Umbluu
(Find me at 50 Watts Books.)
A friend of the blog submitted these scans of Umbluu, a 1980 children's book by Estonian artist Vello Vinn. Vinn no longer works in illustration, instead concentrating on printmaking. I'll post some of his non-children's-book work in the near future, and will be sure to include a short bio then (luckily he's featured in the bilingual book Eesti kunstnikud / Artists of Estonia). [Update: here's that promised post.]
The book is full of funny stories based on wordplay. For example the centerfold illustration [below] is about the word 'lammas' (lamb) which backwards is 'sammal' (moss) and the story is how a wolf is chasing a lamb and a bird tells the lamb to turn over. The lamb turns over, but the wolf is still getting closer. The bird again tells the lamb to turn over, the lamb turns over, but the wolf is still chasing him. The bird shouts for the lamb to turn over again and this time the lamb turns and turns—and turns into moss. So this is how he escaped from the wolf.
