Wednesday, June 29, 2022

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Jump! Barry Moser's Brer Rabbit

I shared two Brer Rabbit books illustrated by Edward Gorey in yesterday's post, and today I have work by another great illustrator: Barry Moser, in three books by Van Dyke Parks. You might remember Barry Moser from his beautiful work with Virginia Hamilton; more about Moser and Hamilton.

The first came in 1989: Jump on Over! The Adventures of Brer Rabbit and His Family. (This book was actually a follow-up to a musical project by Parks: Jump!)


Here's one of Moser's illustrations from that book, and be sure to read his illustrator's note at the beginning of the book. I was so curious to learn about his work from the information he shared there. This is Brer Rabbit at home:




Here's Moser's depiction of all the animals who have come to watch the race; I love how Sis Coon is looking right at us like that:


Then the third book came in 1997: Jump Again! More Adventures of Brer Rabbit.


And here's a portrait of Brer Fox and Brer Coon from that book:


Until I started working systematically through these books at the Internet Archive, I didn't even realize Moser had done these illustrations, and I love how they are both inspired by the old Frost artwork while also imbued with Barry Moser's own special magic. You can find out more about Moser and his art at Wikipedia.

And then, just JUMP as the titles say: jump on into the books at the Archive, just a click away!


by Van Dyke Parks






No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are limited to Google accounts. You can also email me at laurakgibbs@gmail.com or find me at Twitter, @OnlineCrsLady.