Gary Clement is a Canadian artist, cartoonist, illustrator and writer. He’s the author and illustrator of several children’s books, among them The Great Poochini, which earned Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Award for illustration. His latest book, K is in Trouble, is a Kafkaesque middle-grade graphic novel. He also draws political cartoons and his freelance illustrations have appeared in National Post, The New York Times, The Boston Globe and many other newspapers and magazines across North America.
You can find out more about Gary at garyclement.ca.
I begin all assignments—illustrations, cartoons, book projects, paintings, drawings—you name it, with the same approach which is that all of the above are puzzles that need to be solved. It’s something I started doing in art school, oh so many years ago, and that has stuck with me ever since. It’s a process that is very satisfying when I arrive at a solution. Maybe because it can be (sometimes, not always) agonizing until I get there.
From playing ice hockey, to swimming at the pool, to tobogganing down a snowy hill, many of your picture books capture familiar moments for young readers and bring up feelings of nostalgia for older readers. Do you have both children and adults in mind when you’re illustrating for picture books?
Yes, absolutely. I think all the children’s author/illustrators I admire most do that. I’m thinking primarily of people like Maira Kalman, Dayal Kaur Khalsa, Peter Sis, Tomi Ungerer and especially William Steig, a writer who challenges and really respects readers of all ages. I just reread Amos & Boris and was astonished by his incredible attention to detail… the list of items Amos takes on his boat includes wheat germ! He sets a pretty high bar for picture books.
As for the nostalgia issue... memory is a huge resource for me. For example, the illustrations for My Winter City really drew (pun intentional) on memories of winter walks with my own father.
Your latest book, K is in Trouble, is a Kafkaesque middle-grade graphic novel. How did you approach bringing the absurdity of Kafka's stories to the page visually for young readers?
The whole project began as an attempt to illustrate the events in Kafka’s childhood that may have formed Franz Kafka, the writer. I’ve been fascinated with his writing since my earliest university days and had been thinking about doing some kind book about him for ages. I was absolutely drawn to the absurdity of his universe but also to the wild humour. This is something I didn’t really get when I was younger. In my first year university course, Kafka was taught with an air of deadly seriousness. It was all about the state of the isolated individual in industrialized urban environments and so on. As I reread the books and stories over the years I began to see that they were, rather than being dark and angsty, actually laugh-out loud hilarious. Thus perfect for young readers.I should note that I started out writing K is in Trouble as a more serious, researched, illustrated biography of Kafka’s childhood geared towards adults. But as I got more into it, my own childhood biography along with fictional elements got added to the mix until the project spontaneously morphed into a middle-grade reader. But I think I also have to refer you to the previous answer—I wrote/drew the book with all ages in mind!