i was at college when i got into buying computer arts magazines, i remember the first issue i purchased having a james jarvis cover, i recognized the characters but couldn't remember where from. a few years later i saw a series of heroin skateboards that he had done and that was the link. although im not overly drawn into that kind of character style, there was something i liked about his work.
anyway today i was pleasantly surprised that he was doing a talk at my uni, he came across as a really nice guy with a genuine attitude to earning money from his work. he has become best known for his toy design, though it seemed like he wasnt even into them and that its a weird world he kind of just fell into. the japanese love that shit. he seemed far more into drawing than into toys and mentioned that the whole toy design thing was having a negative effect on his drawing. he mentioned somthing along the lines of that his work was 'a romantic idea through a modernist filter' he also mentioned that he came up with that description of his work a while after which is something i often do. he was sick and some of his later graphical work i really dig.