The Wizard of Op
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Anthology Editions
Published:11th Feb '25
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
In 1975, more than a decade into a career that would establish him as one of the most innovative children’s book authors of his time, artist and illustrator Ed Emberley followed the gothic woodcuts of his previous book, Suppose You Met a Witch, with a complete left turn: the story of a prince turned into a frog, and the bumbling wizard whose spells take the form of dizzying optical illusions. Combining the bold graphic experimentation of the 1970s Op-Art movement with the charmingly irreverent storytelling for which Emberley is renowned, The Wizard of Op is a visual odyssey like no other. On the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary, Anthology is proud to reintroduce this little-known masterpiece from a wizard of children’s literature.
"If nothing else, Emberley's exercises in black and white magic are an ingenious answer to the industry-wide cutback in color reproduction. Within a comic strip story of a prince turned into a frog and an incompetent wizard who tries out a bedazzling variety of spells before lighting on the one that can turn him back (meanwhile the prince becomes, briefly, a rabbit, a kangaroo, a grasshopper and a whale), Emberley subjects readers to seven double page eye-whammers to which the Wiz gives such fitting names as rectangle tingle, zig zag zowie and op tickle two. It's much fun, probably just about where the whole op art game finds its level. Wizard."
- Kirkus Reviews, 1975
ISBN: 9781944860684
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
38 pages