Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Ali Bahrampour’s Monsters in the Fog

June 16th, 2022 by jules

One of my very favorite picture books this year is Ali Bahrampour’s Monsters in the Fog (Abrams, June 2022), which I reviewed for BookPage. To read more about this very funny book, you can read the review here. (Pictured above is the entertaining title page illustration.)

Today, I’ve got some spreads from the book, and Ali also visits to share some early sketches. Lucky me — because I always like to see an artist’s early sketches — Ali managed to find these, adding that he throws almost everything away as he works. Here’s what he says about the book:

In this book I put in details from Iran, where I grew up (the mountains around Tehran where my father used to take me and my sisters hiking and especially in Hakim’s room in the second picture, which contains a samovar and an evil eye). Hakim is a name with connotations of sage or philosopher or physician. The sketches of Hakim walking are from a little animated sequence I made just so I could try to figure out how donkeys walk.

I thank Ali for sharing. Without further ado ….

Some Final Spreads:

“He packed the sweater in his saddlebag. ‘She’ll love it,’ he thought. ‘It gets cold up there.’ It was a foggy morning. Hakim could barely see the end of his nose.”
(Click spread to enlarge)

“Then he heard an awful groan. It was getting closer and closer. Maybe that old goat was right. Out of the mist came the strangest creature Hakim had ever seen.”
(Click spread to enlarge)

(Click image to enlarge)

“‘I can’t see a thing,’ said the pig. ‘What’s that up there?’ asked the dog. Hakim couldn’t speak. A giant screaming skull was hearding right toward them.”
(Click spread to enlarge)