Bill Peckmann &Books &Illustration 14 Sep 2012 05:47 am
Lee Lorenz’ Scornful Simkin
Lee Lorenz, of course, is a brilliant cartoonist. However, we don’t often see examples of his great children’s books. Bill Peckmann sent me the following scans. He wrote:
- We know good fortune is smiling down upon us when a great, noted gag cartoonist/artist gets the gig of illustrating a children’s book. So it was in 1980 when Prentice-Hall published Lee Lorenz‘s book, Scornful Simkin. It’s an illustrated retelling of Chaucer’s The Reeve’s Tale. That story is about Scornful Simkin, the terrible tempered miller who after grinding other people’s grain would always keep a little for himself.
The art in the book has the same feel and flair as storyboards from the Golden Age of Disney.
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Like good wine, these pages only get better with age!
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Standing O’ for Mr. Lorenz, classic Disney meets classic Masterpiece Theater!
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Back dust-jacket cover.
on 15 Sep 2012 at 2:52 pm 1.The Gee said …
Children Friendly Chaucer. I like it.
The drawings are great to look at but the washes are great too.
I’ve always admired artists who will paint just enough. It looks great.
A friend of mine who is a painter told me the most important thing is knowing when to stop painting because adding too much can ruin it.
It is likely if he added much more watercolor the end result would have been different, not necessarily better, or worse but probably different.
on 17 Sep 2012 at 9:45 pm 2.Dan Haskett said …
Thanks for posting this, Mike. So much fun!