Jamie McKelvie is a British cartoonist and illustrator, known for his both work on books such as Phonogram, Young Avengers and The Wicked + The Divine, and his approach to comic character design.

Career

Since 2003, McKelvie has collaborated with Kieron Gillen on a number of works. This started with a comic strip for PlayStation Official Magazine – UK, entitled Save Point, which ran for at least three years. The Guardian highlighted that Gillen and McKelvie "met in 2003 at a convention where Gillen was selling his first photocopied comics". Their first comic book together was Phonogram, a six-issue series in 2006, which was followed by two sequel series in 2008 and 2015 with Matt Wilson. The three worked together on a relaunch of Young Avengers for Marvel in 2013, and created the 45-issue series The Wicked + The Divine between 2014 and 2019. In 2021, GamesRadar+ highlighted that the duo has "worked together on-and-off for the past 17 years" and that their Batman short story Batman: Black and White #5 was their "first major project together since the conclusion of The Wicked + The Divine in 2019". His first creator-owned series as both writer and artist, Suburban Glamour, was published in 2008, with Guy Major and Matthew Wilson as colourists. He has done various work for Marvel Comics, including a run on Defenders with Matt Fraction, and the X-Men: Season One graphic novel with Dennis Hopeless. McKelvie's artwork also graces the covers of the Art Brut album Brilliant! Tragic! and the single "Lost Weekend", and of two novels by writer Mur Lafferty. He has illustrated prints and tour posters for the band Chvrches and his art was animated in their music video for the new version of "Bury It" (2016) featuring Hayley Williams.

Character design

McKelvie has redesigned a number of characters' costumes, including the 2012 redesign of long-time character Carol Danvers, for a relaunch of the character as the new Captain Marvel, and in late 2013, the design for Kamala Khan's outfit when she becomes Ms Marvel. In 2016, he designed the costumes for the time-displaced original five X-Men seen in X-Men: Blue (2017). In 2023, he redesigned Kamala's costume after she joined the X-Men. He has also made available his personal takes on Wonder Woman, Iron Man and Cyclops. McKelvie has said that he emphasises practicality when creating his Marvel designs, stating that he considers the "message a [...] character's design is putting across", and specifically for Ms. Marvel, the design reflects "the Captain Marvel legacy, and also her story and her background". For the time-displaced X-Men, McKelvie commented that he "wanted to reference past incarnations of the characters, while at the same time coming up with something new and cohesive for the team".

Works

Comics

Interior work

Cover work

Games