Quenting Blake

A modern British illustrator whose distinct style is well known, especially for his work in children's literature....

http://www.quentinblake.com/en/

Ben Shahn

Art, as I saw it one day when I helped hang a National Academy show while I was a student there, was about cows. In those days, early in the twenties, there were many cow paintings. More than that, the cows always stood knee-deep in purple shadows. For the life of me I never learned to see purple where there was no purple -- and I detested cows. I was frankly distressed at the prospects for me as an artist. But there came a time when I stopped painting, stopped in order to evaluate all these doubts. If I couldn't see purple where there was no purple--I wouldn't use it. If I didn't like cows, I wouldn't paint them. What then was I to paint? Slowly I found that I must paint those things that were meaningful to me--that I could honestly paint in the shapes and colors I felt belonged to them. What shall I paint? Stories.

Ben Shahn (1898–1969) was a painter, muralist, print-maker, and illustrator. He was best known for his socially and politically informed artwork. He illustrated numerous books of poetry. Ounce Dice Trice is the only book he illustrated that was written specifically for children. Ben Shahn illustrates this notebook of fabulous words: heavy words, squishy words, made up words, names for cats, whales, and houses. Says the author: “All the words here are meant to be said aloud, over and over, for your own delight.” 
http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/childrens/ounce-dice-trice/

Other works....
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Ben_Shahn.aspx

Walter de la Mare

Walter de la Mere (1873-1956) was an English poet, short story writer and novelist, probably best remembered for his works for children and the poem "The Listeners".

Some of his work online;

http://www.readbookonline.net/books/De%20la%20Mare/389/

Bibliography of His Books for Children (Poetry):

_Songs of Childhood._ London 1902.

_A Child's Day: a Book of Rhymes to Pictures by C. W. Cadby._ London 1912.

_Peacock Pie: a Book of Rhymes._ London 1913.

_Down-adown-derry: a Book of Fairy Poems._ London 1922.

_Stuff and Nonsense._ London 1927.

_Poems for Children._ London [1930].

_This Year, Next Year._ London 1937.

'As a revelation of the wonders of the English language, de la Mare's poems for children are quite unrivalled.'                                                                                                                                                                                      W. H. Auden

Silver

Slowly, silently, now the moon Walks the night in her silver shoon; This way, and that, she peers, and sees Silver fruit upon silver trees; One by one the casements catch Her beams beneath the silvery thatch; Couched in his kennel, like a log, With paws of silver sleeps the dog; From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep Of doves in silver feathered sleep A harvest mouse goes scampering by, With silver claws, and silver eye; And moveless fish in the water gleam, By silver reeds in a silver stream.

Edward Lear

Engines of Enchantment: The Machines and Cartoons of Rowland Emett

 Bibliography;
http://www.marchhousebooks.com/?page=shop/disp&pid=page_Emet&CLSN_1948
An interesting video about his work;
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/cartoonist-at-home

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/cartoonist-at-home

Heath Robinson

 Heath Robinson (1872-1944) was an English cartoonist and illustrator, best known for the complicated and outlandish inventions he portrayed. 'The Sketch' and 'The Tatler' regularly published his work and his cartoons of crazy inventions soon captured the public imagination. Essentially he was caricaturing the age of the machine and the self-importance of some of the people caught up in that age - creating complex inventions that achieved absurdly simple results, while the audience looked on solemnly.
 http://heathrobinson.org/exhibition/index.htm

Edward Gorey

 American writer, illustrator, and designer, noted for his arch humour and gothic sensibility. Gorey drew a pen-and-ink world of beady-eyed, blank-faced individuals whose dignified Edwardian demeanour is undercut by silly and often macabre events. His nonsense rhymes recall those of Edward Lear, and his mock-Victorian prose delights readers with its ludicrous fustiness.He was an author of many books that often have the appearance of children's stories, but are usually much more ominous, even sinister, and yet oddly humorous. Gorey produced three books, which collect in total more than three dozen individual books: 'Amphigorey', 'Amphigorey too' and 'Amphigorey also'. Gorey was on the dark side of the comics form for close to five decades. His name has become synonymous with an approach to cartooning that is both cerebral and disquieting.

 

RENE ALMANZA . SEIZE Galerie

"For his solo show at Seize Galerie in Marseille -second part of his first European tour produced by Suben- Rene Almanza made and outstanding collection of Indian ink drawings on big size cotton papers produced while in Barcelona, accompanied by medium size lithographs.
Once again Rene Almanza shows us why he is becoming one of today’s references to the new Mexican art scene..."
http://www.subenysuben.com/blog/rene-almanza-seize-galerie-available-artworks-2/

Virginia Verran

http://www.virginiaverran.com

Maa ike Ann Stevens

http://www.maaikestevens.net

Sirinivas Surti

http://www.srinivassurti.net/centrefold_1.html

Jane Kilford

http://www.janekilford.com/jane_kilford_projects.htm

Southern Cross: A Novel of the South Seas by Laurence Hyde

Southern Cross: A Novel of the South Seas is a stunning wordless novel told in 118 wood engravings about the atomic bomb testing performed by the United States in the South Pacific following World War II. This new hardcover edition is a facsimile of the original edition, published in 1951. Laurence Hyde was infuriated with the United States' continued testing in the Bikini Atoll, following the mass destruction and unthinkable horrors resulting from the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Hyde's graphic novel involves a Polynesian island and the islanders' idyllic and secure life that is forever lost after American sailors arrive and evacuate the islanders from their homes. During the evacuation, a fisherman kills a sailor who attempts to rape his wife. The couple flees with their child into the jungle to avoid capture. After the other islanders have evacuated, the Americans detonate an atom bomb on the ocean floor. The island receives the brunt of the bomb's destructive force, which annihilates all flora and fauna. The fisherman and his family are subjected to horrific suffering and pain before dying from the resulting blast and radiation.

Southern Cross includes the original introduction by Rockwell Kent and two essays by Hyde in which he provides the idea for his book, a detailed description of the process of wood engraving, and a short history of the woodcut novel. A new introduction is provided by the woodcut novel historian David A. Beronä.

Flood: A Novel in Pictures by Eric Drooker

"A complex, dream-charged vision of alienation in the wet, mean streets of New York City, where primal, natural urges are suppressed in the lonely isolation of crowds. It's a picture of a soulless civilization headed toward the apocalypse. It's a poetic and lyrical novel--told virtually without words . . . Mr. Drooker has discovered the magic of pulling light and life out of an inky sea of darkness." --Art Spiegelman, The New York Times Book Review

Destiny, a novel in pictures by Otto Nuckles

Nückel's wordless graphic novel tells its socially charged story through 188 stark, arresting images. Open to endless interpretations, the tragic, often violent, story of a young girl unfolds through 17 chapters: Childhood, The Father, Service, Love, Vengeance, The Seducer, and others.

Peter kouper on Kafka

Here are two of artist Peter Kuper's graphic novels that illustrate some of the works of Franz Kafka (renowned Czech author ). The fist one give it up is a collection of illustrated short stories and the second one an illustrated version of Kafka's The Metamorphosis. I think its his use of positive/ negative space and light that make these illustrations so striking.

Graphic Witness: Four Wordless Graphic Novels by Frans Masereel, Lynd Ward, Giacomo Patri and Laurence Hyde

Graphic Witness features rare wordless novels by four great 20th-century woodcut artists European and North American. The stories they tell reflect the political and social issues of their times as well as the broader issues that are still relevant today. Its includes the first reprint of his classic work, The Passion of a Man, since its 1918 publication in Munich. American Lynd Ward (), author of the provocative Wild Pilgrimage, is considered among the most important of wordless novelists. Giacomo Patri (1898-1978) was born in Italy and lived in the United States. His White Collar featured an introduction by Rockwell Kent and was used a promotional piece by the labor movement. Southern Cross by Canadian Laurence Hyde (1914-87) was controversial for its criticism of U.S. H-bomb testing in the South Pacific. An introduction by George A. Walker places each wordless novel in its context and examines the influence of these works on contemporary culture, including film, comic books and contemporary graphic novels.

Sshhh! by Jason

Jason's first full-length work is an intriguing suite of silent short stories starring one of his trademark bird characters that ends up chronicling a life well lived.

THE MISSING

 Andrew O’Hagan’s first book, The Missing, was a non-fiction work about absence – people who vanish without trace, people who die and are not mourned, people who lose their place in history because their lives are too insignificant to be recorded.
In order to turn this journalistic enterprise into a play for the National Theatre of Scotland, the director John Tiffany and O’Hagan, as adaptor of his own work, have put the reporter centre-stage, in the gauchely questing shape of Joe McFadden, who barges around asking questions, attempting to put the missing on the map.

Passionate Journey: A Vision in Woodcuts

Frans Masereel was one of the greatest woodcut artists of the 20th century. This graphic novel is considered his masterpiece. A novel in pictures, we follow our hero from the first bustling frame to the last haunting image and discover a spirit in quest, existing in a world of good and evil, love and heartbreak. Includes a wonderful introduction by Thomas Mann.