the trouble he went to!

JediJones comments:

I just compiled a list of links of Jim’s trade paperbacks available on Amazon. I inserted Jim’s affiliate link code so he should get full referral fees if you buy through these links.

Jim, Amazon also has this bibliography page with a form for you to make updates to it. It’s missing most of your titles so you might want to update it and then you can link to it here. It might also be worth posting direct graphic links here to the pre-orders for the new Secret Wars I and II trade paperbacks. (Thanks! I will work on that!–JJ)

I’ve been going through old stuff as well and I ran across an issue of Variety that had a special section for Marvel’s 25th Anniversary. I scanned some of the pages. Click the images to enlarge.

Jim has promised to tell the story of working with George Romero on Mongrel soon!

The X-Men Team’s 1985 European Tour

By JayJay Jackson

On September 29, 2011

In 13 Guest Posts

JayJay here. Jim is suffering through a power outage, so while he sits in the dark I thought we could just do a blog post ourselves, and by ourselves I mean done by our readers! There’s the Mickey Rooney/Andy Hardy side of me coming out! To add to Jim’s story from yesterday about the X-Men team’s European tour in 1985 our reader, the wonderful Stéphane Garrelie, has scanned an article from Strange Magazine and translated it for us. And many thanks as well to Ferran Delgado for the photos from the Barcelona convention. Strange Magazine was published by Editions Lug located in Lyons, France and headed at the time by the lovely Claude Vistel, one of two French publishers, that did translated reprints of Marvel Comics. Our reader Xavier Lancel explains that Lug is short for Lugdunum, the roman name of Lyon. Chris Claremont, John Romita Jr., Ann Nocenti and Dan Green went to Paris to promote the X-men and partly to research issue 200 which has Magneto on trial in Paris. That story was, of course, reprinted in Special Strange as well.

And that sparked their European tour!

Hijack!

By JayJay Jackson

On September 7, 2011

In 03 Marvel Comics, 13 Guest Posts

JayJay here. Jim’s away and… well, I’m not a mouse, but I’ll play anyway. Here’s something I thought you might enjoy. When I found my old Marvel Tryout Book to scan the pages for yesterday’s blog there were some long forgotten newspaper articles stuck into it. Here’s one from New York City Business, February 1985, about the Marvel Secret Wars and DC Crisis on Infinite Earths rivalry among other things.

Tomorrow we’ll return to our regularly scheduled blogcast: The Startling Conclusion of the Submission Saga