25 Comments

“RIP that one cat with the pupils.” I just spat my coffee out 😂

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Oct 18Liked by Mac Barnett

Great conversation, love to learn what you two see when you look at these books. I wonder about the clouds as well. Special care seems to be put into making sure they have their place on the page. It also makes me think of the tiny house on top of a rolling hill, that's also a recurring scene in picture books. Her line work all over is really great, for sure an influence on Crumb and the like.

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Oct 20·edited Oct 20Liked by Mac Barnett

I just went down a Wanda Gág rabbit hole, and it was so much fun! It would be interesting to get some production insights about this book as well—I think it might have been impossible (or near) to typeset the text around the illustrations (?) when this was published, hence hand-lettering, and while there was four color separation in the early twentieth century, it was probably something that kiddie publishers wouldn’t spring for.

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I’m glad you chatted about the cat fight - it’s my very favorite picture book pitch to imagine.

“A picture book for kids! Hm. What a novel concept! And kids love cats! What happens next?”

“All the millions of cats kill and eat each other.”

“… Fire up the printers boys we’re gonna be rich.”

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Boy. I’ve been looking at picture books for 35 years, but y’all have been LEARNING me these past few posts. Thank you!

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I love Make Way for Ducklings. Just sayin'.

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This is my favorite newsletter. I look forward to seeing it pop up in my inbox, and then I think about what I learned all week…and talk at my family about what I learned. All week. Thanks again, for the excellent content.

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These posts are just gold! I loved the observation that a more exploitative version of this story would have made more of the scraggly kitten's personality earlier, to gain our sympathy. It seems to me that would often be the choice with contemporary picture books, to give the child reader someone to "relate to" and cheer on. Something to be said for less useful, more fable-like stories.

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Your insights are brilliant - and fun!

I've read this book millions .... of times (no, not really) but I don't recollect having the idea that the cats ate each other. It seems I remember them just going away.

I guess that says something about me and my ability to compartmentalize or not believe cats would do such a thing, and yet still be willing to accept the fact that yeah, sure this man not only encountered millions of cats but then brought them home!

Thanks for this fabulous newsletter!

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1920s illustrations! I wonder if she was inspired by E. H. Shepard's 1926 illustrations of Winnie-the-Pooh--a runaway bestseller in both the UK and the US. Shepard and Milne carefully designed the page layouts to incorporate the illustrations as part of the story, including full spread illustrations (though they didn't work exactly like Gag's since it was a novel, not a picture book text). I think part of it, definitely for Shepard and probably for Gag as well, was new printing press technology that allowed them to put images on the same page as text. But it definitely took a few years for illustrators to figure out how to use that new freedom.

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I enjoyed your discussion of the story. It’s so entertaining how you speak to each other, you make me feel as part of the conversation. So thanks.

I just wanted to add to the discussion that when the old man asks who is the prettiest cat and triggers the terrible cat war reminds me of the scene where the goddess of strife tosses the golden apple with a “to the most beautiful woman” and starts the Iliad War.

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Tried to order the poster, but the shipping to Canada was prohibitively expensive. So, instead, I'm going to make my 9 year old draw me a copy of it. Or maybe I'll have them draw the cat fight page instead (whether or not they would like to add rivers of cat blood is up to them).

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Wonderful, thank you!

I’m curious to know if the book’s original publisher had challenges printing the two-page spreads, since they were so innovative. Any insight?

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I loved this ( and all your banter- always) one of my first reads as a kid. I don’t know why I loved this as a child as the ending is so damn brutal. I love how you both break down the story telling and the technical parts. I 100% agree with all the technical pieces you pointed out. However, “ two page spreads to huge vistas,” really does create that journey you describe and that Gag “chose interesting moments to draw”also is SO clever. The beauty of this story is that one can just simply enjoy it- but when you examine the specific parts ( as you two have) you really see it in a whole new light. Thank- you!

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Somehow I never noticed the wedding portraits on the last spread before. It shifts the meaning for me from something environmental to something more personal. Thank you! I love the deep dive throughout.

In return, I point to the spread with the grass as the first one where the cats speak. The water is the third. And the fight is actually the third time.

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So, so interesting! 🐈

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