Have you heard of Shaun Tan? He’s a childrens’ book illustrator Australian dude. Among his activities is some Oscar-winning short film, which he said, he doesn’t care to repeat because he prefers working on illustrations for books. He won an international prize for children’s books illustrators that was worth about $750,000, but I don’t know that his work is children’s literature per se, not when he writes and paints about depression, despair, war, colonialism, etc. It’s not just his dark subject matter that makes me dig his work, but the surrealistic touches that reminds of Dali (who never struck me as depressed in his work) and de Chirico (definitely melancholy in his stuff.)
In particular, I recommend Tales from Outer Suburbia — check out the five-page story called “Broken Toys.” It got me unexpectedly and totally overclempt.
wow, his illustrations are gorgeous!
pretty cool, right? i would have guessed you’d like his stuff ed. his stories are pretty cool too