Tim Jones is a talented cartoonist, artist, and writer. He grew up in Attleboro, Massachusetts, but now lives in Smithfield with his wife and their two daughters.
In 2014, Tim created a comic strip called Sour Grapes, featuring AESOP, a miserable flying dog.
“The Smithfield Times was one of the first papers to print Sour Grapes, Tim says. “They really helped to get things rolling for me.”
Today, Tim’s self-syndicated comic strip has become so popular that Sour Grapes now appears in more than 45 newspapers across the country, as well as many news websites.
“I do one strip per week, which is enough right now,” Tim says. “It’s a full-time job because I handle every aspect of it, from the comic strip itself to handling the business side, advertising, and promotions. Everything.”
Tim had to work at his craft, going from a grade school doodler to where he is today.
“It took time to develop my own style, which kind of comes natural, but you have to perfect it to the point where it works for you, and works for what you’re doing, as well,” Tim says. “It’s the imagination that drives it all.”
Tim’s abilities as a cartoonist are on display at a variety of public appearances that he makes throughout the year at libraries, bookstores, comic book conventions, and school classrooms all over the state and around the region.
Tim clearly has an artistic gift as a cartoonist— he’s creative and has a profound sense of humor, but the creation of his comic strip forced him to work on developing another skill, which is writing.
“I did a few years of stand-up comedy, and that really helped me to learn how to write a joke,” Tim says. “I also did some improv, and that taught me how to employ spontaneity in my humor.”
Tim is happy with the way things are going in his career, and he plans to continue with Sour Grapes to see what the future brings.
“I’ll never stop, and the strip will never stop,” Tim says, “because it’s based on my own daily life, which I poke fun at on and off the drawing board.”
You can contact Tim via the SOUR GRAPES website at sourgrapescomic.com. The website has lots of fun stuff on it including merch/swag, interviews, photos, and social media links. Tim is a member of the National Cartoonist Society and the Mid-South Cartoonist Association.
