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A picturebook is a little like visual poetry while comics are like theatre; you have to tell a story in dialogue like a play or film script. – Satoshi Kitamura


the story of a boy’s journey through the nine circles of hell. The monotone illustrations are edgy and draw on an impressive range of styles and influences. This breadth of influences is also visible in the illustrated The Carnival of Animals, the book features poems created by a range of poets that are set to the musical movements in French composer Camille Saint-Saën’s orchestral piece of the same title. Satoshi’s illustrations are a cacophony of colour and motion and feature silhouettes, sepia illustrations to match the aesthetic of silent movies and provide an impressive visual journey which cleverly mirrors the cadences and rhythms both of the poetry and the music. Satoshi’s process begins with doodles in his sketchbook. “An interesting phrase or sentence in a conversation I overhear in a café might become a starting point.


Spring-Summer 2021


Something quite ordinary can be an inspiration.”


Satoshi explains how he tries to imagine seeing something common as though for the first time in life. This approach lends a sense of curiosity and wonder to his work. He creates his books in his studio, where he also produces sculptures. Satoshi works on a roll of watercolour paper and when he finishes a picture, he cuts it from the roll and starts on another. There is a wonderful sequential quality to this method of creation – itself almost a prototype of animation.


Theatre in a book In 2000, Me and My Cat was shortlisted for the Smarties book awards in the 0-5 years age category. The story tells the tale of a young boy who swaps bodies with his pet cat. The comic tale for younger readers


perhaps gave Satoshi some ideas about the lead character for 2002’s The Comic Adventures of Boots – another story with a feline protagonist. Visual narrative progression is clearly on display in The Comic Adventures of Boots. Drawing inspiration from some of the comics he enjoyed as a child the book is a collection of comic strips recounting the mishaps and misadventures of Boots the cat. Satoshi describes the different approach in creating comics as opposed to picturebooks.


“A picturebook is a little like visual poetry while comics are like theatre; you have to tell a story in dialogue like a play or film script.”


Satoshi has recently created comics for literary magazines for adult readers and hopes to create another comic book for children in the future.


PEN&INC. 11


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