Martin Handford spent much of his childhood drawing, and his earliest influences were cinema epics and playing with toy soldiers. After art college, he began working as a freelance illustrator, specializing in drawing crowd scenes for numerous clients. He now gathers inspiration from a huge variety of sources: films, visiting museums and art galleries, reading comics and books, and collecting ephemera and trivia. He is fascinated by crowds and is attracted to their vibes, patterns, and details--especially humor. Gradually, from all this meticulous research, the inspiration for a picture emerges, which he embellishes with his own ideas to create astonishing scenes. Each picture takes many months to draw. "As I work my way through a picture, I add Waldo when I come to what I feel is a good place to hide him," he explains.

The eighth book in Martin Handford's series starring the iconic bespectacled traveler -- and the first new one in 15 years. . . Scanning its pages, I felt a rush of nostalgia recalling the hours my kids and I spent oohing and aahing over Waldo when they were little. . . it delivers the goods nonetheless, displaying Handford's knack for layering his cacophonous crowd scenes with humor."
--The New York Times Book Review

Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)

Pub date: 2024-09-10

Length: 32 pages