31 Facts About Jim Woodring

James William Woodring was born on October 11,1952 and is an American cartoonist, fine artist, writer and toy designer.

Jim Woodring is best known for the dream-based comics he published in his magazine Jim, and as the creator of the anthropomorphic cartoon character Frank, who has appeared in a number of short comics and graphic novels.

Since he was a child, Jim Woodring has experienced hallucinatory "apparitions", which have inspired much of his surreal work.

Jim Woodring keeps an "autojournal" of his dreams, some of which have formed the basis of some of his comics.

Jim Woodring has won or been nominated for a number of awards.

The elder of two children, Jim Woodring was born in Los Angeles.

Jim Woodring suffered from hallucinations of floating, gibbering faces over his bed when he was a child, and "was obsessed with death at a tender age" and was afraid his parents would come into his bedroom and kill him.

Jim Woodring had behavioral problems, finding himself unable to stop himself from doing things he knew he should not be doing, which he says he did not bring in line until he got married.

Jim Woodring graduated from high school in 1970 and went to Glendale Junior College for about two months.

Jim Woodring dropped out of college and spent the next year and a half as a garbage man.

Jim Woodring eventually quit drinking because he felt it was interfering with his growth as an artist.

In 1986, Jim Woodring was introduced by Gil Kane to Gary Groth of Fantagraphics Books.

Jim was published as a regular series by Fantagraphics starting in 1986, to critical acclaim if less than spectacular sales, and Woodring became a full-time cartoonist.

Frank, a wordless surrealist series which began as an occasional feature within Jim Woodring, became his best-known work, eventually spinning off into its own series in 1996.

Jim Woodring created a short-lived comics series for children, Tantalizing Stories, with Mark Martin.

In particular, Jim Woodring was nominated for "Best Colorist" at the 1993 Eisner Awards for the story Frank in the River.

Jim Woodring has worked as a freelance illustrator and comics writer, adapting the film Freaks with F Solano Lopez for Fantagraphics and writing comics based on Aliens and Star Wars for Dark Horse.

Jim Woodring produced a new Frank book in 2005 and in 2010 his first graphic novel-length Frank book, Weathercraft, which found itself on a number of "Best of 2010" lists.

In 2010, a 93-minute documentary was released entitled The Lobster and the Liver: The Unique World of Jim Woodring, directed by Jonathan Howells.

The stories involving these characters occur in the surreal world Jim Woodring calls the Unifactor.

Jim Woodring illustrated Microsoft's Comic Chat program, an IRC client previously packaged with multiple versions of Internet Explorer.

Jim Woodring illustrated the cover of The Grifters' 1996 album Ain't My Lookout.

Jim Woodring illustrated the front cover, endpapers and the song "Toy Boy" in singer-songwriter Mika's 2009 EP Songs for Sorrow.

For years, Woodring ran ads for "Jimland Novelties" in the back of his comics.

In 1991 and 1992, Jim Woodring illustrated the Harvey Pekar stories Snake, Watching the Media Watchers and Sheiboneth Beis Hamikdosh for American Splendor.

Jim Woodring wrote the scripts for the comic-book adaptation of Freaks, illustrated by Francisco Solano Lopez and colored by Mary Jim Woodring.

Jim Woodring made his return to comics at the turn of the decade producing two new graphic novels.

Jim Woodring makes heavy use of a distinctive controlled wavy line that adds contour and texture to the backgrounds, which has become his trademark.

Jim Woodring is a follower of Vedanta, and aspects of this philosophy often appear in his stories.

Jim Woodring's work was featured prominently at the Centre National de la Bande Dessinee et de l'Image in Angouleme, France as part of the international comics festival held there in January 2007.

Jim Woodring has published a large number of short works in diverse periodicals and anthologies.