![]() ![]() “As I work through the picture, I add Wally when I come to what I feel is a good place to hide him” ( Scholastic). Each drawing takes the creator roughly 8 weeks to complete and he says that there’s no method behind where he puts Wally. Handford describes Wally as a global traveller and likes to imagine that he’s not the smartest person, which is how he ends up in so many hapless scenarios. For example in North America, he is known as Waldo and in Germany, he’s called Walter. The name of the lead character changes depending on the country. “As it turns out, the fans were more interested in the character than in the crowd scenes.” You can say that again! Wally’s peculiar features and characteristics are known globally, with versions of Where’s Wally available in over 37 different languages. The character was drawn in after the main crowd scenes and wasn’t originally the main reason for the drawings. He says “that’s who he is – an afterthought” ( Candlewick Press). This album cover is clearly the beginnings of the Where’s Wally concept!ĥ years later, Handford came up with the distinctive figure of Wally to provide his crowd scenes with context and a focal point. Can you spot them? "That's who he is - an afterthought" The core group forming the shape of an eye. He created a scene where a crowd of people responding to an assassination. The album’s lyrics explore the assassinations of the Kennedys and Handford took this as inspiration for his design. Handford’s first major work was the album cover for The Vapors album “ Magnets” (seen below). After finishing his degree he worked as an illustrator and specialised in crowd scenes. He worked for 3 years in an insurance office to pay for a college art degree from the University of creative arts. Whilst other children would go outside to play he would prefer to stay inside, use his imagination and draw ( Candlewick Press). He always enjoyed drawing when he was younger. He began drawing crowds of people from the age of 5, inspired by the toy soldiers he played with. Martin Handford is the illustrator behind the series. The game is surprisingly difficult and is a great way of keeping children quiet for a couple of hours! The goal is to find the bespectacled Wally, who wears a striped red and white jumper and is hidden in plain sight somewhere on the page. In case there’s anybody out there who doesn’t know what Where’s Wally is (we hope the rock you’ve been living under is lovely), it’s a series of children books showing a detailed drawing of a crowd. But why do we find it so engrossing? And how did Martin Handford, the creator, come up with the idea? For whatever reason, we could all be occupied for hours trying to find the elusive boy in a red and white striped jumper. One of everyone’s first and favourite puzzles when they were a child, were the iconic Where’s Wally books. ![]()
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