Tohby Riddle

Tohby Riddle is an Australian cartoonist and picture-book creator. In 2005 he became editor of The School Magazine, in which his illustrations, non-fiction pieces and poems appear regularly.

History

Tohby was born in Sydney, Australia, and has lived there since. His early years were spent at a Steiner school where a love of making things and making things up (mainly with drawings and words) flourished.

After high school, Tohby went to Sydney College of the Arts where he majored in painting and average guitar playing. After graduating he worked in a number of jobs that usually involved carrying things larger than himself. All the while he was unsure what kind of art he wanted to make. He loved illustrated books and cartoons but it never occurred to him that he could do such things. One night a friend said, "Let's make a children's story!" They did, and it was not very good, but it gave Tohby ideas …

Then Tohby got another job. He still had to carry things but it was in a small but growing publishing house. He was mailing clerk at what was then Pan Books Australia. This was a great education for him. Apart from knowing what it would cost to send a non-standard letter, weighing over 500 grams, to Queensland, he saw first-hand how a publishing house worked. He also saw what manuscript submissions looked like and what rejections slips looked like. And his kind employers introduced him to visiting authors (from Jackie Collins to Oliver Sacks) and included him in many of the publisher's functions and book launches.

The experience served him well when later he decided to try another picture book. (He had also read a terriffic book on the art of Maurice Sendak that showed in some detail how Sendak made up Where the Wild Things Are.) Knowing he had a better chance of illustrating a book if he wrote it himself, Tohby produced a mock up of a story called Careful with that Ball, Eugene! It became his first book.

The year it was released Tohby began studying architecture at The University of Sydney. He found this to be an excellent all-round education in art, design, and the making of three-dimensional objects. Interestingly, this course has a history of producing not just architects, but cartoonists, scriptwriters, film directors, comedians, set designers and art directors.

Indeed, interest from publishers and a desire to keep trying out ideas for picture books – and by now cartoons – led Tohby to make the difficult choice between practising architecture or becoming a dedicated artist and writer. He chose the latter, but his architecture training continues to serve him well – his ideas, he believes, have to be well built and not leak!

Since that time, Tohby has produced a number of books, cartoons and illustrations. Some of the books have been published internationally, some have received awards, and one (The Great Escape from City Zoo) has had the feature film rights to it bought by a Hollywood studio.

Luckily, considering Australia's wealth of talented cartoonists, Tohby's cartoons have been able to find a regular home in the newspapers. Tohby is also lucky he didn't listen to the first newspaper art director he visited. After looking at Tohby's portfolio, he politely suggested Tohby think of another career. Tohby didn't necessarily disagree with the art director's advice – he just couldn't think of another career. So he tried to do better work.

Tohby has also visited schools, universities and writers' festivals across Australia to talk about his work and other things that come to mind, and has spent a number of years as an editor. He still believes that if you stick at something long enough, perhaps even decades, you could become an overnight success.

List of Books

Careful With that Ball, Eugene! (1989, US 1991, UK 1991)

A Most Unusual Dog (1992, US 1993)

Arnold Z Jones Could Really Play the Trumpet (1993, reprinted 2000)

The Royal Guest (1993)

50 Fairies You Ought to Know About (1995, Germany 2004)

The Tip at the End of the Street (1996). Australian IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) Award for Children's Literature; Children's Book Council of Australia Notable Book 1997

The Great Escape from City Zoo (1997, US 1999). Shortlisted for the Children's Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year 1998, and the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards 1999

The Singing Hat (2000, US 2001). Honour book in the Children's Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year awards for 2001; Joint winner of the Wilderness Society of Australia's Environment Award 2001, Picture Books category; Australian Publishers Association Design Awards,2000, winner of Best Designed Children's Cover; Highly commended in Best Designed Children's Picture Book category; Commended in the Best Designed Jacket of the Year category

What’s the Big Idea? (2003). Highly commended in the Australian Publishers Association Design Awards for 2003, in the Best Designed Illustrated Book category

Irving the Magician (2005)