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Once upon a time—forty years ago, to be exact—author Florence Parry Heide<\/a><\/strong> wrote a story called Dillweed\u2019s Revenge: A Deadly Dose of Magic<\/em> with the express intent of having Edward Gorey<\/a><\/strong> illustrate it. Joining Heide in penning the story was her brother and his wife, visiting from out of town, and her own daughter, Roxy. “Some editors liked the story but wanted a date on which the art would be finished, and Edward Gorey would never work that way. So, it sat and it sat,” said Heide (at the short Q & A at this link<\/a><\/strong>). <\/p>\n According to illustrator Carson Ellis<\/a><\/strong>—who is visiting me for cyber-breakfast this morning and who was ultimately chosen to illustrate the 2010 Harcourt release of the book<\/a><\/strong>—“controversy over Dillweed\u2018s grim ending (and reputedly Gorey\u2019s refusal to work on the book if the ending was changed) caused the project to be shelved.” <\/p>\n When I read this one in 2010, I made a mental note to see if Carson would like to stop by for one of my breakfast illustrator interviews. To be sure, she’s illustrated other picture books I’ve enjoyed, and she’s well-known for some of her artwork on both book and album covers. (More on that below.) But it was this delightfully whacked out and macabre tale of Dillweed that really caught my eye. Anyhow. Yes, it’s taken me this long to get to the interview. Sometimes I’m just slow, my friends. And busy. And such. <\/p>\n But this timing works well, despite my delay, as Carson and Colin Meloy<\/a><\/strong>, her husband (who just so happens to be the lead singer of The Decemberists<\/a><\/strong>, and that’s a note for my fellow music-nerd friends), have just collaborated on a middle-grade novel, Wildwood<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, set to be released this Fall from Balzer & Bray (HarperCollins). The book has been met with some early positive reviews—a “satisfying blend of fantasy, adventure story, eco-fable and political satire with broad appeal,” writes Kirkus<\/em>—though I’ve yet to read it myself. And this morning Carson shares lots of artwork and sketches from this, their upcoming illustrated novel.<\/p>\n So, without further ado, let’s get right to it, and I thank her for stopping by to chat. Her breakfast-of-choice this morning is eggs, bacon, fruit, toast, orange juice, and coffee with cream<\/font>. That, my friends, is a real breakfast, and she took the words right out of my mouth. I’ll set the table, and let’s get the basics from Carson while I do so. <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Are you an illustrator or author\/illustrator?<\/font><\/p>\n Carson<\/font><\/strong>: Just illustrator. I\u2019m working up to the author part. <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Can you list your books-to-date?<\/font><\/p>\n Carson<\/font><\/strong>: The Mysterious Benedict Society<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Trenton Lee Stewart<\/a><\/strong>), The Composer Is Dead<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Lemony Snicket<\/a><\/strong>), The Beautiful Stories of Life<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Cynthia Rylant<\/a><\/strong>), Stagecoach Sal<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Deborah Hopkinson<\/a><\/strong>), and Dillweed\u2019s Revenge<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Florence Parry Heide<\/a><\/strong>).<\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: What is your usual medium, or–\u2013if you use a variety—your preferred one?<\/font> <\/p>\n Carson<\/font><\/strong>: I love pen and ink and pencil and gouache equally and in various combinations. <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: If you have illustrated for various age ranges (such as, both picture books and early reader books OR, say, picture books and chapter books), can you briefly discuss the differences, if any, in illustrating for one age group to another?<\/font> <\/p>\n Carson<\/font><\/strong>: I\u2019ve illustrated both picture books and chapter books. They\u2019re so different but, for me, the differences have more to do with the function of the illustration in each than their audience. I think picture books are harder<\/em>. They need to have a visual arc that matches their story arc. The text and the images are interdependent. Any given page has a relationship to the page that came before and the one that comes after. There\u2019s a craft to it that I think the casual reader might take for granted. The same goes for chapter books, but that process comes a lot more naturally to me. I read until I come to a scene I want to illustrate and then I illustrate it.<\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Where are your stompin\u2019 grounds?<\/font><\/p>\n Carson<\/font><\/strong>: Portland, Oregon. <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Can you briefly tell me about your road to publication?<\/font> <\/p>\n Carson<\/font><\/strong>: It began with me as a kid in suburban New York, drawing constantly. As a teenager, I wanted to be an illustrator but, inexplicably, I wanted to go the University of Montana, a school with no illustration classes, more. So, I did. <\/p>\n I graduated in 1998 with a painting degree, moved around a lot, was a cocktail waitress in four different states, and eventually settled in Portland, where I was reunited with my good college friend and eventual sweetheart, Colin Meloy. He was starting his band The Decemberists<\/a><\/strong> and put me to work doing all sorts of things for them \u2013- flyers, album art, t-shirt designs, website illustrations. They were my first (albeit initially unpaid) illustration gigs. Along with The Decemberists’ stuff, I was having art shows and doing posters for other bands and working as a bartender. <\/p>\n Eventually, art directors, most of whom found me through The Decemberists, started contacting me about editorial work. I didn\u2019t know what \u201ceditorial work\u201d meant at the time, and I had to be talked through using Photoshop over the phone by an art director on one of my first jobs. But, after pretending that I knew what I was doing for a while, eventually I sort of did know what I was doing. So, I quit my job at the bar and started calling myself an illustrator. A few years into my new career, Steve Malk<\/a><\/strong>, a literary agent, wrote and asked me if I was interested in illustrating books for kids, to which I replied, \u201cVery!\u201d He lined up a bunch of projects for me right off the bat, the first of which was The Mysterious Benedict Society<\/a><\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Can you please point readers to your web site and\/or blog?<\/font> <\/p>\n Carson<\/font><\/strong>: www.carsonellis.com<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: If you do school visits, tell me what they\u2019re like.<\/font> <\/p>\n Carson<\/font><\/strong>: I do them, though mostly, for some reason, I visit colleges. I show a lot of slides and talk about how I came to do what I do. Two weeks ago, I gave a lecture at Portland State about Wildwood<\/em>, a novel that Colin wrote and that I just finished illustrating. I showed a lot of images and talked about collaborating with my husband, the editorial process, jacket design (which, in the case of this book, was super challenging — it went through twenty-something revisions, and I showed slides of twenty of them), and other illustration things. <\/p>\n I\u2019ve only visited grade school classrooms a few times, but I know there\u2019s more of that in my future, as I\u2019ll be going on my first proper book tour with Colin for Wildwood<\/em>, and school visits are a big part of the plan. I\u2019m looking forward to it, but we don\u2019t have our spiel down yet. The one kindergarten classroom I visited was hilarious. I read a book and talked a little bit about drawing, and then I asked if anyone had questions.<\/p>\n \nKid:<\/em> Do you have a cat? Then, I asked if anyone wanted me to draw them a picture, and every kid said yes. So, I drew twenty pictures and then went home and took a nap.<\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: If you teach illustration, by chance, tell me how that influences your work as an illustrator.<\/font> <\/p>\n Carson<\/font><\/strong>: I don\u2019t teach illustration, but I do teach a free drawing workshop for teenagers at the Portland Art Museum<\/a><\/strong>. The class size is limited to ten kids, and they\u2019re all self-motivated artists who are drawing a lot on their own, outside of school. We meet weekly for twelve sessions, and students who are accepted into the workshop are welcome to come back the following year so the group stays together. I love<\/em> teaching this class. As a teenager, I was an unhappy misfit, and it\u2019s cathartic to be around this group of kids who love to draw and who collaborate with and support each other. It\u2019s also inspiring to see the way they make art, which is always with abandon. They go into the supply closet and come out with armloads of materials they\u2019ve never used before, and they just go for it. I\u2019m so prone to overthinking things when I work, but those kids reminds me that I don\u2019t have to.<\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Any new titles\/projects you might be working on now that you can tell me about?<\/font> <\/p>\n Carson<\/font><\/strong>: Like I said, I just finished illustrating Wildwood<\/em>, a chapter book by my husband. {Sketches and illustrations are below.}<\/em> It\u2019s set in Portland and in Forest Park<\/a><\/strong>, a 5,000-acre swath of woods on the west end of the city. The book features talking animals, dysfunctional governments, battles, bandits, coyote soldiers, mystics, the ruins of an ancient civilization, a deposed forest witch, and more. It also features 85 illustrations! It was my most labor-intensive, all-consuming illustration project to date. Though it\u2019s also the one I\u2019m the most proud of and easily the one closest to my heart. <\/p>\n Colin and I have been hoping to collaborate on something like this for the past ten years but, between touring and illustrating and parenting and everything else, we could never seem to make time for it. Last year, at long last, we had a window in our schedules and sat down to work on it. We\u2019re all done now, but it\u2019s the first in a series so we\u2019re already delving into the second book.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/dillweed1.jpg\")
Dillweed’s story (a color sketch from the 2010 version is pictured left) is one of, in the words of Heide again, “naughtiness, excitement, and danger.” (Her exact quote, which I love? “Of course kids like to be soothed and reassured and coddled and amused, but they also like to read of naughtiness, excitement, and danger.”) Dillweed uses some magical runes stored under his bed and his bizarre pet (and only friend), Skorped, to get revenge on his lousy, inattentive parents and Umblud and Perfidia, the two hateful servants left in charge of Dillweed, while his parents are off having adventures. It’s a wonderfully warped, dark tale, which I’ve mentally added to this ever-growing list<\/a><\/strong> of Slightly Demented Picture Books. Or, if you’re Bob Shea and Lane Smith weighing in on the book<\/a><\/strong>: “WHY WE RECOMMEND THIS BOOK: debauchery, black magic, murder and inspired shenanigans throughout.” <\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/carsone.jpg\")
“This was an especially fun book to work on,” Carson added. “The illustrations were done in ink and gouache, a new medium for me. And at the suggestion of Dillweed\u2018s editor, Sam McFerrin, I hand-lettered every stitch of writing in the book, down to the numbers on the barcode.” The book was eventually awarded a Silver Medal<\/a><\/strong> by The Society of Illustrators, Carson’s first illustration award. <\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/bsoflife.JPG\")
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— From Cynthia Rylant’s<\/a><\/strong> Beautiful Stories of Life: Six Greek Myths, Retold<\/a><\/strong><\/em>
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CD booklet\/vinyl sleeve illustration for <\/em>The Hazards of Love<\/a><\/strong> by The Decemberists<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/hol-ellis.jpg\")
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<\/em>Dillweed’s Revenge: A Deadly Dose of Magic<\/a><\/strong> (Harcourt, 2010).
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(Illustrator\/author photo for <\/em>Wildwood; Photo credit: Autumn de Wilde<\/a><\/strong>)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<\/a>
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\nMe:<\/em> Yes.
\nKid:<\/em> Me, too.
\nOther kid:<\/em> Well, I have a purse!
\nFirst kid:<\/em> My mom has two purses!
\nAnother kid:<\/em> My mom has five million eight zillion purses!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/20KL.jpg\")
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from <\/em>Wildwood, 2011, gouache and ink<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/mouse.jpg\")
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