Wally was the brainchild of Martin Handford, an illustrator born in the Greater London neighborhood of Hampstead.
Handford said that growing up, his earliest influences were large-scale cinema epics, the kinds of movies with large crowd scenes, which he would then try to recreate with pen and paper. Wally was born, a visual tie-in that kept continuity from scene to scene. Waldo, however, isn't particularly good at keeping track of his items and so, on each page, he loses one, requiring the reader to help him find it.
The book series launched in in the UK, with Wally as its titular character; later that same year, the series was launched in the US, where Wally was introduced as Waldo. The series took off, becoming a sensation within only a few years and eventually morphing into a TV series in both the US and the UK, a comic strip, several video games including one due out this September from Ubisoft , and even a few magazines in the UK and Australia, Wally went on weekly adventures to new countries, which he reported on his children's geographical and cultural magazine, Wally's World.
By , when the publishers of the books came out with Where's Waldo? But not only has this international man of mystery gotten lost in scenes across the world, but so has his original identity. Continuing the pattern started with its introduction to the US, Wally got a new name and it seems, a new attitude with every country he was introduced.
But in France, he became Charlie "Ou est Charlie? This April, students at Rutgers University earned a Guinness Book of World Records distinction for the most number of people dressed as Waldo in one place. Where's Wally? Waldo travels to everyday places — such as the beach, the ski slopes and the zoo.
The book features 12 detailed 2-page illustrated spreads of the different locations. Somewhere amid the crowded scene is Waldo and readers are asked to scour the detailed illustrations to locate the lost traveler.
Each scene is accompanied by a postcard to the reader from Waldo, who introduces the scene and comments on his travels. Waldo sets out on his journey equipped with 12 items to help him on his travels. He carries a walking stic k , kettle, mallet, cup, backpack, sleeping bag, binoculars, camera, snorkel, belt, bag and shovel. As Waldo journeys from location to location he loses one of these item, and asks the reader to locate the object left behind in each scene as well.
At the end of the book there is a collection of check-lists of other things to find in each spread. Readers are asked to go back to the beginning and re-explore each scene locating other objects, gags and people in each picture. The special edition relocated Waldo in each scene, updated various items and inserted new characters to spot — including Woof , Wenda , Wizard Whitebeard , Odlaw and the Waldo Watchers.
This version has since become the standard 2nd edition version — replacing the original first edition in book stores and subsequent releases.
Since the initial release there have been subsequent paperback editions New characters, such as Wenda and Wizard Whitebeard, were inserted into the image for the poster along with other minor changes to scene. In the early part of the s Martin Handford was working as a freelance illustrator, specializing in drawing crowd scenes.
After seeing some of Handford's artwork, David Bennett, a business associate and an art director at Walker Books in England, contacted the artist about developing a children's book showcasing his singular talent. It was only then that the character Waldo was conceived.
Waldo was created to provide a link between each crowd scene and provide a focus and purpose for the book. Handford explained in a interview that "a book full of crowd scenes has no central theme, but adding a wacky character for the reader to look for adds a purpose to each page.
That's who Waldo is - an afterthought. Handford first began working on the book in Handford illustrated each the 12 scenes for the book - working at time for more than eight weeks to create just one of the two-page Waldo spreads.
David Lloyd, a Walker Books editor, helped Handford polish the minimal, yet nessesary, text found in the postcards throughout the book. Handford insists there is no science behind where Waldo was hidden in each page. He says that as he would work his way through a picture, and simply add Waldo when he came to what he felt was "a good place to include him".
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