Brand History
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is a Japanese Comic, a.k.a manga, series dating back to the late 80’s and has grown to be a very influential series within Japanese Animation, a.k.a, anime and manga culture. The series is drawn and written by manga artist, Hirohiko Araki. Araki draws most of his inspiration for Jojo’s from pop culture; such as bands and TV shows, to fashion; such as Gucci, Balenziaga, and Versace. The manga series has sold a total of 120 million volumes as of 2020 and by 2027 the series will have reached its 40 year anniversary. The series has 134 volumes as of 2024 and is still ongoing. Something of note is that the story of the series is broken up into 9 distinct story arcs, each with its own cast of characters and setting.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has come to be a classic within Japanese culture and is beloved by many all around the world. There series has collaborated with Gucci for its 90th Anniversary in 2011, was featured in the Lourve in 2009, and various other luxury companies.
Brand Identity
Araki takes many of his inspirations for JoJo’s from pop culture and bands, but the most notable would be his interest with fashion. Araki’s primary influence for his art is the work of 80s fashion illustrator, Tony Viramontes. Tony’s work is very gestural and organic, which can be seen especially in Araki’s early work in the 80’s to early 90’s. Araki also takes inspiration from fashion poses from companies like Versace and Gucci. Many of Araki’s characters are seen taking on these Avant Garde and extravagant poses, so much so that some of these poses have become one of the defining features of Araki’s characters.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure follows the story of a family, the Joester Family, with each of the descendants being named “JoJo” as a nickname. Each character shares names that has Jo in the first name and Jo in the last name, which would be combined to form JoJo as a nickname. For example; one name would be Jonathan Joester, another would be Joseph Joester, or Johnny Joester, this trend would continue with all of the character’s of the series. Connecting back to the 9 story arcs of series, each story arc follows a different character named JoJo as the protagonist who embarks on their own adventure.
Chronological Map
Volume 1 - 5
1987 - 1988
Volume 64 - 81
2000 - 2003
Volume 6 - 12
1988 - 1989
Volume 82 - 106
2004 - 2011
Volume 12 - 28
1989 - 1992
Volume 107 - 134
2011 - 2021
Volume 29 - 46
1989 - 1996
Volume 135 - Ongoing
2023 - Ongoing
Volume 47 - 63
1996 - 1999
Box Collection
To celebrate JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’s 40 Year Anniversary, I chose to redesign and remaster the manga covers of the series. I aim to condense the 134 volumes into 9 books in correspondence to the 9 distinct story arcs of the series. Each book cover will be detailed with at the protagonist of their respective story arc illustrated by me. For sake of time constraint I’ll only be designing 3 covers.
The reason that I chose to draw it myself was to show my appreciation to the manga artist and the reason I chose to convey it through an avant garde pose is because Araki himself uses a lot of avant garde fashion and poses as his inspiration.
