Ladybird Tuesday: William Tell

Ladybird Tuesday again - as I've said, I like both the illustrations and the philosophy - cheap yet generally good quality books available to the masses. It's quite nice to see a recent surge in interest of these books, even if they're a wee bit flawed.

Mention the name William Tell and the two things you'll likely think of are the overture by Rossini or the image of a man being forced to shoot an arrow through an apple on his son's head. However, the story of William Tell is essentially the Swiss answer to Robin Hood, a folk legend of how the Swiss people, led by folk-hero and bowman Tell, rebelled against their Austrian occupiers and came to form what became Switzerland. Indeed, the apple incident occurred after Tell refused to bow to a despot Austria governor's demand to bow to the governor's hat atop a pole in a village square. As a do-or-die punishment, Tell has to shoot an apple off his own son's head, and as a good bowman manages to save his son's life as well as his own.

Sandwich Bullying

As we all know that triangle-cut sandwiches look better - and somehow magically seem to taste better - than rectangle-cut sandwiches...

Ladybird Tuesday: Gulliver's Travels

I haven't done one of these Ladybird Tuesday things for some time, so I thought I'd have another go. On a recent trip to an antiquarian book shop, I came across some older Ladybird books from the 1970s. Given how cheap they were (under £3), I picked up a couple, including this one, an adaptation of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels dated from 1976. Flicking through the pages, I vaguely remember this book from when I was younger but it didn't have the same cover. On the back it is listed as being part of Series 770 (I wonder why a publish would label and market each of their series with a number, but anyway...). According to a quick bit of research is a series of retellings of classics, legends and fables. I like the cover of this book - a nice break from the now clichéd image of Gulliver being tied down by the Lilliputian army.

Literary Inspirations: Part One - Childhood

This past weekend, I saw an article on The Guardian website where major authors listed the books that influenced them the most as children and young adults. I'm definitely more an artist than an author, and I go through phases of reading lots to reading little (at least in the sense of traditional books, that is). However, I thought it would be fun to have a go at listing the literary works that have had an impact on me. Even though I had to divide it into two parts, it still isn't exhaustive.

Throwback Thursday: Devils

Two distinct takes on the Prince of Darkness I created in 2012. Pure evil is attractive, but to quote Into the Woods: "though scary is exciting, nice is different than good."

Der Teufel (gouache)

Jimmy, or The Façade (pen and ink/watercolour)

Chicken Licken - A Beloved Tale for Election Day

Here's a little thing I cooked up for today's election, based on the old story of Chicken Licken. On Election Day, let's make one thing clear - you make your own decisions, so make sure it's not a stupid one.