Cartoonist and illustrator, Jules Faber, was born in Australia on June 21, 1957. He was educated in Vienna. His passion for science illustration stems from the late 90s when, while studying animation, Jules was leafing through one of Dr. Karl’s[1] earlier books.
Thinking aloud that he could illustrate like the ones inside, and having never considered illustrating books before, this planted a seed. Years later, when asked to illustrate the first of the WeirDo series with Anh Do, Jules recalled that moment. Thus began a bucket-list ambition – to draw for Dr. Karl. The rest, as they say, is scientifically-accurate history. Faber’s first collection of short stories, poetry, and autobiographical comics was published in 2004.
He was also co-editor and a major contributor to the Australian anthology Sporadic, a comic featuring many Australian cartoonists with an animation background – Faber was background inker on nine episodes from Season Two of Disney’s ‘The Proud Family’ – a show made for minority groups in the US television industry. Jules has illustrated over thirty books, most of them for children. He has worked with all seven of the major publishers in Australia
Most recently, Jules has created The Quest Diaries of Max Crack about a boy moving to a new town who decides to concrete over his old embarrassments and start afresh, doing all those things he’s always wanted to do. He calls them his ‘Quests’ and they include everyday adventures like winning a trophy or getting his picture in the local newspaper. But as seen through the lens of Max’s, particularly unique perspective.
In a career filled with variety, he has also edited, drawn, and written comics, caricatured big-name celebrities plus tens of thousands of people, worked on an animated show for Disney, and served as President of the Australian Cartoonists Association[2] for a decade. Other work includes the science fiction color comic Golgotha: Book One (2005), the trilogy of ‘The Clunkertons’ children’s books, and various newspaper editorial cartooning positions.
Shirtloads of Science Podcast
Jules Faber, Illustrator, and Cartoonist talk with Dr. Karl about the creative process using “Karl, The Universe & Everything” as a case study. They talk about the science of illustration – and the illustration of science. Why do some images speak louder? Do cartoonists talk a primal language? Jules is president of the Australian Cartoonists’ Association and Karl will also give you a preview of some of the hot stories in his latest book “Karl, The Universe & Everything”. Shameless self-publicity? You be the judge.
Footnotes
- Karl Sven Woytek Sas Konkovitch Matthew Kruszelnicki AM (born 1948), often referred to as “Dr. Karl”, is an Australian science communicator and populariser, who is known as an author and a science commentator on Australian radio and television. Kruszelnicki is the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow in the Science Foundation for Physics at the School of Physics, University of Sydney. [Back]
- The Australian Cartoonists’ Association is the Australian professional cartoonists’ organization and was established on 17 July 1924 as the Society of Australian Black and White Artists. It soon became The Black and White Artists Society; and, by 1938, its name had been changed to The Black and White Artists Club. By 1939, it had a sketching division and an etching division. The Association’s first clubrooms were at 250 George Street, Sydney. Founding members were Reg Russom, Unk White, Syd Nicholls, Jack Quayle, John Wiseman, Jack Baird, Joe Jonsson, Cyril Samuels, Frank Jessop, Brodie Mack, Mick Paul, Harry J Weston, Jack Waring, Syd Miller, Arthur Mailey, F H Cumberworth, Fred Knowles and Cecil Hartt, who was elected president. [Back]
Further Reading
Sources
Shirtloads of Science
Oz Comic Con
All Famous
booktopia
Wikipedia
Jules Faber
Famous Birthdays
The Daily Telegraph
