I want posters of this book's pages printed on sheets of metal for my garage. The art cries out for the reflective radiance of aluminum printing.
Jordan Speer's Umbra is really something else. I'm not entirely convinced it was created with kids in mind, rather than the artist's nostalgic yearning for 80's aesthetics.
The book is about a hundred pages--I haven't counted--of incredible, wordless art, telling the story of a little mage on a quest to stop an army of "gremlyns" and their evil, tree-devouring train. I especially liked Speer's clouds.
A couple of pages:
Some of the images are scary and might disturb little kids, like the evil train above or monsters and skeletons in the dungeons. Although no reading skills are required, it's still a book for older kids.
My one complaint is that some of the pictures seemed a bit dark; the printer might want to brighten up some of the images in the opening sequence.
I don't normally like wordless books (though I own David Wiesner's Tuesday). I find a lot of them gimmicky and end up having to supply the words myself during storytime. You don't need words to understand what's going on in Umbra (well, except for the bit with the wolves. I feel like there's a reference there that I'm just not getting. They remind me of the character design for the wolf in Walt Disney's The Three Little Pigs, but I don't see how that relates to the story. If anyone gets it, please inform me,) but a well-written text to go with the pictures would still be nice.
Still, it's a remarkable book--I recommend that you experience it at your local library.
No comments:
Post a Comment