'Jeff Job Hunter'.
Jack Teagle is a British freelance illustrator, painter and cartoonist. He works in a variety of artistic fields, and has several comic books published by Nobrow Press and McSweeney's. His absurd comedy comics have also been translated into Russian, Polish and German, where they enjoy a remarkable cult following.
Early career
Jack Teagle, who hails from South West England, studied Illustration at the University of Plymouth, and graduated in 2009. That summer, he and fellow graduate Jess Douglas won "Best New Blood" at D&AD, a British educational charity to promote excellence in design and advertising. Active as a freelancer since 2010, Teagle has worked for clients like Converse, Bloomberg Business Week, FHM Magazine, Hassle Records, Havana Club Rum, Rob Sherman Music, Urban Designers, Texas Observer and many more. His jobs include editorial illustration, character design, storyboarding and designs for posters, textile and products. He was the regular cartoonist for the British men's magazine Front from 2010 to 2014, and a columnist for Digital Artist Magazine.
'Fight!'.
Style
Teagle's comics have been released either through self-publishing or through indie publishers. Among his published works are 'Jeff Job Hunter' (Nobrow Press, 2010), 'Fight!' (Nobrow Press, 2011), 'The Jungle' (McSweeney's, 2011), 'Fight! 2' (Nobrow Press, 2012), 'Diamond Defenders' (Erieeeeee Press, 2015), 'The Unmentionables' (Retrofit Comics, 2015) and 'The Muscle Kids' (2017). Teagle regularly combines plain everyday settings with absurdism, like the job hunter who has to collect a skull in a mythological underworld ('Jeff Job Hunter'), or the lost soul stranded in a jungle, which turns out to be a garden center ('The Jungle'). His other works present a wide range of superhero characters, like the villain-with-self-doubt Diablo from the 'Fight!' booklets and vigilantes like 'Metatron the Living Meteorite' and 'Snakeman' from his ongoing 'Teagle Comics' series.
Russian-language edition of 'The Jungle'.
Translation
Teagle's comic books have even been translated into Polish, Russian and German. He reached such popularity in Russia, that the publisher Comfed has released his entire back catalog. In an interview with online print shop RoomFifty, Teagle remarked that he has more books released in Russia than anywhere else in the world. Some of his works were published in Russia first, and one of his stories even inspired a Russian play. His work has been exhibited in London, Porto and Dublin, and he has also participated in group exhibitions throughout the UK, Germany, Belgium, London and Portland, Oregon. Teagle regularly makes action figures based on his comic characters for these exhibitions.
'The Muscle Kids'.