2015-01-25 12:11:44Sunny Liu

Jon Agee and Me (1)

 

我與 Jon Agee 結緣甚早,兩年前就在胡思二手書店
書櫃上買到他的絕版書 " The Retired Kid 。"  

當時就很喜歡他淡淡幽默不失戲謔的筆觸和文字,但沒有
想到會結這麼深的緣,隨著他2/8 訪台的日期漸近,研究
他的生平和作品也就變成我最近日夜牽掛的功課,壓力大,
但真的很希望能把這件事做好,握拳加油。

Jon Agee Official Site

上面這個網站是 Jon Agee 的官方網站,裡面當然有非常多
關於他的生平和作品的介紹。首先來看看他的自傳,這位
多才多藝的插畫家生長於紐約,從小就才華洋溢,時至今日
聲名遠播但仍平易近人且不失幽默風趣,是我最喜歡他的一點。

I grew up in Nyack, New York, just up the street 

from the Hudson River. In our house, there was 

always an art project going on.

My early drawings were very animated: a lot of 

stuff zipping around, airplanes, racing cars, 

football players. No surprise my first published 

drawing was a pack of rats running along 

a highway (The Rat Race). I did that for the 

New York Times Op Ed page when I was still 

in high school. I went to college at The Cooper Union 

School of Art in New York City. 

I studied painting, sculpture and film-making, 

but what I loved doing most—in my spare time—

was drawing cartoons and comic strips.

When I graduated, I hauled my pile of doodles into 

the offices of a bunch of editors, with the wild notion 

that somebody might publish them. When that failed, 

I wrote a story for kids to go with my pictures 

(IF SNOW FALLS). It was two sentences long 

(which counts, by the way). Frances Foster, 

a wonderful editor at Random House, saw something 

in that book and signed me up.

The next book, ELLSWORTH, was about a dog who 

teaches economics at a university.

 When he gets home, he throws off his clothes and acts 

like a dog, which is fine, until some fellow teachers 

discover this and he loses his job. 

Somebody told me that ELLSWORTH was a story about

 "being yourself." I never realized it had a moral.

I moved to another publisher with LUDLOW LAUGHS, 

the story of a grumpy guy who laughs in his sleep. 

This book was doing very poorly until the comedienne 

Phyliss Diller read it on PBS's Reading Rainbow. 

It stayed in print for over twenty years. My fourth book, 

THE INCREDIBLE PAINTING 

OF FELIX CLOUSSEAU, was a hit. One of the first people 

to see it and give it the thumb's up – literally, hot off the 

press – was Maurice Sendak.  We bumped into each other 

at the printers. It was a lucky first meeting, and happily 

not our last. That was all a long time ago. Since then I've 

written several other picture books, illustrated a few by 

other authors, and created a series of offbeat wordplay 

books, beginning with the book of palindromes, 

GO HANG A SALAMI! I'M A LASAGNA HOG!

I visit schools across the country and sometimes around 

the globe. I live with my wife, Audrey, in San Francisco.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Short Summery about Jon

Jon Agee is the author/illustrator of many books for children, 

including Terrific, Milo's Hat Trick, and The Incredible Painting 

of Felix Clousseau, along with a series of popular wordplay 

books, among them, Go Hang a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog!

He grew up along the Hudson River in Nyack, New York, 

and went to college at The Cooper Union School of Art in 

New York City, where he studied painting and film-making.

His stories — of mysterious painters, hard luck magicians, 

guffawing grumps, and forgotten astronauts — have been 

called quirky, absurdist, and above all, humorous. 

His sophisticated wit appeals to children and adults alike.

從上面的 short summery 一文中,我們讀到,Jon Agee 的

風格被定義成 quirky(多變的), aburdist(最荒繆的),

humorous(幽默的),而他那複雜有深度的機智更是老少

咸宜呢! 從下面那段小小記者的訪問片段,我們也可看出,

Jon Agee 非常尊重孩子,很認真的回答他們的問題,

一點也不因為他們是孩子而有任何敷衍,他對待他的繪本

也是如此,不管是給大人或小孩看的,他都用最真誠的態度

來製作每一本書,有開始期待欣賞他的作品了嗎?

Jon Agee Interview  (Press me, please.)

上一篇:The Little Island

下一篇:Jon Agee and Me (2)

Sunny Liu 2015-01-25 13:51:17

http://www.jonagee.com/html/20questions.php?nav=2&sub=2

版主回應
20 Questions about Jon Agee 2015-01-27 17:16:57
Sunny Liu 2015-01-25 12:14:39

http://www.jonagee.com/html/press.php

版主回應
Jon Agee's Interview 2015-01-27 17:16:19