Ever since I was a young boy I felt insecure at school with me being dyslexic, this was less understood when I was young which made this all the more confusing for me. Growing up in the 60’s I found my school life very difficult, it was only understanding later on in life that I was dyslexic and it being confirmed. This resulted in times which felt extremely painful and made me feel very insecure.
I found two things that helped me escape the feelings I had, one of which was my bike – I cycled for many miles on my own and there was a great sense of freedom within that bike and being able to go on adventures without (what felt like) any limits. To enjoy me and my own company to try and figure out the world that was around me. The other thing I was passionate about was laying in my parents garden, I would stare up at the white fluffy clouds in the blue sky. I could do this for absolutely hours and would often find myself doing it until evening, which resulted in me ending up looking at the stars, this really helped me escape from the reality, which was my school life.
Another big interest of mine was films – especially western movies, I sometimes imagined myself being on a horseback much like being on my bike I suppose looking back. My thoughts then went to becoming an actor (which I detail more in my Star Wars Blog). The thought of being an actor and being someone different in my mind meant that again I could remove myself the reality of life. This is what lead me to getting the courage to attend Pinewood Studios (as featured in the Star Wars Blog) and how my Star Wars journey began!
The pressure of life was (and still can be!) extremely tough but it is a great sense of relief when we find something that helps us keep calm and relaxed within every day life stress and situations that can be difficult for us to handle or even understand sometimes about ourselves – we are all learning along the way.
When I created Jonnie Rocket it was late one evening, I got a piece of paper and I had a flashback as a child loving my bike and staring into the stars combined and it was then when I knew I wanted to create a character that had a magic bike which fly’s and goes on magic adventures to escape the world and be involved in our wonderful universe. I had the discussion with my daughter and she had the amazing idea of calling him after me, John? I wasn’t so sure but she said ’No, lets do Jonnie and he has a rocket so, lets call him Jonnie Rocket!’ and thats how Jonnie Rocket the Character was born. I love the fact that my daughter was involved in this family targeted book, with a character that is so very close to my heart.
The following morning I of course remembered the conversation I had and thought it would be such good fun if I could do something with this great character, so I made enquires into how I start to write a book and make my dream a reality. Working with a local author at that time they helped me construct the layout and concept of what we now know (and love) as Jonnie Rocket! There after I created a storyboard of the adventures of Jonnie Rocket, simple stick men drawings (which I still have!) and within the next few months these came to life – with completed speech bubbles and an illustrator to make my stick men something worth looking at!
The whole process took me a year, printers, illustrators and the understanding on how to publish your own book – such an exciting journey which I still am very grateful for living everyday.
Part of the vision for Jonnie Rocket is to animate the character for TV I would love to see Jonnie Rocket portraying a non confrontational series with the view of all language being positive and engaging but exciting and educational for all young people to watch and read.
Looks like we all take a journey in life – here is to many more!