ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What made you start playing with text and making your books look so different?
All the books are really cool and inventive and stylized.
Youre never going to get any work over here in the U.S.
Credit: Bob Shea
I always just thought Id be kind of a cult artist.
Thered be six people looking at my stuff.
Theyre very dark,Stinky Cheese ManandThe True Story of the Three Little Pigs.
Why do you think people were drawn to these weird, kind of sinister picture books?
When I was a kid, I liked dark stuff.
I liked scary stories, and certainly those original Grimms Fairy Tales were pretty grim.
It was just kind of this renaissance of weird stuff.
Edward Gory was popular, and Ralph Steadman, all of these [people].
How do you find the limit when drawing creepy stuff for kids?
[Laughs] And he falls apart at the end of that story, in the river!
I never make stufftooscary, and then I also never make anything sexual in any way.
I guess I seem to know where to stop.
Where do you look for inspiration?
Do you have books you go back to?
I am always going to museums and reading and going to movies.
It comes from anywhere.
Thats a cool texture.
How did an elephant get in that tree?
And then he createdHorton Hatches the Egg.But I dont believe it!
I think he just made that up to tell an interviewer like you.
Its really just building something from nothing, and working every day until you finally get it right.
[Laughs]
Thats so funny only Lane Smith could call Dr. Seuss a liar!
Hey, you said that, I didnt!
How do you put your own spin on it?
Yeah, both of those tasks were daunting.
It was more of a combination of the two of us.
Which was an even bigger thrill, because youre just working directly with Roald Dahls original words.
You spent some time at Roald Dahls house for research.
What kinds of things did you find there?
It was kind of amazing.
Those are still Roalds cigarette butts in there!
[Laughs]
No way!
I said, Oh, the color is so beautiful!
And she said, That.
He would sit there and write and smoke and he wouldnt crack a window!
