CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED 1 - "Crime and Punishment" (Unknown artist)

Classic, stylish and powerful - these drawings have been with me, inspiring me since childhood. Plenty more to show from this collection...

"The Frog Prince Continued" by Jon Scieszka, paintings by Steve Johnson (Penguin Books Ltd, London 1991)

Weird and wonderful interpretation of the Frog Prince story (or rather what might have happened after the Princess' marriage to the frog - which could, sadly, apply to most marriages once the spells wear off...). There's a bit of "Hansel and Gretel" and "Cinderella" thrown in for good measure. Scieszka went on to write "The Stinky Cheese Man" which also makes fun out of fairy tales and traditional stories but what impressed me most about this book were the outstanding pictures by Steve Johnson. So much work must have gone into these illustrations! Every little detail and every character have been so meticulously worked out. The colours and composition are amazing and there are so many puns and jokes hidden in the pictures you can see something new each time you look at them. I could find nothing else by Steve Johnson - I hope he's still creating great pictures like these.

"Fairy Gold", Ruth Ainsworth, Illustrations by Barbara Hope Steinberg (publ. by William Heinemann, London 1972)

Just a few of the 60 fantastic b/w illustrations in this book.