The drawings are drawn to the same scale as in the books and each 2-page spread usually contains about 300 to 500 figures, with Wally often being the last character drawn into the crowd. There was even a syndicated comic strip as well as two animated TV series (one in 1991 and another in 2019). Martin Handford (born 27 September 1956) [1] [2] is a British children's author and illustrator from London who gained worldwide fame in the mid-1980s with his Where's Wally? After much thinking, he came up with the idea of "Wally", a world traveller and time travel aficionado who always dresses in red and white.

His inspiration to draw such figures came from classic films and the toy soldiers he played with during that era. As an adult, Handford worked for three years in an insurance office (Crusader Insurance Company) to pay for his studies at UCA ( University for the Creative Arts) formerly KIAD (Kent Institute of Art and Design) in Maidstone, Kent. He began drawing crowds when he was 4 or 5 years old, and later as a child, making stick figures on paper. books were published in the UK by Walker Books and in the United States under the title Where's Waldo? a b c "Interview with Martin Handford" Archived 13 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Scholastic Book Club.In 1986, Handford was asked by his art director at Walker Books to draw a character with peculiar features so that his pictures of crowds had a focal point. The style of art executed by Handford is an example of " Wimmelbilderbuch" drawings, originally popularised by Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Brueghel the Elder and Hans Jürgen Press. books, but his character was branched out into other products, such as notebooks, pillows, posters, video games and many others.

Handford has gained the reputation of being a methodical and diligent worker: sometimes it would take him up to eight weeks to draw one two-page sketch "Wally" and the characters surrounding him. After school, when most other children he knew would go out and play games, he would draw pictures instead.Wally is joined on most of his travels by his friend, Wenda, who wears clothes with the same colours as Wally's, and by an evil character named Odlaw (Waldo spelled backwards) who dresses in yellow and black. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. series of books was planned for filming in 2005 by Nickelodeon Movies but was cancelled due to a management change at Paramount Pictures.

After graduating, Martin worked as a freelance illustrator specialising in drawing crowd scenes for numerous clients. first by Little, Brown and Company before being taken on by Candlewick Press (Walker Books' American subsidiary publishing company).