I've been busy today so I had to reprise an older article to stay on schedule. I hope nobody minds. I think you'll find the subject interesting:Before I begin this piece I want to apologize for ripping into kids book illustrator Lane Smith so hard in a previous post. I deliberately chose his least-appealing book so it wasn't a fair appraisal. Sorry Lane! Maybe I can make up for it by illustrating this new piece with the best book my local library had (above) by another artist, Mark Teague. It's a pretty appealing book, I admit, but I have to criticize it to make a larger point.
The point I want to make is that books of this type are trying to compete with comic books and they can't. In a comic book the picture of the two kids above would have rated a single panel on a single page. In Teague's big, expensive picture book, the kind that only has a few pages, it gets an entire two-page spread. All that for a picture of two kids talking on a porch? That seems odd to me.Kids picture books always give too much weight to minor events and too little to major events. There simply aren't enough pages to tell a good story correctly and the artist is burdened with the necessity of trying to make each page, no matter how trivial in content, an artistic masterpiece. Is that really what kids want?
Any one of these Carl Barks comic book panels (above) might have been a full-page illustration in a Mark Teague book, but all that elaboration would have gotten in the way of the story. My experience with my own kids is that kids definitely want stories, but the expensive illustrated books aren't geared for that. They're geared to deliver a simple artistic impression. Kids want stories but the expensive picture books we give them deliver objects of art instead.
Mark Teague is a really talented guy but he's working in a medium...thin illustrated kids books...that doesn't tell stories very well. I bought a couple of Teague books for my kids when they were still young, and all these years later I still have them. They're almost in mint condition. The hardcover Cochran Barks collection, on the other hand, is falling apart from my kids frequent reading. What does that tell you about what kids like to read?One last point: we all have favorite illustrated books that we actually did read often when we were kids. My admiration for those old illustrators knows no bound because they managed to entertain in such an uncongenial medium. I'm glad I had those books and the illustrators that created them deserve a lot of credit. Even so, it's my belief that really young kids would learn more and have more fun if the bulk of their illustrated reading favored cheap, well-done pulp comics rather than pricey illustrated books.
In spite of my apology to Lane Smith I did it again with Mark Teague! I ripped hin so bad that even his goldfish won't want to have anything to do with him. Aaaaarrrggghhh!!!! I really just wanted to talk about kids books in the abstract.
ReplyDeleteSomething about the internet makes people go for the jugular, and it looks like I'm no exception.
It's ok Eddie- I'll look the other way. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. When I was a kid, I rarely picked up a children's book because they were so boring. However, give me a stack of comic books, and I'd sit there for hours pouring over the pages. I read 'em until they were coverless, dog-eared and ragged!
ReplyDeleteMo Willems' books are pretty good on the story front. He's not afraid to use comic book style layouts on some of his pages (Don't Let the Pidgeon Drive the Bus, for example).
ReplyDeleteHe's skewed much younger, though.
JIm M. has hit it: the book you've referenced this time --and it's a crucial distinction IMHO--is for pre-readers, not kids anywhere near the age of a Carl Barks story--the average kid, anyway: 8-10 years old. I "read" Pogo when I was in kindergarten and younger; I could read at a very early age, but I didn't always read fully--with a Pogo I'd just enjoy the pictures, even thought the text is pretty important and heavy as well(and adult).
ReplyDeleteThat said, well...that's(your illo) not the most dynamic choice of a page illo I've ever seen, true. Again, though: imagine a parent reading this book at bedtime to a baby--an 18 mo. old, or at most a 2 year old...as seemingly static and time-wasting storywise as a page like this is: "and then he said "hi" to his new neighbor"--whatever--that often is just lovely and perfect for a toddler.
Given his reaction to the (deceptive) simplicity of P.D. Eastman, I have a sinking feeling Mo Willems ain't gonna be ringing Uncle Eddie's bell...go read them in the bookstore, Eddie, and see what you think. I think they're great fun.
----and....what was your proposed slant for a kids' book about? was it a picturebopok(32 pp)? Or an older-reader book, a la the "Freddy" series? I'd see you doing a take on Tom Swift, myself--that's be a hoot!
Kids picture books always give too much weight to minor events and too little to major events. There simply aren't enough pages to tell a story correctly and the artist is burdened with the necessity of trying to make each page, no matter how trivial in content, an artistic masterpiece.
ReplyDeleteThis was never a problem for Dr. Seuss. Does he count? A style like his puts life and interest into a subject that can be more interesting to contemplate than the story itself. As a kid I loved seuss because of the things his style said about the world --or some world. Somehwere in the universe, everything was shaggy, saggy, bent, droopy, and anachronistic... These are the things I keyed into. I could not completely wrap my head around it.
As a wee one, when I looked at art like this Teague, I expected something normal to happen to normal people in a normal place, and I got bored.
Maybe there's more stuff in it like the cover, which does get my attention. I hate the trees, though. Is the picture being consumed by bacteria?
Jenny: My kids preferred Carl Barks at a very early age: certainly by three or four and maybe even before that. They couldn't read it but just looked at the pictures over and over. Maybe when they were even youger they prefrerred Golden Books, I can't remember. We had a lot of Golden books but I had to hide the comics to get my kids to read them.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with the big, heavily art-directed illustrated books, is that they can only be appreciated by kids who are too old for illustrated books. A kid old enough to really enjoy Mark Teague is probably old enough to read (or try to read) Uncle Scrooge comics. Leave some old Scrooge comics in a pile next to some Teague books and see which ones kids actually prefer.
In spite of all this it seems pretty obvious that the best of the big art books have some value in a kids life. The problem is that these flagship, men-0-war, art-directors' books have set the tone for the whole of young kids publishing. I find it amazing that you can go to the kids section of the bookstore and not find stacks of comic books (modern kids comics suck but if the distribution improved so would the comics).
Mo Willems is too minimal for my taste but he's cheerful and fun so I can understand why people like him. I hate to open up a book and find mostly white space or a flat color area. Books like that should sell for less.
I would LOVE to do a Tom Swift-type book! Thanks for the idea!
Jorge: I saw Mike Barrier's article. Well, you can't please everybody!
ReplyDeleteMike wrote what I thought was an unflattering description of me a few weeks ago and I wrote a mildly angry letter back. Mike apologized but printed my letter in full, which made me look like a fool because the letter was so badly written. Having crossed swords with Mike and lost in the recent past I think I'll let this latest insult go unanswered.
Isn't it strange how Zeuss has organized the world? Things are set up so that everytime you rise up in righteous anger to verbally demolish someone you will invariably make a spelling or syntax error that'll undermine everything you say. Truly we are playthings of the gods!
"Isn't it strange how Zeuss has organized the world? Things are set up so that everytime you rise up in righteous anger to verbally demolish someone you will invariably make a spelling or syntax error that'll undermine everything you say. Truly we are playthings of the gods!"
ReplyDeleteBut it also makes our lives that much more hilarious! Who could tell a bteter story: a perfect, intelligent, average citizen, or Eddie Fitzgerald- I rest my case!
Kali: Thanks! And I'll use this occassion to announce to the whole world that I intend to punish Mike Barrier on this very site tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteI know I said I was going to let the insult pass but I changed my mind! A man has to stand up for himself!! Wrongs have been committed that cry out for justice!!! Mothers, don't let your children see the next post! IT'S GOING TO BE GRUESOME!!!!!!!!!!!
Hooray for Eddie! Hip hip Hooray!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to read the verbal justice!
Off topic:
What do you think of Faust?
Thanks for posting a few good words about Carl Barks.
ReplyDeleteHis art, at first glance, Looks soo simple.
But if you look at the context of the Art and story together, he is brilliant.
Eddie , it's funny, when I was in Europe I was surprised to go into comic shops and finding people of all ages in there! Kids, adults and the elderly!
It's almost like comic books are on the same level as serious books as well as Childrens books over there.
Thanks for the great post!
By the way, have you ever read Asterix?
Oh dear....Eddie, nowhere did I read your name in conjunction with those remarks about commentaries. I'd let it go. It doesn't make you a wimp-why make it plain (and also public) that you think you are the object of some parodic writing on someone else's blog?
ReplyDeletebut if you simply must, then write something and save it as a draft, don't post it right away. I'll bet you that after a couple of days you'll delete it and be glad to. I've done that. Remember! once published nothing ever goes away on the internet. It's indeed insidious.
To change the subject--remember Kovacs' Tom Swift parody? I think he just called it "Tom Swift", too, didn't even biother to change the name. That genre and starting point is definitely right up your alley. Do it!
In my opinion some things just need huge rich colorful and/or detailed images and aren't always done justice by comics. I wish I could remember the titles, but I remember my mom reading books to me when I was 4 and it just seemed like so much was going on. They probably work best when you're being read to or are reading them with a group. And when you've got incredibly absurd things going on, like in "If I Ran The Circus" by Dr. Seuss.
ReplyDeleteOn the other end of the spectrum Jack Cole's Plastic Man comics have ten thousand amazing things going on in every panel. If you took random frames from that and made a kids-style book out of them I think it would work.
Jenny: Thanks for the kind words but this encounter is inevitable. I've been training all summer and my coach thinks I'm ready for it. the whole dojo's going to turn out! I just want to thank my mother for having faith in me and my personal trainer for sticking with me! My message to Mike Barrier: "Carne con Chile, gringo! Bring it on!!!!"
ReplyDeleteOn another topic, can you tell me more about the Kovaks parody? I never saw it.
Kali: Faust!? I know a great Faust story! I haven't got time to tell it here but remind me later and I'll make a blog out of it!
Hi uncle eddie Cheer up and go see a animated music video i made for a local elecrtonical artist named Alesis Doppler , here ya go
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFpYdpB-TuI
"can you tell me more about the Kovacs parody? I never saw it."
ReplyDeleteI actually made you a copy of the Swift skit on a casette so somewhere in your Xanadu you have it still, if you didn't toss it. It's from the out-of-print LP "The Ernie Kovacs Show".
It was called "Tom Swift at the Feetsball Game". The audio portion of an early EK TV show, which clearly had him reading aloud to the audience(God, what fantastic TV only Kovacs would dare to do). It started out: "Fate has a curious way of paying her debts, as Tom Swift found out..."etc.--a wholesale parody of the 1920s-style Tom Swift books that Ernie grew up reading. The versions I read were my brothers and were published in the 60s, so they were somewhat updated--somewhat.
That record also contained two Percy Dovetonsils poems, taken from a studio recording EK did for a never-produced record, "poems for lovers" or something like that--wouldn't that have been just the living end?? He had to get himself killed and spoil it all.
Don't you remember that tape?
Eddie,
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about it. I bet you'd be a cool guy to watch cartoons with. And Mike shouldn't worry either, I'm sure most cartoon fans can't stand him just as much as he can't stand them.
- Thad
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ReplyDeleteI love your blog.
ReplyDeleteIt is the best animation related blog because it is about your perspective, not just some hearsay history gleaned from a book with youtube links.
I have to disagree with you though about your picture book assesment. You're comparing two different media. Picture books imo should be big and bright. They are largely for kids from infant to 7. A child should be able to stare for a time at an illustration, point, discuss and find pictures within the pictures. But like any classic medium, the good ones can be appreciated by adults. Praobaly after 7 years old, our kids won't be as interested in the PB.
I can't help but think, Eddie, you've been looking at the picture books as a leica reel.
What if you saw it as fine art with a narrative?
Now a fair comparison would be old comic books to new comic books.
I often bitch about how when I was kid and how now, instead of 9 to 12 panels per page with dialogue and action it's like 6 panels, in a collage like layout with action and little dialogue. Takes me 3 minutes to me.
I agree, nothing compares to Barks.
Man, am i hooked on your theories Blog! I just can't read enough of them and digesting them all is like being sat down in front of a buffet of your favorite foods and being handed a fork. Where do you start and what to do you want to taste first?
ReplyDeleteI cannot believe that I didn't know about it sooner!
Some Guy: Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWhat are your thoughts on Stephen Gammell's illustrations for Alvin Schwartz' "Scary Stores to Tell in the Dark" series?
ReplyDeleteVoodoo: I bought a couple of the "Dark" books, as much for myself as for my kids.
ReplyDelete