My good friend Adam Michel at Smashing Ideas sent over this short clip featuring some of Ted Geisel's original production boards for Green Eggs & Ham. It's a double whammy for me since I'm such a sucker for both Dr. Seuss AND old school production.
I was gratified to learn that Geisel was very meticulous about the way things should look. Made me feel a little better about some of my nit-picky production notes.
Growing up in the 70's my family didn't have a television, so we went to the library - a lot. My siblings and I used to memorize entire Seuss stories and quote them back to each other. One day we discovered Dr. Seuss on vinyl at the library. There was no TV in the house but we did have a record player. That album was in heavy rotation every time we were able to check it out.
Ted Geisel was to children's books what Bob Dylan was to popular music. He revolutionized the way people thought about his art form. His unique blend of whimsy and wordplay simply didn't exist before he came along. Although there were plenty of other illustrators in his day with arguably "better" drawing and painting skills, none of them had the ability to connect with kids of all ages quite the way he did. Simply put, he was magic.
-SH