Author: Teresa S.

Anna Bond

Trained as a graphic designer, Anna Bond initially hesitated between following her passion in for illustration and a career in print design. She  end up soon discovering a lifelong love for stationery. She is the co-founder and CCO of the very successful Rifle Paper Co, which she started at the age of 23! If you check her portfolio  you will find a beautiful collection of notebooks, cards, patterns and hand-painted items. Using her vibrant patterns and colours, Anna Bond illustrated another amazing Alice’ book. Based on this colourfully upside-down Alice world, she created also a whole  fabric collection!

Deluxe hardcover edition from Puffin.  The completely unabridged book
features more than 70 full-colour illustrations, gold foil embellished
covers, and ornate endpaper designs. Published in October 2015.

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Justin Todd

Justin Todd  is a British historical illustrator that also contributed  with a lot of relevant work for children’s books. Of  note, he produced the early illustrations of ‘Penny Lane’ in the Beatles Song Book. In the 60’s, he was a tutor at the Brighton College of Art just like John Vernon Lord.Of  note, he produced the early illustrations of ‘Penny Lane’ in the Beatles Song Book. His artwork  is impressively detailed, and his Alice illustrations, which very  much resemble Alice Liddell, are certainly worth seeing. His work is conducted in a meticulous way, using extremely fine gouache painting, slowly covering his page in a detailed preplanned grid.

Published by Gollancz, 1984 (First edition hardback with dustjacket)

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Robi Dwi Antono

Part of a special Inky Parrot commemorative edition, Robi Dwi Antono illustrations are likely the most disturbing Alice interpretation ever published. Roby Dwi Antono is a young Indonesian surreal artist,  that creates an astonishing mix of  candid-terrifying figures, apparently deeply rooted on  Carroll´s Alice in the Wonderland. Robi Dwi, however, refers to his work as “heavily influenced by masters like Mark Ryden and Marion Peck”. A visit to Rosie’s Tea Party (Mark Ryden) or Marion Peck’s Animals exhibition easily confirms that.

Inky Parrot/Artists’ Choice Editions in the UK, in the “Mad Tea Party” chapter, 2015. (Only 340 standard copies printed, numbered and casebound and 56 Special copies, bound quarter leather with a folder containing four prints portraying Alice).

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Andrea D’Aquino

This is likely one of the most beautiful contemporary illustrations of Alice’s adventures. Celebrating the 150th anniversary of Carroll’s book, Andrea D’Aquino has retold the story with hundred of colorful astonishing  illustrations. As commented elsewhere  “D’ Aquino illustrative ramblings run the gamut from watercolor to collage to everything in between, and it’s perhaps because of this cataclysmic range that she was chosen to illustrate this fantastic tale”. 

Awarded by American Illustration 2016, D´Aquino said “It’s my favorite book, but by no means had I ever considered illustrating it” – however – “when I was asked to illustrate it, I didn’t hesitate for a second. I know a great opportunity when it hits me over the head!”

The result could’t have been better…

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“The Caterpillar, perhaps the most psychedelic, explodes in reds and purples.”

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Published as part of Rockport Publishers’ Classics Reimagined series (2015).

Alfred Edward Jackson

AE Jackson was born in 1873. He was an exceptional and awarded student at the Camden School of Art, at the age of 18 his work was already in exhibition at the Royal Academy.

He started is long career as an illustrator of well known magazines and comics, and only a few years later has he produced his unforgettable and bestseller versions of  Gulliver’s Travels (1914),  Alice’s Adventures  (1915), Tales From Shakespeare (1919), The Water Babies (1920), Tales from the Arabian Nights (1920) and Robinson Crusoe (1921).

His dazzling purples, pinks and muted blues gave live to an extraordinary Alice.

(first published by Hoddern and Stoughton and by Milford in 1915)

Charles Folkard

Charles Folkard was a gifted and highly productive illustrator of children’s books. His illustrations of  Pinocchio, the Children’s Shakespeare and Grimm’s Fairy Tales and the Arabian Nights are among some of his most notorious works. Folkard is also recognised for the Daily Mail cartoon strips The Adventures of Teddy Tail, which were later published as a series of books.

His Alice’s illustrations were first published  as Songs from Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass (A. & C. Black, 1921). Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland  using these same illustrations was only published in 1929 (also by A. & C. Black). Beautiful, as you can see…

Mervyn Peake

Mervyn Peake  was born in China (1911) from a missionary family. He moved to England in 1923 and entered the Royal Academy in 29. Through his career, crossed by World War II, he published  several novels and collections of poems valued also by  his own beautiful illustrations. In 1951 he won the Heinemann Prize for Literature for Gormenghast and The Glassblowers and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

When invited to illustrate other authors, Mervin Peake felt that by accepting the task he would have to  “subordinate totally to the book, and slide into another man’s soul”.

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His illustrated version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland uses a fine cross-hatching style and was first published by The Continental Book Company/Zephyr Press (Stockholm, 1946) an edition “not to be introduced into the British Empire or the USA“.

The UK version was published by Allan Wingate in 1954.

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Maria Louise Kirk

M.L. Kirk, as she usually signed her work, attended the Philadelphia School of Design for Women and  the Academy of Fine Arts also in Philadelphia. Award for her excellent work, she is known for her illustrations for children’s books.

Alice in Wonderland illustrated by Maria L. Kirk was first published by Stokes USA in 1904, thus previous to the 1907 boom.

Leonard Weisgard

Leonard Weisgard was a ward-winning illustrator of over 200 children’s books. “As a schoolboy, he was dissatisfied with the books supplied by the public schools he attended. He found the illustrations monotonous and thought that the world could not be all that dreary and limited to only one colour.” So he changed it! His books use a wide range of beautiful colours, creating a magic world…

His Alice version, often classified as “astonishingly”, is considered one of the 10 best ever produced. Is certainly one of my favourites!

Published by Harper and Brothers in 1949.

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