For over two decades, Mike Jupp brought joy to puzzle lovers with his detailed, cheeky village scenes.
But after a recent fallout with one of the UK’s best-known games companies, the 77-year-old cartoonist is packing up his puzzle pieces and moving on — and he’s not exactly doing it quietly.
From Celebrated Collaborator to Creative Clash
Mike Jupp has been designing comical, chaotic jigsaw puzzles for Gibsons Games for more than 25 years.
His 1,000-piece puzzles like I Love Spring feature his signature whimsical scenes — full of mischievous animals, eccentric locals, and a dose of British humour.
But that long-standing relationship hit a wall recently when the company allegedly asked him to tone things down in the name of diversity and inclusion.
According to Jupp, Gibsons requested several changes to his puzzle designs, including removing the St George’s flag from a parade scene and altering other classic Jupp touches.
Among the changes? A woman bathing outdoors, a bull eyeing a cow in lingerie, and even Morris dancers, who were reportedly mistaken for Northern Ireland’s Orange Order.
“I Told Them to Shove It,” Says Jupp
For Jupp, the list of requested edits felt like an attack on his creative freedom.
“I had no problem at all with Gibsons for over 25 years,” he told MailOnline.
“Then lovely old man Gibson retired and his daughter took over.”
He says that’s when the demands started coming in — and they weren’t small tweaks either.
Gibsons allegedly wanted the edits to apply not just to new puzzles, but to his entire back catalogue.
Unable to compromise on what he sees as his artistic identity, Jupp decided to walk away.
“They made a series of ridiculous demands that not even I could live with,” he added.
“So I told them to shove it and withdrew my licences.”
From Sutton to Woking: A Tongue-in-Cheek Farewell
Jupp, never one to hold back his humour, even cracked a joke about the company’s direction.
“I suggested they move their HQ a few miles down the road from Sutton to Woking!” he said, clearly taking aim at what he sees as an overly politically correct culture shift.
He also spoke to The Sun, stating, “Telling a cartoonist how to depict humour is as disrespectful as it is infuriating.
This is a reflection of a tiny minority of society that has a problem.”
Moving On With a New Puzzle Partner
Despite the fallout, Jupp isn’t quitting the jigsaw world altogether.
He’s now partnered up with All Jigsaw Puzzles, a smaller company based in Devon, and he says it’s been a breath of fresh air.
“I’m now working with my new partners AJP — a fab but much smaller company.
I love what I do, and it makes people who like my nonsense laugh,” he shared.
Gibsons Responds With a Polite Goodbye
Gibsons Games, meanwhile, kept their response professional.
Kate Gibson, Managing Director of the business, told press: “We always endeavour to act in line with our values.
We wish Mike all the best for his future endeavours.”
As of now, the company has not issued a further public comment on the specific edits or the end of their decades-long collaboration with Jupp.