Made By You: Call for Submissions!
Stella, age 5. "A made-up animal" with polka dots and a bow on its head.
We at ILLUSTORIA love kid-art! And we're pretty sure that chances are you do too. There's nothing like the pure joy, fantastical imaginations and uninhibited creativity found in kids. As the master painter Picasso once said, "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child." Ahh, to think and create like a child again!
Our MADE BY YOU gallery page showcases kids' artwork in the form of drawings, collages, comics, paintings, pencil sketches, calligraphy, poetry, crafts...you name it! As grownups to creative kids, everyday we find inspiration in the beauty, silliness, simplicity, complexity, irreverence and unfiltered aliveness of the creative expression of kids. Here is a place to show off those images and to share a bit of the love and fun.
We welcome you to contribute to this shared gallery space for a collective, daily dose of joy and inspiration. What are your creative kids up to? What's on their minds and being made with their hands today? We would be thrilled to see. Please send contributions to madebyme@illustoria.com and we'll share them here...or for a chance to see it in our print magazine.
Who We Are: Elizabeth Haidle
Name:
Me & Eli
Location:
Portland, OR
Profession:
Freelance artist & musical saw player (& Creative Director of ILLUSTORIA)
Favorite artist/illustrator:
recent discovery: Nathaniel Russell; also Jillian Tamaki, Brecht Evens, Emily Carroll
Best book you've read in the past year:
Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe, by Yumi Sakugawa
Kids’ book you could read every night:
What Was I Afraid Of? by Dr. Suess
Best memory of being a kid:
Dressing up as a ham sandwich for Halloween, made with scraps I scrounged from my dad's studio. My head stuck out of a bite mark at the top. I had a little trouble climbing on the bus & standing during the ride to school, but it was worth it. Absolutely zero other people were a ham sandwich that year.
Favorite weekend activity:
3-course breakfasts. Also anything involving a hammock.
Song currently on repeat:
"The Very Thought of You," by Billie Holliday; I just know everything's gonna be alright when Billie sings.
Favorite meal:
Last time you made something with your hands:
Accordian fold mini book entitled: 'Inner Donkey'
Patterned postcards using eraser chunks as stamps
Fun fact about you:
I'm terrible at wrestling and my son always wants to, so I made up my own moves. One is called 'Cheek Pin', where you press the other person down by smushing your cheek really hard against theirs. Also they are maybe paralyzed by laughter, which helps. Another is called 'Cashmere Head Clamp' and requires one to be wearing a cashmere robe. Which I wear often.
Andrew Bird's First Instrument
Photo: Merlijn Torensma
We are thrilled to be featuring singer Andrew Bird in issue 1 of ILLUSTORIA! Singer, songwriter, musician and master whistler, Andrew shares with readers how he began playing the violin at age 4. From the process of learning alongside his mom to becoming a father and uncovering how to guide his own son, Andrew's contribution is a must-read for music lovers and creative thinkers of all ages.
illustration by Leela Corman
Who We Are: Hannah deBree
Name:
Hannah deBree
Location:
Oakland, California
Profession:
Mom of Stella and Djuna, and Director of Marketing + Social Media for Illustoria
illustration by Agnes Lee
Name:
Hannah deBree
Location:
Oakland, California
Profession:
Mom of Stella and Djuna, and Director of Marketing + Social Media for ILLUSTORIA
Favorite artist/illustrator:
I love the installations and artist books of Christian Boltanski, Sophie Calle, and Ann Hamilton. I'm also a big fan of Kambui Olujimi's work; he's a friend and an amazing and prolific artist. One of my favorite illustrators is Adrian Tomine.
Best book you've read in the past year:
Another hard question… I can never pick just one. A few favorites from the past year were My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard, The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson, and A Manual for Cleaning Women, stories by Lucia Berlin.
Kids book you could read every night:
Zachariah OHora’s No Fits, Nilson! It’s a quick and fun read. OHora is another favorite illustrator.
Best memory of being a kid:
Some of my favorite memories are from a trip my family took to Europe when I was eight: swimming in the Aegean and lounging on the black sand beaches of Santorini, eating endless gelato in Florence, riding the tube in London. I loved it all.
Favorite weekend activity:
Going to the farmer’s market with my husband and kids. We see friends and family. We buy fresh produce. We listen to music. It’s great.
Song currently on repeat:
It’s not new, but I keep going back to this live version of Julian Casablancas singing “I’ll Try Anything Once.”
Favorite meal:
Sushi. Ramen. Tacos. Pizza from Boot and Shoe Service. The pork chop from Wood Tavern. Any of the salad options at Penrose. Steak. I have so many favorites.
Silly monster by Stella
Last time you made something with your hands:
I drew silly monsters with my daughter yesterday, and made vegetable soup last night for dinner.
Silly monster by Hannah
Fun fact about you:
I started playing the cello at age 4 1/2.
Hannah playing the cello, age 5
A Sneak Peek at ILLUSTORIA
illustration by Agnes Lee
Talented artist Agnes Lee not only illustrated the team portraits gracing our About page, but she developed a mini-world-within-a-world for ILLUSTORIA. You'll see our roots in Oakland and some fantastical landscapes that are pure delight. Agnes' mini-world will appear in Issue 1 as a large-format b&w coloring spread.
Who We Are: Joanne Chan
illustration by Agnes Lee
Name: Joanne Chan
Location: Berkeley, CA / hometown: Oakland, CA
Profession: Mom of Sonia & Marcas and publisher of ILLUSTORIA
Happy Together: Marcas, Mark, me, Sonia
Favorite artist/illustrator: Pina Bausch and Hayao Miyazaki
Best book you’ve read in the past year: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Kids’ book you could read every night: Spider & the Fly by Tony DiTerlizzi (because we really do), Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing by Judi Barrett & Ron Barrett, Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown.
Best memory of being a kid: shaking the blossoms off our plum tree and pretending it was snowing in Oakland; generally being out in the backyard and helping my dad water the garden, picking and eating apples, plums, mandarins, loquats and the sweetest cherry tomatoes on earth…catching butterflies and, sad to admit, putting them in jars to admire.
Favorite weekend activity: making granola and watching the kids play pirate-Harry Potter in the yard (a trip to the art museum at some point is a plus)
Marcas as pirate-Harry Potter with Dumbledore's staff
Song currently on repeat: Three White Horses by Andrew Bird (at home) and Piggies by The Beatles (in the car)
Favorite meal: any pasta dish made by Mark shared with family and friends, darkest chocolate and mint tisane for dessert
Last time you made something with your hands: lavender satchel necklace + denim tote bag + pencil case for Sonia’s 10th birthday
Birthday lunch note
Fun fact about you: I once choreographed and danced in a duet (with my dearest friend) in an abandoned subway tunnel in Brooklyn.
What I Did Before I Moved to ILLUSTORIA
Image by Matt Madden
So, one day you wake up and realize you've been editing comics for almost a quarter century. It's unclear how that happened, but it can happen.
As we get going here at ILLUSTORIA its founder, Joanne, asked me, as the magazine's Editor-at-Large, to talk a bit about where I’m coming from. Way back in 1992 I was a very junior editor at a music magazine called Pulse!, which was published by Tower Records, based in West Sacramento, California. I'd moved to Sacramento from Brooklyn shortly after college to take the job. My main role at Pulse! was editing and writing non-fiction coverage about music and musicians. I also edited the letters page.
One issue, in 1992, I introduced a small illustration by a local young comics artist, then still in high school, to the letters page. Much of our letters section was dedicated to people sending in lists of their “Desert Island Discs” — those are the 10 albums they'd want with them if they were stuck alone in the middle of the ocean. This is before MP3s and streaming, and before the advent of the Internet browser for that matter. That all kinda makes me feel old, but when you're working on a magazine for kids, as we are here at ILLUSTORIA, a sizable age gap comes with the territory.
An early comic from Pulse! magazine by Adrian Tomine, from 1992
That young cartoonist, Adrian Tomine, turned his illustrations into a monthly strip for Pulse!, a strip he maintained after graduating from high school to attend college. Around the same time, Justin Green, a couple generations Tomine's senior, began a musical strip of his own in the magazine. Titled Musical Legends, it was a trip down Memory Lane, and roads further still off the beaten path.
Other comics joined the work of Adrian and Justin. The back page of the magazine was given over to additional monthly comics I edited. The first was by Peter Kuper, and a host of fine talent followed in his wake. I'm proud that it included early (and early-ish) work by Frank Santoro, Jason Lutes, Barry McGee, Ellen Forney, John Porcellino, Jorge Colombo (perhaps best known these days, like Adrian, for his New Yorker covers), Jessica Abel, Tom Hart (author of the recent heartbreaking memoir Rosalie Lightning), Brian Biggs (who these days is drawing many books for kids, including the Frank Einstein series written by Jon Scieszka), Ed Brubaker (a writer who no longer draws, and whose Winter Soldier storyline informed the new Captain America movies), Tony Mostrom (who did all the portraits for those two Paramount Records box sets that Jack White put together), Brian Ralph, Leela Corman, Megan Kelso, Matt Madden (that image up top is from a comic he did for Pulse! back in 1999), and many others. Some already-accomplished artists also participated — including P. Craig Russell (of Elric, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, and so many other comics), Archie's Dan DeCarlo (he drew an actual Josie and the Pussycats story for us), as well as Carol Swain, Chris Ware, Carol Tyler, R. Sikoryak, Bob Armstrong, and Gary Panter among them. (There's a nearly complete list at my website, disquiet.com, if you're interested.)
A back-page comic by R. Sikoryak for Pulse! magazine, from 2001.
Writing about music, crafting stories about music (and occasionally movies), was my job at Tower Records, and the comics I edited were a means to accomplish that job in a creative way. Sometimes the comics (that’s “comics” broadly defined — some were abstract visual works with barely a hint of narrative) were themselves by musicians, including Marcellus Hall, Damon Krukowski, Naomi Yang, and Jack Logan.
Later on I ended up working in comics unto themselves, as Editor-in-Chief of the U.S. edition of the most popular manga magazine in Japan, Shonen Jump, where I had the honor of working closely with editors at the Japanese publication, and getting to meet and interview many of the magazine's greatest talents, including Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball), Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto), and Eiichiro Oda (One Piece). I learned a lot during my time on Shonen Jump, about cultural differences, national literatures, long-term narrative continuity, facial expressiveness, and depicting action. It was a tremendous time.
A cover of the U.S. edition of Shonen Jump magazine, from 2010
I've edited other comics projects along the way, including a four-part series for Red Bull Music Academy that involved light touches of animation, and that allowed me to engage with a talented Japanese manga editor and a pair of manga-ka (that's Japanese for "manga creator"). These included the story of MF Doom seen as a superhero comic, from writer Gabe Soria and illustrator Dean Haspiel; a childhood incident of DJ Krush’s, as drawn by Haruhisa Nakata; how Damo Suzuki met the band can, as told by illustrator Connor Willumsen and writer Zack Soto; and a profile of Japanese synthesizer legend Isao Tomita by writer Jordan Ferguson and illustrator Yuko Ichijo.
And I had a kid of my own, which is why I was, as a relatively new parent, doubly excited when Joanne invited me to be a citizen of ILLUSTORIA, which I like to think of as a diverse and sprawling city-state built out of comics and other illustrated stories: whether you draw or write or read, you're a full-fledged member of society here. I love Joanne’s sense of comics as a subset of what we're usefully thinking of as “visual storytelling.” As I write this little blog post we're working on the finishing touches of our first issue. I'm getting to assign work to some people I worked with decades ago, some that I've wanted to work with for decades, and some who are fairly new to comics, or at least new to me. In some cases we’re commissioning comics and other art by people who already draw for kids, and in others — and this is especially of interest to me — we’re reaching out to people whose work we admire and wondering if maybe they’d like to consider a kid as their audience, perhaps for the first time.
Anyhow, that’s what I was up to before I became a citizen of ILLUSTORIA, and what I’m up to now. We hope you’ll join us. And if you need to reach me, I’m at marc@illustoria.com.
Lark Pien Sketches Before Building
These are rough initial character studies for a four-page, full-color piece that Lark Pien did for the debut issue of Illustoria. She loved the idea of sharing this in advance of the magazine's publication because, as she put it via email, "the thumbnails inform people on the process of design and making comics." Her four-pager is titled "Dream Before Building."
These are rough initial character studies for a four-page, full-color piece that Lark Pien did for the debut issue of ILLUSTORIA. She loved the idea of sharing this in advance of the magazine's publication because, as she put it via email, "the thumbnails inform people on the process of design and making comics." Her four-pager is titled "Dream Before Building."
A Good Children's Story
We at ILLUSTORIA couldn't agree more with the message of this quote. Our aim is to gather stories, art, comics, and interviews that can be enjoyed by kids and the young at heart.
This lovely illustration is by the talented Elizabeth Haidle, our resident artiste extraordinaire. Visit her at ehaidle.com.
We at ILLUSTORIA couldn't agree more with the message of this quote. Our aim is to share stories, art, comics, interviews, book reviews, music playlists, and activities that can be equally enjoyed by kids and the young at heart.
This lovely illustration is by the talented Elizabeth Haidle, our extraordinary creative director. Visit her at ehaidle.com.
The ILLUSTORIA Story
Hello and welcome to Illustoria, a place for visual storytelling and DIY culture. Two years ago when I was a children’s book editor at Lucasfilm working among some of the most amazing storytellers in film, television, comics and books, I had a vision for a new type of magazine for kids—one that would celebrate stories, art and creativity. A magazine that, like any good book for children, could be equally enjoyed by grownups.
Handmade book by Marcas, age 6
Welcome to ILLUSTORIA, a place for visual storytelling and DIY culture. We commission and celebrate the works of established and up-and-coming artists, writers and makers. Our commitment is to providing a high-quality print magazine that inspires and delights creative kids & their grownups through original stories, art, interviews and activities. This is the origins of our story:
Two years ago when I was a children’s book editor at Lucasfilm, I had a vision for a new type of magazine for kids—one that would showcase stories and art while giving readers insight into the creative process. A magazine that, like any good book or entertainment for children, could be equally enjoyed by grownups.
Why a children’s magazine at such a precarious time for print? For one, for the love of print. But also because I really wanted to see this vision out in the world. As a mother of two working in the field of children's book publishing, I felt fortunate everyday to be collaborating with amazingly talented illustrators, comic artists and storytellers. At Lucasfilm I was surrounded by passionate people who shared a love of storytelling in all forms--through writing, illustration, animation, film, television, performance and music. It was around all this creative energy that I felt compelled to express something unique and true to myself. I was ready to create something meaningful that I could not only bring home to my kids, but share with them.
I wanted an experience where kids and grownups could enjoy comics and stories together, be exposed to contemporary artists and makers working their crafts out in the world, discover the next best song to put on repeat, find a fun new recipe to cook up for dinner, feed their imaginations and get inspired to make, journal, draw, craft and express something unique and true to themselves.
I was also witnessing the incredible renaissance taking place in the realm of children's books. Like wildflowers spreading on the High Line, new ideas and styles and voices were thriving. For all the agonizing over the decline of print publishing, there came a surge of high-quality picture books, graphic novels, chapter book series and early readers. Artists and writers declared a new playing field with the picture book manifesto. New indie presses and established houses dared to go against the tried and true and readers began to find books without pictures, graphic retellings of classics, oversized books that don't fit spine-out on bookshelves, books that enchanted big people as much as they did little people, books without happy endings and books that said something brand new and made us wonder.
Also all around me I saw a proliferation of quality print magazines that put content, design, and artistry above ads and mass production. These were magazines that I couldn't get enough of, that I wanted to pore over, collect, share and keep on my coffee table forever. They were founded by fellow staunch lovers of print who captured an audience eager to slow down and take in well-curated, beautiful, intelligent stories and pictures.
I was sure that a well-designed, thoughtful, contemporary children's magazine--one that celebrated visual storytelling and artists as much as it did a DIY ethos--was not only missing but would be welcomed by a new generation of parents and young readers. Where was the publication, like all those wonderful children's books, that I'd want to read and feel inspired by as much as my own two kids would? I couldn't wait to shepherd the idea to life.
Now, here we are in 2016 and that vision, the magazine, is taking shape. I have an awesome group of folks realizing and creating ILLUSTORIA along with me, whose smart ideas and playful perspectives have made it something bigger and better than I could have imagined. With backgrounds in design, comics, illustration, writing and publishing, they share a belief in the power of stories, art and creative expression. We are hard at work on our first issue, all about beginnings. In it we learn from Cece Bell about the making of her graphic novel El Deafo, discover how Andrew Bird prototyped a make-shift violin at age 4, glimpse into Aaron Becker's process illustrating Journey. On top of that we have original contributions from dozens of new and familiar artists and writers in the form of illustrated stories, comics, DIY activities and more.
I hope you follow along on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, and make sure to sign up for our newsletter so you get the latest ILLUSTORIA news in your inbox. If you like what you see, please consider a subscription or a gift subscription for a loved one to our magazine. I would be thrilled to have your company as we see this vision through and embark on this new adventure.
Happy Reading!
Joanne