I know Quentin Blake’s illustrations; they were in Mad Magazine. No, they were in some other, more trendy and mature magazine that I can’t remember. Blake’s drawings resonate with audiences for those reasons and more. They have the friendly and affable demeanor of something whimsical and appealing to children, yet operating at a higher, more complex level too. Quentin Blake’s Fantastic Journeys lives somewhere between the world of wordless book, cartoon book, sketches for a Redbull commercial, Sergio Aragones compilation and illustrations from a Roald Dahl book that you forgot the name of.
Quentin Blake’s Fantastic Journeys Fanciful Drawings & Surprising Situations is all of those things, except for the Aragones compilation and the drink campaign. Blake’s illustrations have a steampunk look about them. They have a loose, cartoon vibe, but also a rogue, outsider appearance that lets readers know that everything is intentional, yet appears random and haphazard.
Readers of all ages will recognize his style from any of the 18 Roald Dahl books that he’s illustrated. Those book covers, when looking at the bigger picture of his creativity, acted as a regulator on his vision in two ways. In Fantastic Journeys the pages are physically larger, which gives his 2d drawings more space to move. His illustrations show chefs tripping with six-layer cakes, a beach house with a helicopter blade on its roof, hovering over the ocean with people diving into the water and others climbing up the ladder, naturalists drawing animals and other seemingly disparate topics.
Fantastic Journeys is broken up into different topics whose only connections are that Blake created them. Deliveries from Elsewhere shows deliveries from far-off places that are in transit. The illustrations are ironic in many cases, or simply strange and otherworldly. A six-legged, lizard beast is descending from a jagged mountain cliff with a rider on its back and a birthday card in its mouth. The title of this piece is Birthday Card. A man is riding his bicycle while towing a wagon full of wool, and a flock of birds are actively flying off with a strand of his product. A grandmother is seated in a carriage that’s being pulled by a man on a scooter. The path that they’re travelling has vertigo-inducing drops and the two don’t appear to have a care in the world.
These pictures, as well as, the others in Fantastic Journeys, makes you want to know more about what’s happening in them. Blake’s cover art on Dahl’s books made you curious about the words that were written. His illustrations, when presented in a book devoted to them, makes your mind wander as to what they’re back story is. Why is the man reading a book to a pelican while standing in the Indian Ocean?
The art is fun to look at and provides your mind with a sense of absurd whimsy. Is that a witch on a skateboard? What does a sundial do in the rain when a person is trying to set their watch to it? Quentin Blake’s Fantastic Journeys is not your typical book. It’s an art book, whose target audience knows him best for the covers to classic children’s literature. Its whimsy, I detest using that word, but it’s so accurate I this instance is infectious and gives smiles to everyone who thumbs through it. Do kids want to read an art book, if that’s even the most accurate category for Fantastic Journeys?
Let’s rephrase the query, do kids want to look at the book? It’s certainly kid-friendly. Middle schoolers will recognize the art from Dahl’s books and probably be surprised to some degree when there aren’t any words inside. People of any age will open the book and be bemused by the art. They’re more than illustrations; it’s art that looks deceivingly simple.
Kids, as well as, adult readers who open Fantastic Journeys will thumb through the book page after page. The potato chip and cat video test is strong with this one. Quentin Blake’s Fantastic Journeys Fanciful Drawings & Surprising Situations will end up on your forever bookshelf. Guests to your home library will ask about it. They’ll say that it looks like the cover to a Roald Dahl book they’ve since forgotten. If they’re a younger reader then they’ll curl up in a corner and learn to love to look at a book.
Quentin Blake’s Fantastic Journeys Fanciful Drawings & Surprising Situations is by Quentin Blake and available on Candlewick Studio, an imprint of Candlewick Press.
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