Quentin Blake
Roald Dahl’s eccentric stories wouldn’t have ever worked without the magic hands of Quentin Blake. I honestly did not know much about him before this post and I wanted write a little bio in this little space. However, I think his personal history would take spotlight from what I wanted to feature which is his artistic work. Blake’s art as you see below is really quirky and lighthearted and is a perfect match for insanely wild children’s books like Dahl’s. It truly expresses the essence of the whole “funness” of being a kid.
It is indeed a wonderful site when you see authors and artists find themselves insynch in the whole creative process. Aside from Dahl and Blake, I can only think of great graphic novel partnerships at the moment such as Neil Gainman and Dave Mckean, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, and Warren Ellis and John Cassaday. Yet, I know there are more. I am having a mental block now so please help me remember by posting other great teams I left out.
As we end this post, let us leave with a brief quote from Quentin Blake on his collaboration with Dahl from his website http://www.quentinblake.com:
What was it like working with Roald Dahl?
To begin with, I was a bit nervous. He was quite a powerful figure. But we got on very well. He liked winding me up - only in the most harmless way. I often wore these white shoes, and he’d say ‘Here’s old Quent’ - no-one else ever calls me that - ‘here’s old Quent, he’s going out for dinner in his plimsolls!’
What was so nice about Roald was that he actually wanted the pictures - he didn’t like it if there weren’t enough. Not all authors are like that. We worked together for 15 years from 1975, until he died.