Want to get to know some of the incredible creative minds behind the Your Next Read junior fiction novels? Read on!
Today, we say hello to internationally acclaimed illustrator and author Gus Gordon, who is based in Brisbane, Australia.
He has illustrated and written over 80 books for children. His books Wendy, Herman and Rosie (2013 CBCA Honour book), Somewhere Else (2017 Speech Pathology book of the year), The Last Peach and Finding François have sold in over 20 countries worldwide and have received wide international recognition.
He has twice been nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Gus’s first graphic novel, Into the Bewilderness was a CBCA Book of the Year (Younger Readers) Notable and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards ‘Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature.’
He also loves cheese, and things that go with cheese.
And now Gus is bringing his illustrating talents to ‘Dragon Beach’, written by Kylie Howarth, one of two new titles in the Your Next Read Silver series (for readers aged 5-8) released this month.
Below is an edited extract from an interview with Gus in episode #2 of the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast Summer Series.
YKNR: You illustrated around 70 books before you began writing the text as well (with ‘Wendy’ in 2011). What changed?
Gus Gordon: ‘In the end, things changed because I wanted to change. I felt I was typecast, illustrating the same kind of books. But I wasn’t illustrating the kind of stories that I wanted to illustrate, so that forced my hand. I decided that the best way to change people’s minds about what I do is to write them myself. And that’s, that’s really where it’s began for me.’
Had you always had that niggle of wanting to write? Did you have the confidence that you could write?
Gus: ‘For me, that’s two different things. I’d always wanted to write, but whether or not I had the confidence is another matter. I loved to write at school. I loved English, and I was fortunate enough that I felt I could write an essay or a poem in the actual exam on the spot. I just loved that and I read a lot and I always come back to that. I was a big reader, so I knew how stories worked.
‘Having said that, when you first embark on this journey as a writer, suddenly you do question everything about it. About the way you should be telling stories. Every single book has felt like a challenge that I wasn’t going to be able to conquer. I’ve grown used to that fact. And I don’t ever want to think that I’ve [become] a confident writer who may find it all too easy. I think it’s important that we feel challenged.’
What inspired you to jump into children’s book illustration in the first place?
Gus: ‘I started out my career drawing cartoons for magazines and then comic strips for newspapers [but] I was just finding it so hard to cobbled together any kind of career. [Then my friend] Mark David, who’d illustrated lots and lots of books, suggested I might be able to illustrate one that he was unable to take on at the time.
‘So, suddenly, I had to think about kids books – and I hadn’t really thought about kids books since I was a kid. But as soon as I read the story and started drawing the pictures, I immediately felt like ‘this is my place’. It just felt like home.’
When you are thinking about a character – whether creating your own story or illustrating someone else’s – where do you start?
Gus: ‘If I’m illustrating for somebody else, the first cues I get are from the work. If there’s anything descriptive, I write that down, and then anything I get a feeling about – the type of personality this character has, and how that contrasts with the other personalities. And then I start to draw.
‘When it’s my own story, it’s always a drawing first. I’m always drawing in sketchbooks, and so every single one of my books began as a little drawing, I did in a sketchbook that just spoke to me.
‘The best way I can describe that is that when I do [that] drawing, it feels like it’s already part of a greater story. I don’t know what that story is, but it’s like the character is speaking to me and is urging me to find out what that character’s story is all about. And I find that immensely fascinating and that drives me.’
The best picture books will have a story in the text, and then another story going on in the illustrations – supporting the main story, but also adding a new dimension. How do you do that?
Gus: ‘It’s hard to define. I will say that I will never accept a manuscript where I can’t see how my contribution is going to add anything more to it. I’ll never illustrate a book that is just a literal ‘visual take’ on the words – I just can’t see the point.
‘For me, it’s very important as the illustrator to bring the story to life in a way that’s not necessarily there in the words at all. I mean, of course it is in one sense, but I need to figure out a way where I can add a whole other layer that is not described there in the text.
‘And I think that’s always the challenge. I’ll sit on a manuscript for a while and try to figure out what I can add – it’s a weird kind of mystery trying to figure out what I can bring that isn’t there. And if I can’t add my layer of narrative, then I don’t take it on.’
How do you process that stuff? Does it require meditation, a pencil in your hand, a walk around the block? Or do you just tuck it away in the back of your mind and hope that inspiration strikes in the shower?
Gus: ‘The showers are great. But usually, it’s a pencil in my hand, just doodling as I think.
If I asked you to describe your illustrating style, what words would you choose?
Gus: ‘I’m always looking for a sense of spontaneity – a liveliness that feels fresh. I I like that very loose line – all my favourite artists are quite loose line – and I love paper, so I love working with collage, moving papers around, looking for different textures. I love the old papers that have a nostalgic quality that brings a whole other layer of narrative to the story.
‘I love humour in subtle ways, silly ways – I’m not afraid to be nonsensical. I think humour is not rewarded in the way it should be in our industry.
‘And I’m always looking for ticker, for heart, for some kind of substance that is moving and that will stay with you because as fun as a lot of picture books are, quite often they’re not memorable. So I’m looking for a way to make my books feel like they stay with the reader after they’ve been read, and they want to come back to them and reread them.’
Listen to the full interview here.
About ‘Dragon Beach’ by Kylie Howarth, illustrated by Gus Gordon
Do you like ANIMALS, FAMILY and MAGIC?
Then this book is YOUR NEXT READ.
When Jack’s dog Franky eats something strange at the beach, he turns into a giant dragon! But Ranger Roz doesn’t think a dragon can be a pet and wants to take Franky away. Can Jack save his best friend before it’s too late?
Buy here from your favourite online retailer
Want to know more about Gus’s work in ‘Dragon Beach’ (including why he thinks the Your Next Read series is essential)? Watch the video!