How Mike Gibbie Turned Love And Loss Into A Childrens Book Series Starring His Own Family

Creative Boom: Inspiration Illustration How Mike Gibbie turned love and loss into a children's book series starring his own family After his wife died in 2020, he finished the garden studio they'd long dreamed of and poured everything into Campfire Crew – a self-published adventure whose heroes are his daughters, an old friend and the dog who walked the fells beside him. Written By: Katy Cowan 10 August 2026 Last weekend, I headed to the Lakes for the first time in ages. We'd planned my first real hike since a debilitating back injury in early 2024. It goes without saying: I was a tad anxious.

We were going to tackle two Wainwrights: Bowfell and Crinkle Crags, which I knew would involve a lot of scrambling and hard climbing. Would my back hold up? Had two years of patient work to rebuild my strength and mobility actually paid off? These were the things I was worrying about when we got to our campsite and saw those hills looming in the distance. I certainly wasn't expecting to be recognised at a campsite reception desk. But the illustrator checking us in knew all about Creative Boom, and you couldn't make it up: Mike Gibbie is exactly the sort of creative we spend our days championing.

He gave us a wonderfully warm welcome, and I soon learned he's an artist and self-published children's author, building a life and career that suits him. And it turned out the fells I'd gone to tackle are where his stories are dreamed up. So over a cold beer in our campervan later that night, I asked him to tell me his. Some of us find our calling in a classroom or art gallery. Mike Gibbie found his at a skatepark, not long after watching Back to the Future. "I've been an artist since I could hold a pencil and started skating in my early teens after seeing Marty McFly in that film," he says.

"But I quickly discovered this whole scene of like-minded introverts who were creative in individual ways." It's something that's clearly never left him. You can tell from chatting with him, from how he dresses, and from the style of his work. "You can meet a skater, and instantly, you're connected. There's never any judgement about skill levels, just encouragement when they see what you're trying to achieve, with a tail tap of the board, which is amplified when you finally nail the trick. Graffiti, board designs, urban culture and free self-expression influence my art to this day." Doing what we love brings a little peace of mind.

Speaking of which, there's one word he keeps coming back to. "Bass playing, like skateboarding, is a pursuit of flow," he says. "Flow is in everything I try to do and the suffering I go through to achieve it. Whether it's hauling myself up a mountain, falling and failing to land a trick or constant repetition to learn a bass line." The reward, when it comes, is brief but complete. "It's all for a brief moment of self-satisfaction, when you land and roll away smoothly or find that flowing groove or stand at the top of a mountain, knowing what it took to get there." That, he says, is what feeds the art.

"The effort, the desire to improve every day and, most importantly, patience, in the times when you just can't find the flow." Few people's patience has been tested like his. For years, Mike kept the dream of a working studio alive in the corners of a very full life. "I have never given up on my dreams to be a working artist and spent years self-building a studio and family space," he says. "Even though realistically, caring for our severely disabled daughter and her sister left little time for creativity. The studio remained unfinished, then in 2020, just before lockdown, my wife sadly passed away." "That was the moment.

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The article highlights a unique personal narrative that connects storytelling to brand strategy, making it significant for professionals in the industry while also providing actionable insights on authenticity and self-publishing.