JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE MIND

Before Disney, Louie self-published a sketchbook that helped him believe anything was possible…

Louie del Carmen is a prolific publisher of books. He released his first, Random Anomalies, in 2006. It features 15 editorial-style cartoons about “seemingly random events”.

Since then, he’s released all-ages comic Girl ’n’ Robot, several volumes of a comic called Steel Noodles, and three sketchbooks in his MUSE series – full of drawings “of the feminine persuasion”. But it was his second book that he looks back on most fondly.

“In 2006,” Louie says, “having been in the animation industry ten years, I branched out into illustration and self-publishing. I illustrated and printed an ashcan-style sketchbook called The Wayward Traveller: Snapshots from Alternate Worlds.”

The Wayward Traveller pays tributes to many of Louie’s favourites artists: “The whimsical and quaint style of Rowland Emett, the technical wizardry of Syd Mead, the charm and innocence of Hayao Miyazaki, and of course, there’s some in there from the master, Jean ‘Moebius’ Giraud.”

Louie printed the book in time for the San Diego Comic-Con 2006 and sold all 500 copies. He liked the idea of creating alternate worlds on the page, where possibilities are endless: “It proved to me that if I kept experimenting with what I can do with art, that it would open new roads.

“Looking at that book now, it’s so primitive and amateurish, but the energy and intent is not lost, and reminds me of a time where it seemed like anything was possible.”