'The Story in the Picture': Illustrated Publishing

Posted on August 13, 2009 in Uncategorized

Considering that Elephant and Castle is widely regarded in London terms as a bit ‘out of the way’ for an after work mid-week meet up, ‘The Story in the picture’ drew a respectable audience of 40+ attendees. A mixture of SYP members, college students and staff, the attentive crowd met for a rare opportunity to gather wisdom from those oft-unsung and sometimes sidelined heroes of publishing – illustrators and their trade associates. Many spectators had notebooks at the ready, and rightly so. Illustration aficionados and novices alike took home valuable knowledge and advice from the event, which threw up some contentious issues, such as why are the British public so sleepy to respond to illustration/graphic novels when in Japan they are commonplace? Though it also enjoyed some moments of humour, most notably a discussion over why most female characters in graphic novels appear as characters straight out of teenage wet dreams.
Julius Weidemann (Taschen), a native Brazilian who has lived in Germany and Japan, opened the event with a quote that got people thinking:

‘While illustration is trying to convey a message, art is the message itself’.

Whether this means that illustration utilises art’s message to fulfil a higher purpose, or alternatively that art can speak for itself where illustrated literature which is annotated cannot, the evening got off to a strong start as the audience listened on rapt. Weidemann, whose most popular series include Web Design and Digital Beauties, went on to discuss the evolving influence that technology (and all its advances) have had on illustration. He said that in the 1990s, publishers were ‘empowered by technology as much as limited by it’, explaining that publications and illustrations were often propelled in different directions than originally intended as computers would shut unintentionally. This received an audible groan from the design-orientated audience, suggesting that Julius was not alone in this experience.

The excellently comicbook-villanesqueely-named Ilya Illkillya was a real highlight of the night, with many attendees discussing the points that he raised long after the event has finished. A comicbook writer and artist whose work has been published by Marvel, DC and Dark Horse, his discussion of Manga and debate of the term ‘graphic novel’, enlightened many an attendee. The originator of the comment mentioned above regarding female fantasy roles in most comic books (‘[Illustration shouldn’t be] just drawing girls with big eyes and blue hair showing their panties’), Illikillya won over the women in the audience from the get-go.  Also describing the term ‘graphic novel’ as ‘a slight misnomer too liberally applied’, he explained that a novel suggests a ‘profound and complex structure’, which many illustrated publications, including his own, generally possess, but that some comic books should definitely not fall into the bracket of, at the risk of devaluing both comics and graphic novels by mis-classification. Illkillya also took the audience on a quick-stop tour through his own eclectic backlist, ranging from his acclaimed Manga Shakespeare series to Skidmarks; a publication that he originally printed on A4 paper and stapled together, which was spotted and published as a graphic novel in its own right. Illkillya also drove home the point that the Japanese see illustrated books as a viable alternative to ‘straight-print’ books, and all newsagents in Japan and trains are packed with graphic novels which are considered a ‘quick read’ and are often left behind for the next person to pick up and read. Still considered very much a ‘niche’ industry in the UK, illustrated publishing is still seen by the industry as for ‘few’ rather than ‘all’ and Illkillya suggested that a more outward-looking attitude from industry professionals could change the future and increase the distribution of illustrated/graphic novels.

Deirdre McDermott (Walker), the only trade publisher on the panel, has worked with illustrators such as Allan Ahlberg and is obviously passionate about illustrated publishing, possessing a lot of enthusiasm and energy onstage. Describing her mission statement as to ‘bring together words and pictures’, McDermott started her career as a picture book designer but ‘now I’m a publisher but really I’m still a designer… and I’m a big mouth!’. She stated that despite possible preconceptions about illustrated publishing, it’s still ‘all about story…everything is about story’, and described picture books as ‘a place where personal feelings and pure emotions can be displayed’. Interestingly, she also emphasised the importance of ‘leaving space’ in picture books, so that images and text can be absorbed properly by a reader and do not crowd each other out to cause confusion.

McDermott also introduced Kevin Waldron, an illustrator from Dublin whose first picture book, Mr. Peek and the Misunderstanding at the Zoo, was published by Templar in May 2008 and was shortlisted for the ‘Read it Again’ Cambridge Children’s Picture Book Award. Spotted by Walker Books by his illustrations in the Guardian newspaper, Kevin described his method as ‘I fill up notebooks [with illustrations] and keep going and going and going’. Admitting that he personally ‘didn’t get much out of it’ when talking about his degree in MA in Illustration and Animation at Kingston University, Kevin has nonetheless gone on to win the award for ‘best new illustrated book’ at Bologna Bookfair. A prime example of grass-roots productivity leading to successful and publishable titles, Kevin was humble, quietly amusing and passionate about illustration. He proves that if you’re good and you get your work out to where people can see it, the opportunities should present themselves to you in due course as long as you’re ready to take them up – encouraging news for any aspiring illustrators and, indeed, writers.

A brief question and answer session followed the speakers’ presentations and expanded on a few of the points already discussed. The audience gave a hearty round of applause, before quietly mobbing the speakers to ask for their advice and to thank them for their presentations after the event.