Gorey's Black Spider (courtesy 50 Watts)
An entire month since I last posted a Picks and Tweets? For shame. No excuse, other than the usual craziness that is synonymous with September (in my day-job world), which is somewhat alleviated a month later by the arrival of Halloween candy on store shelves. There are goodies everywhere, and many, many empty wrappers, but it is the non-chocolate variety of which I speak. Where to start? Well, how about with some well-deserved accolades?
Just announced…Migrant, Along a Long Road & Ten Birds are among the nominees for the 2011 Governor General’s Award. All three have been reviewed in this blog, and all three are very deserving. Congratulations to the illustrators, authors, and publishers. Also, I Know Here, written by Laurel Croza and illustrated by Matt James, has won the Marilyn Ballie Award. Congrats all around.
One of several interesting articles from The Guardian: Maurice Sendak ‘I refuse to lie to children’. Yes, he always tells them where the wild things are. Turns out his His favorite story is Outside Over There. Mine too. Falling backwards is one of my many talents.
Really fascinating and disturbing. Loitering in Neverland: the strangeness of Peter Pan. Yes. It’s a strange story, about a strange boy, written by a strange man, co-opted by an even stranger man. Not one of my favourite stories for sure, but there is a very fetching edition of P.Pan with illustrations by Authur Rackham lurking about on my bookshelves. Kind of a palette cleanser. Via the Guardian.
From the superb Ptak~Fantastic, beautiful beach sculptures. That move. And walk. Brilliant. Also from Ptak’s History of Ideas blog: Pre-histories of famous things–the Cat of the Cat in the Hat. And one more~”a magnificence of badness’-worst album covers ever. I wholeheartedly agree.
Speaking of Seuss, from Mental Floss » 7 Curious Facts About 7 Dr. Seuss Books
Several interesting posts from Brainpicker ☞ MetaMaus – inside the making of Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer-winning comic that made history. Edward Gorey’s never-before-seen illustrated envelopes & letters. Lastly, seven seminal early cartoons from the dawn of cinema by filmmakers from New York.
Read an extract from Richard Dawkins’s new picture book for kids, which introduces science to the young and impressionable. Looks divine, which is no surprise as the illustrations are by the heavenly Dave McKean. Turns out, evolution is real. Who knew?
From Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast- the lost art of Peter Brown, Ed Emberley, etc. Very cool.
Philip Pullman’s own illustrations for the Northern Lights, otherwise known as His Dark Materials in North America. Stunning wood-cut like pictograms. Thanks to Play By the Book for this and many other links to interesting articles and posts.
