Nine More Astonishing New Illustrators

The response to my post “Nine Astonishing New Illustrators” was overwhelmingly positive, so I think it is time to do another. Most of these were found by an Instagram cadre of Alice collectors, principally “Semper Lux,” “Never Enough Alice Books,” and “Chimera in Wonderland” (@semperluxus, @neverenoughalicebooks, @chimerainwonderland). Many of these artists are also on IG. If you are, may I also highly recommend following Semper Lux for her wonderfully erudite, albeit tongue-in-cheek, reviews of these and many other Alice books?

A truly masterful edition by the award-winning, prolific fantasy artist Paolo Barbieri is widely available in English or Italian. Alice here is a blonde teenager in contemporary dress, although other characters are in Victorian garb; the renderings (b&w drawings and color paintings) are extraordinarily skillful and full of imagination and surprises (Italian: Lo Scarabeo, 2022, 978-8865277966; ‎English: Llewellyn Worldwide, 2023, 978-0738775852).

Sean Dietrich, whose work ranges “from comics to gaming to live art at nightclubs to being one of the biggest artists in the Cannabis arena,” has produced an edition incorporating a fine set of 24 fully-realized illustrations and many concept-art sketches. The art is humorous and full of “grotesqueries” in the positive sense of the word (Red23, 2022, 978-0463179307).

Katsiaryna Dubovik’s illustrations for a Belorusian Looking-Glass (Скрозь люстэрка, і што ўбачыла там Aлica) are highly amusing, a tad reminiscent of those of Hilary (Eloise) Knight, although certainly less realistic (Галіяфы [Goliaths], 2017, 978-9857140398).

Philadelphia artist Cavin Jones walks us through both Wonderland and Looking-glass Land in a series of beautifully drawn pictures, accompanied by poetic riffs on the text. Alice herself is a middle-aged Black woman, and the illustrations are replete with African sculptures and masks. A stunning re-imagining! Alice In Wonderland: A Series Of Drawings and Verses (independently published [POD] in 2020, 979-8605235187).

A stylish Hungarian Wonderland (Alice Csodaországban) illustrated by the multiple-award-winning Katalin Szegedi uses quirky, magical, highly detailed montage illustrations, often full pages, that bear repeated viewing not only for the esthetics, but for the many half-hidden references (General Press Kiadó, 2007, 978-9639648739).

A sweet Ukrainian Wonderland (Аліса в Країні див), combines innovative typography, geometry, and an amiable drawing style (by Inna Maslyak) somewhat reminiscent of Sempé (Ранок [Ranok], 2019, 978-6170955289).

Galina Zinko’s warmly humorous, inviting images (with that most rare bird, an Alice of the right age) are available as follows:
Looking-glass in Ukrainian: Алиса у Задзеркаллі, A-ba-ba-ha-la-ma-ha, 2020, 978-6175851869.
Wonderland in Russian: : Алиса в Стране чудес, Willi Winki, 2018, 978-5171089597.
Looking-glass in Russian: Алиса в Зазеркалье, Willi Winki, 2019, 978-5171179564.
Both books together in Russian: Алиса в Стране чудес / в Зазеркалье, Willi Winki, 2022, 978-5171185343.

The always wonderful Adriana Peliano of the Lewis Carroll Society of Brazil, along with her five-year-old nephew Jorge, has created a truly charming, wordless picture book (42 pages, of course) of Wonderland (Alice Quebra Cabeça, “Alice Puzzle”) based on Tangrams. Click here for details.

The image you see on your left is slightly misleading: this fun Mexican edition is in tête-bêche format (i.e., each upside-down to the other), but that’s not the only idiosyncrasy. Each book has a different illustrator (and translator) and all of the full-page drawings are collected in a 32-page galeria at the back (Maravillas) or front (Espejo) of the books for some odd reason. Anabel López Cabrera’s skillful, stylized illustrations for Maravillas look like they were done on parchment and employ interesting perspectives; Mariana Magdaleno’s for Espejo feature a white-haired Alice and marvelously rendered characters, often in unconventional tableaux (Mirlo, 2018, 978-6071421395).

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