Thomas Jeyaraj Fernando, aka Jeyaraj, Jayaraj, or simply, J., is an illustrator for

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

periodicals and magazines. He is especially known for his depictions of attractive, young (and frequently buxom) women, which have earned him a fan following among readers of Tamil magazines as well as criticism. Jeyaraj, who is from

Tuticorin Thoothukudi (formerly Tuticorin) is a port city, a municipal corporation and an industrial city in Thoothukudi district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The city lies in the Coromandel Coast of Bay of Bengal. Thoothukudi is the capital and he ...

, has no formal training in art, but nevertheless won prizes in school and college for his sketches. He studied for a bachelor's degree in economics, but when he could not find any employment in his chosen field, he decided to try his luck with illustration. This was in Chennai in the late 1950s. His first assignment in 1958 was for a short story by

Ra. Ki. Rangarajan Ra. Ki. Rangarajan (1927 – 18 August 2012), popularly known as Ra Ki (Tamil language, Tamil: ரா.கி.), was a Tamil language, Tamil journalist and prolific author of novels, short stories, essays, translations and other works. Rangaraja ...

Kumudam ''Kumudam'' is a Tamil weekly magazine published in Chennai, India. It was founded in 1948 by S.A.P. Annamalai, and his close friend and confidante P.V. Parthasarathy. Now the magazine is published under the Kumudam Group, which also publishes ...

magazine, fetched him Rs. 10. Since then, Jeyaraj has illustrated thousands of Tamil short stories, jokes and serials, and is known for his versatility, handling everything from line-drawing, wash drawing, colour drawing, perspective drawing to cartoons. He is also very quick and prolific as an illustrator: according to Jeyaraj, in the 1970s, he used to make 40 illustrations a day. A biographical note in ''The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction, Vol. II'' claims that by 1980, Jeyaraj had done over 2,00,000 illustrations. The same note lists his personal favourites from his vast body of work: the sketches for ''KJ'', a science-fiction novel by Sujatha and ''My Name is Kamala'' by

Pushpa Thangadorai Sri Venugopal ( ta, ஸ்ரீ வேணுகோபால்) (1931 – 10 November 2013) was an Indian author of religious pilgrimage travelogues, who also wrote fiction under the name Pushpa Thangadurai ( ta, புஷ்பா தங்க� ...

. Other notable work includes '' Appusami and Seethapaatti'' (see entry on Appusami for a list of titles illustrated by Jeyaraj). Jeyaraj continues to illustrate for twelve magazines, including a Telugu and a Kannada magazine, besides illustrating textbooks. He has been awarded the Devan Memorial Medal in 2007.Writer, artist receive Devan Memorial Medal
''The Hindu'', May 06, 2007

Bibliography

* ''Highway 117'', a comic written by

, illustrated by Jeyaraj. In
The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction, Vol. II
'(2010).

References

External links

Indian cartoonists Indian comics artists {{cartoonist-stub