CCBC-Net Archives
TOMI UNGERER
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: fran manushkin <franm>
Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 18:22:49 -0400
As I mentioned in a previous discussion, I worked with Tomi Ungerer's editor, Ursula Nordstrom, as the "back-up" editor on NO KISS FOR MOTHER and I AM PAPA SNAP... (This meant I read galleys, wrote flaps, checked mechanicals, etc.) I don't remember there being any problem about the picture of the officer with the armband; the armband always had a question mark. (I have a first edition.) I know that Ursula wanted tomi to change the title. She thought that mothers wouldn't buy the book. I also remember Tomi saying he did the book to sharpen his drawing skills, to apply some disclipline to his drawing. Since NO KISS... is in black and white, everything depends on the line. My favorite drawing was (and is) the one with Piper shooting a stone from his slingshot; the stone breaks the border drawn around the picture. This is one of the most graphically wiitty pictures I've seen in a children's book. It also may be that NO KISS... is a pioneer in the "longer picture-books for older readers" genre. It's certainly for kids older than 7.
About Tomi's adult work: I own two of his books, THE UNDERGROUND SKETCHBOOK and THE PARTY, which have very explicit sexual drawings, many of them social satire, about the battle of the sexes. These are pen and ink. THE UNDERGROUND SKETCHBOOK, a hardocover has a preface by Jonathan Miller, and is copyrighted 1964, The Viking Press, New York. It has so red highlights in the drawings. THE PARTY is much cruder and raunchier. It's a large-sized paperback with a blue cardboard-looking cover, and is published by Paragraphic Books, a division of Grossman Publishers, 1966, New York.
Ursula was very fond of Tomi. He came to Harpers when he was doing advertising work and I think Shel Silverstein referred him, but I'm not sure. In any case, I remember Ursula saying she Tomi the first time she saw him that he loved his work and that he could relax at Harper's. He was
"home."
About I AM PAPA SNAP...I remember this came in, and we had to create a sequence for the "stories." i I remember the book getting the huge full-page rave review in The New York Times Book Review, which did not make it sell, unfortunately.
I think Tomi's "Nazi" represented all forms of authority. I'm not sure I'm remembering this correctly, but I think Tomi's were the first picture-books to take "unsympathetic" animals-- a snake, a bat, and an octopus--and make them heros. The Mellops books also take us into a "dark" subject! I think Tomi was fascinated by "evil" and its various manifestations. I know that Tomi respected Ursula very much and I'm sure he wouldn't slip anything truly reprehensible into his books. Still, we took no chances. After all, this man was European! He had his studio in Times Square--when it really WAS Times Square. I thought of him as a very sophisticated, scary fella! Fran
Received on Sun 08 Aug 1999 05:22:49 PM CDT
Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 18:22:49 -0400
As I mentioned in a previous discussion, I worked with Tomi Ungerer's editor, Ursula Nordstrom, as the "back-up" editor on NO KISS FOR MOTHER and I AM PAPA SNAP... (This meant I read galleys, wrote flaps, checked mechanicals, etc.) I don't remember there being any problem about the picture of the officer with the armband; the armband always had a question mark. (I have a first edition.) I know that Ursula wanted tomi to change the title. She thought that mothers wouldn't buy the book. I also remember Tomi saying he did the book to sharpen his drawing skills, to apply some disclipline to his drawing. Since NO KISS... is in black and white, everything depends on the line. My favorite drawing was (and is) the one with Piper shooting a stone from his slingshot; the stone breaks the border drawn around the picture. This is one of the most graphically wiitty pictures I've seen in a children's book. It also may be that NO KISS... is a pioneer in the "longer picture-books for older readers" genre. It's certainly for kids older than 7.
About Tomi's adult work: I own two of his books, THE UNDERGROUND SKETCHBOOK and THE PARTY, which have very explicit sexual drawings, many of them social satire, about the battle of the sexes. These are pen and ink. THE UNDERGROUND SKETCHBOOK, a hardocover has a preface by Jonathan Miller, and is copyrighted 1964, The Viking Press, New York. It has so red highlights in the drawings. THE PARTY is much cruder and raunchier. It's a large-sized paperback with a blue cardboard-looking cover, and is published by Paragraphic Books, a division of Grossman Publishers, 1966, New York.
Ursula was very fond of Tomi. He came to Harpers when he was doing advertising work and I think Shel Silverstein referred him, but I'm not sure. In any case, I remember Ursula saying she Tomi the first time she saw him that he loved his work and that he could relax at Harper's. He was
"home."
About I AM PAPA SNAP...I remember this came in, and we had to create a sequence for the "stories." i I remember the book getting the huge full-page rave review in The New York Times Book Review, which did not make it sell, unfortunately.
I think Tomi's "Nazi" represented all forms of authority. I'm not sure I'm remembering this correctly, but I think Tomi's were the first picture-books to take "unsympathetic" animals-- a snake, a bat, and an octopus--and make them heros. The Mellops books also take us into a "dark" subject! I think Tomi was fascinated by "evil" and its various manifestations. I know that Tomi respected Ursula very much and I'm sure he wouldn't slip anything truly reprehensible into his books. Still, we took no chances. After all, this man was European! He had his studio in Times Square--when it really WAS Times Square. I thought of him as a very sophisticated, scary fella! Fran
Received on Sun 08 Aug 1999 05:22:49 PM CDT
