| The Struwwelpeter Stories |
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All artwork
and translated textual adaptation is © copyright 2005 by
bob staake -- all rights reserved
bobstaake.com
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the Struwwelpeter word out! Mention us on your web site or blog!
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About Bob
Staake (Illustrator)
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 Known for his colorful, high-energy
drawing style, Bob Staake's humorous illustrations and cartoons
appear in everything from magazines to books, animation to greeting
cards, toys to fabrics, advertising to newspapers, cereal boxes
to CD-ROM games.
His clients
have included Time Inc, McDonald's, American Express, Sony, United
Airlines, MTV/ Nickelodeon, Sports Illustrated For Kids, Ralston
Purina, Hallmark Cards, Kenner Toys, The Washington Post, AT&T,
Sega, TWA, Dr.Pepper, The Chicago Tribune, Good Humor, Warner
Books, Kellogg's, Cartoon Network, Turner Broadcasting, The Wall
Street Journal, Netscape, Forbes, Simon and Schuster, The Ren
and Stimpy Show, MAD, Children's Television Workshop, Blockbuster
Video, Disney, Anheuser-Busch, Doubleday, Klutz Press, Hershey's,
Target Stores, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, The New York
Times, Fleishman-Hillard, DMBB, and countless others.
He has authored
and/or illustrated over 40 books, including Headlines
(written by Jay Leno, illustrated by Staake), Hello Robots, The Complete Book Of Caricature and The Complete
Book Of Humorous Art (both authored by Staake).The recipient
of numerous awards, Staake recently won the National Cartoonist
Society's coveted 'Reuben Division Award' as Best Cartoonist
in the category of Newspaper Illustration.
Inspired and
confused as a child with the bizarre, strange and nightmarish
stories in Struwwelpeter, at the age of 47, Staake decided
to revisit Heinrich Hoffmann's classic book by visually reinterpreting
it.
"When
I was given the book as a kid", says Staake, "I didn't
know if it was a joke or not, but my German parents weren't laughing.
The illustrations and stories just creeped me out beyond words.
That I would be lucky enough to give my own take on these ten
classic morality tales for children is truly a dream come true,
and the fact that Fantagraphics would take on such a politically-incorrect
title in 2005 just adds to the strangeness of it all."
Staake resides
and works in Chatham, Massachusetts, in a 200-year-old house
that's 300 yards from the Atlantic, but is only inhabited by
100 ghosts.
>>>
Pixel Surgeon asks Bob Staake what prompted him
to re-examine Struwwelpeter
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- "Bob
Staake (is) one of the most dynamic, original, colorful and humorous
cartoonists working today."
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- - - The
Washington Post
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- "Staake's
illustrations (are) a stylistic collision of Russian constructivism
and pop art, explode with energy playing off of basic geometric
shapes and angles and swimming in saturated colors."
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- -- Publishers
Weekly
- "Staake's
(work is) notable for the sophistication of its graphic design."
-
- -- American
Library Association
- "Bob
Staake's modern, crisp illustrations ... practically jump off
the page."
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- -- Publishers
Weekly
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- "Staake's
art is deceptive -- it looks simple, but one still finds new
things in the illustrations after over a hundred readings."
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- --- BoingBoing.net
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About Dr.
Heinrich Hoffmann (Author)
The following
account is written by Hoffman and explains ho he came to write
'Struwwelpeter'
"Towards
Christmas in the year 1844, when my eldest son was three years
old, I went to town with the intention to buy as a present for
him a picture book, which should be adapted to the little fellow's
powers of comprehension. But what did I find? Long tales, stupid
stories, beginning and ending with admonitions like 'the good
child must be truthful' or children must keep clean' ect. But
I lost all patience when I found a folio volume where a bench,
a chair, a jug, and many other things were drawn and under each
picture neatly written: 'half, a third, or a tenth of the natural
size'". A child, for whose amusement you are painting a
bench, will think that a real bench; he has not and need not
have an idea of the full size of a real bench. The child does
not reason abstractly.
That evening
I nevertheless brought home a book, and handing it over to my
wife, said "There is what you wished for the little one".
She took it, calling out rather amazed "Well, that is a
note-book with blank leaves" - "Just so, but we are
going to make a book out of it". And it happened thus: I
was then obliged to practice in town where I was often brought
into contact with children. Now it certainly is a difficult thing
for a Doctor to make their little ones from 3 to 5 years feel
at their ease with him, because when they are in good health,
the medical man and the chimney-sweep are very often made bug-bears
of. 'My dear, if you are naughty the chimney-sweep will carry
you off' or 'Child, if you eat too much, the Doctor will come
with his nasty medicine'. The consequence is, that the little
angel, when ill, begins to cry violently and to struggle as soon
as the physician enters the room. On such occasions a slip of
paper and a pencil generally came to my assistance. A story,
invented on the spur of the moment, illustrated with a few touches
of the pencil and humorously related, will calm the little antagonist,
dry his tears, and allow the medical man to do his duty.
In this manner
most of Struwwelpeter's absurd scenes originated. Some of them
were later inventions, sketched in the same impulsive manner,
without the least intention on my part of literary fame. The
book was bound, put under the Christmas-tree, and the effect
on the boy was just what I expected."
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