Jason Platt
Jason Platt’s full-length graphic novel series, Middle School Misadventures, has won praise from SLJ and has been on the Texas Library Association’s Little Maverick Reading List. Based on his comic, Mister & Me, Newell is no longer perpetually five years old and is thrust into the “lawless halls of middle school” Will Henry of Wallace the Brave). His graphic novels celebrate the innocent times that kids encounter during those awkward years and when friendships start to grow tighter and tighter.
Jason fell in love with cartooning early in his childhood. Drawing early inspiration from Charles M. Schulz (Peanuts), Jim Davis (Garfield), and Jim Henson (The Muppets). Through his adolescence, Jason discovered both Mad Magazine and Bloom County. Cartoonists like Mort Drucker, Sergio Aragonés, and Berkley Breathed were soon added to his heroes. Inspired by these cartooning greats, Jason drew countless hours as a kid. The only time Jason ever got in trouble at school is when he sold some of his own comics during recess. Apparently, that was frowned upon. Who knew?
Later working as both a professional actor and a puppeteer, Jason focused on the art of illustration and graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design (or SCAD, for those in the know). While he trained in several styles he found that whenever he drew for fun, or just for himself, it was always cartooning. So he focused his work on the style he had always loved.
Jason grew up in Durham, NC and he and his family live in Davenport, IA with their cat (who insists on being his coworker). He is a member of SCBWI
and the National Cartoonists Society.
