Chris Ware might be the first person I know to suggest that Harold (of Purple Crayon fame) is Black. In the Foreword to the first volume of Barnaby (Fantagraphics, 2013), Ware recalled his own childhood reading of Crockett Johnson’s book: “Harold was black. At least he looked like it to me. Not that this should
Have you been wondering whether to see the new Harold and the Purple Crayon movie? Or perhaps you have been wondering what Crockett Johnson’s biographer thinks about it? As that very person, I am glad to answer both of your questions. And I do, in “The Purple Crayon on the Big Screen,” published in School
Coming this fall from Oxford University Press, it’s How to Draw the World: Harold and the Purple Crayon, and the Making of a Children’s Classic. That’s right! It’s my small book about Crockett Johnson’s even smaller one. I’ve made a book trailer for it. I’ll share more about the book in the coming months. But
