Jim Benton (October 31, 1960-) is an American illustrator and writer. Licensed properties he has created include Dear Dumb Diary, Dog of Glee, Franny K. Stein, It's Happy Bunny, Just Jimmy, Just Plain Mean, Sweetypuss, The Misters, Total Trouble, and Watashi Baka Da!.
Early life and education
Jim Benton was raised in Birmingham, Michigan, graduating from Seaholm High School in 1978. He studied fine arts at Western Michigan University.
Career
Benton began his career in a custom design Tatoo shop where he started designing his own characters. At the same time, Jim did illustrations and artwork for magazines and newspapers.<3> People magazine named him "the most visible cartoonist in America" in 1989.
Benton also created greeting cards and worked in the magazine and publishing industry. In 1998, his SpyDogs characters became an animated series, The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs, that aired on Fox Kids. Licensing his own creations brought them widespread attention on products, such as It's Happy Bunny, which he created in the mid 1990s but licensed in 2002.
Benton currently lives in Michigan, where he operates out of his own studio. He is married with two children.
