Brian Elstak (b. 1980) is an artist and illustrator. He makes graphic novels and children’s books, as well as video clips and paintings. For his children’s book Tori, he won a Zilveren Penseel, one of the most important Dutch prizes for illustration. The book was also adapted into a play, which was broadcast on national television. He wrote the story for his trilogy in collaboration with the authors Karin Amatmoekrim and Esther Duysker.
Although Zindzi Zevenbergen’s debut is about an invisible illness, the book itself is a real eye-catcher. The striking cover is wrapped around a text with an ingenious and surprising design, with some paragraphs printed at angles or vertically, so that you have to turn the book as you read it.
‘End?’ This is how artist Brian Elstak concluded his first two children’s books, Tori and Trobi. With a question mark. Because the adventure of the three children Cel, Bones and Zi – armed with a magic tiger’s paw, a pencil sword and a colossus shield – wasn’t over yet. But in Lobi, there’s a full stop after the word – the trilogy is complete.
