Keynote: Illustrated Novels

Scott Westerfeld Keynote

   Scott Westerfeld, author of the Levithan series, the Uglies Series, Peeps, and Minighters, all young-adult novels.  His newest is Goliath, the third in the Levithan series.

   He started off with talking about how he recieved a copy of his novel Levithan in the Japanese form with pictures! Ever noticed how Sherlock Holmes’ signature image is his cap. His cap is never mentioned is never in the stories, the illustrator created that look and the fans took it and ran with it.

   Westerfeld has multitudes of fan art that he considers his own “illustrators” in addition to his illustrator Keith Thompson who has created the imagery for the series. Many fans have tried as hard as possible to copy Keith’s style, but others have done manga “I know it’s manga because it’s windy!” –Scott Westerfeld, and others have done paintings, and even LEGO creations of the different machines in the novels.  On his blog he has Fan Art Friday which features differnet fan’s artwork.

   Many other authors have had fan art such as: Maureen Johnson’s Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes, David Levithan’s Will Grayson, Will Grayson of both Wills, and Heather Brewer’s Vladimir Todd.

   “Maybe illustrated novels aren’t gone – they’re just from you.” –Scott Westerfeld

Keep the fan art coming!

–Willa, Teen Corps