Raymond Briggs, An Appreciation

Here in PA, we've finished digging out from our recent blizzard. All the snow put me in mind of that wonderful wordless picture book The Snowman by Raymond Briggs. In 1982, four years after its release, it was made into an equally spectacular animated film.

Briggs, an early practitioner of graphic novels for young readers (before they were called such), is not as well known on this side of the pond. In Great Britain, though, he's a big cheese, and deservedly so. The man who is most famous for The Snowman composed that book as an antidote to Fungus the Bogeyman. It took two years for Briggs to complete Fungus, and after being "buried amongst muck, slime, and words," he wanted his next project to be "clean, pleasant, wordless and quick." To hear Briggs talk about his art, click on this recent interview from "The Guardian."

And to celebrate the joys of winter, here's "Walking in the Air" from The Snowman. Enjoy!