For illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, life is good in fantasy land

By Kristina Tedeschi
Staff Writer

Published on December 21, 2007

Downstairs in Tony DiTerlizzi's spacious Amherst home, framed posters from the 1980s fantasy films "Labyrinth," "The Dark Crystal" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" cover the walls. A Pac-Man arcade game towers in a corner of the large studio. Packed bookshelves line one wall and a wooden desk strewn with art supplies, sketches and photos sits beneath a window that frames an expansive view of purple-hued mountains. An easel with a tray of watercolors stands among other nods to 80s pop culture, and a black director's chair perches in the corner, embroidered with the name "Tony DiTerlizzi" in silver thread. DiTerlizzi himself, seated at his desk with his 5-month-old daughter, Sophia, on his knee, is dressed in jeans, socks, and a slim black sweater with a silver star on the front.

In a few months, DiTerlizzi's star will be shining a lot brighter.

In February 2008, "The Spiderwick Chronicles," starring Freddie Highmore and Mary-Louise Parker, with appearances and voices by Nick Nolte, David Strathairn and Martin Short, will hit theaters nationwide. Filmed with a $100 million-plus budget, the movie is based on the best-selling five-book children's fantasy series of the same name DiTerlizzi co-created with Amherst author Holly Black.

In the lead-up to the movie's release, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst has moved aside some of its Carle collection to present props, clay sculptures and original drawings to show how DiTerlizzi's illustrations were developed into lifelike creatures for the movie. Jim Bissell, a Hollywood production designer who worked on the film, and on "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," "Good Night, and Good Luck" and "300," among others, curated the exhibit.

"This is the first time we've pre-empted Eric's full gallery for something else," said Nick Clark, director of the museum.

The impact isn't lost on DiTerlizzi.

"I keep waiting for my mom to wake me up," he said in a recent interview, seated on a couch in his studio. "I'm 12 again; late for the bus; getting ready for my daily pummeling by the school bully."

Imagination comes to life

"The Spiderwick Chronicles" tells the story of siblings Jared, Simon and Mallory Grace and the mysterious world they encounter through a "field guide" they discover in their uncle's secret library. The books are filled with fantastical creatures - house brownies, sprites, boggarts, goblins - that co-exist among humans. DiTerlizzi, 38, and Black, 36, sold the idea to Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing and Nickelodeon Movies back in 2002 with "a lengthy outline, a handful of drawings and a concept," said DiTerlizzi. And ever since, he says, his life has been a whirlwind of deadlines, sketches and meetings with film executives. The movie started shooting in Montreal in September 2006, and wrapped that Christmas. Last month, DiTerlizzi, his wife, Angela, and Holly Black attended a packed advance screening of the film in New York City. It was, quite literally, DiTerlizzi's imagination come to life.

Raised in an artistic household in Jupiter, Fla. on the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, Brian Froud and Alan Lee, folklore and legend became major influences early on, DiTerlizzi says. As a child, he spent much of his time drawing, and at 13, created his first book of sketches outlining an imaginary world of dragons and other mythical creatures. Fantasy books and movies from his childhood by the likes of Jim Henson, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Theodor Geisel (Dr. Suess) shaped his interests, he says, and English fairy-tale illustrator Arthur Rackham and the detailed paintings of naturalist John James Audubon contributed to his artistic style.

After attending the Florida School of the Arts in Palatka, and later, The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, DiTerlizzi moved with Angela to Brooklyn and began an illustrating career in the gaming industry, where he worked for several years on drawings for the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons and the trading cards, Magic: The Gathering. With help from Angela, who in a circuitous, friend-of-a-friend exchange hooked him up with his now-editor at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, DiTerlizzi embarked on his dream of writing and illustrating children's picture books. His first book, "Jimmy Zangwow's Out-of-this-World Moon Pie Adventure," about a boy who flies to the moon in search of his favorite snack, was released in 2000, followed the year after by "Ted," about a child's attempts to convince his father of the existence of his imaginary friend - a pink oaf. In 2003, DiTerlizzi's black-and-white illustrations for his retelling of Mary Howitt's 1829 classic "The Spider and the Fly" earned him a Caldecott Medal. The prestigious annual award, granted by a division of the American Library Association, is given to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

While in Brooklyn, DiTerlizzi met Holly Black. She was working for a gaming magazine, and happened to interview Tony for a story she was working on. They got to talking, and discovered a shared love of ancient folklore, DiTerlizzi said. Black had just finished her first young adult book, "Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale," about a rough-and-tumble teenager who is actually a member of the fairy world, but didn't yet have a publisher. DiTerlizzi read it, loved it, then showed it to his editor at Simon & Schuster. It was published by Simon Pulse in 2004.

Black and DiTerlizzi quickly became friends and joined creative forces.

Discovering fairies

Growing up, Black believed in the fairy world. Her mother used to read to her from Froud and Lee's "Faeries," and one day created a fairy scavenger hunt for Holly in their backyard.

"I really did believe that I was seeing evidence of fairies," Black said. But as a kid, she was easily frightened, she says. When her mother told her "Dracula" was the scariest book she'd ever read, Black began reading about vampires in folklore books, arming herself with knowledge to protect herself from them, she says.

"That was how I first got involved with folklore - out of fear," Black said. She found that fairies were portrayed very differently there than in modern literature.

"People often think about fairies as little sparkly things with wings," Black said. "Fairies are dangerous in folklore. They would steal your children, blight your crops, make your cow wither away and die."

And thus are the origins of the faeries in "Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You." That is the book the Grace children find, and ignoring a warning posted on the book's cover, Jared opens it to discover a new, sometimes terrifying world. But only those with "the sight," or the help of the magical Seeing Stone, can see them.

The books have enjoyed enormous success. More than 6 million copies have been sold worldwide, with all five books appearing on The New York Times best-sellers list. Book five, "The Wrath of Mulgarath," debuted at number one on the list. The books have been translated into over 30 languages.

Ordinary kids

Kevin Lewis, the editor of the Spiderwick series, says he was drawn to the idea of "characters believing in and interacting with things that others would say aren't even real," he wrote in an email message. He said Black and DiTerlizzi's work is different from many other fantasy books on the market because the heroes in them are average kids.

"No one has magical powers. They have no remarkable gadgets at their disposal, and no secret uber-organization backing them up," Lewis wrote. "It's just three hopelessly ordinary kids who find themselves in an extraordinary situation with only their wits and each other to guide them."

DiTerlizzi says an important motivation for his work in the fantasy realm is the ability to fuel a child's imagination. In his opinion, believing in magic is encouraged less and less as children get older. But many of humankind's accomplishments began with an idea firmly rooted in the imagination, he says, like walking on the moon, for example.

"I think that being able to contribute to that kind of thinking is an honor," he said. "I do think that love, that appreciation for that, happens young." For that reason, DiTerlizzi says, he chose to aim "Spiderwick" at children ages 7 and up.

Although the "Spiderwick" series is written for young readers, the film does have some scary parts, DiTerlizzi said. "It skews a little older," he said. "It's got some dark elements in it. I don't know if I'd take a 7-year-old to see the movie."

In turning over his book ideas to a major studio like Paramount, DiTerlizzi said, he had to give up control and let filmmakers run with it.

"I was one of those people who was a real stickler for making the movie the same as the book," he said. "But then I realized that didn't work. You've got to let it go and let them do what they do." Inevitably, parts of the books did get left out of the movie, DiTerlizzi said. One of the most disappointing omissions for him was the unicorn sequence, he says.

"There's this great scene in book three when the kids start to learn what humans did to the faeries, and why they haven't seen them for so long," DiTerlizzi said. In that book, "Lucinda's Secret," a unicorn touches its horn to Mallory's forehead. In a flash, Mallory sees the "bloody and brutal" past of the faeries, he said.

"It's such a powerful sequence, but that particular scene - they couldn't cram it into the movie," DiTerlizzi said. "Fingers crossed, if we get a sequel, maybe we can revisit it."

Leaving the city

DiTerlizzi and Angela, a former makeup artist for the television show "Saturday Night Live," left Brooklyn in 2002. DiTerlizzi said the couple was in search of a rural lifestyle, and zeroed in on Amherst, where they had visited friends often.

"The congregation of writers and illustrators [in the area] was a huge draw," he said, "and the colleges kept it a hip New England town, opposed to a stuffy New England town." The couple's first child, Sophia Marie, was born last summer.

Black, who also had friends in the Pioneer Valley and was drawn to the area's used bookstores and coffeehouses, she says, soon followed, moving to Amherst about three years ago.

These days DiTerlizzi and Black are working on a new series, "Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles," set in Florida with a new group of children who encounter creatures unseen in the previous books. The first book in the series, "The Nixie's Song," about a slew of dangerous dragons on the loose in the swamps of Florida, debuted at number one on The New York Times best-sellers list in September.

Next year the pair will embark on an international book tour through the United States and the United Kingdom, where they'll be promoting their latest work as well as the movie. And on the horizon is the February release of a Spiderwick video game, by Sierra Entertainment.

DiTerlizzi is also working on illustrating and writing a retelling of "The Reluctant Dragon" by Kenneth Grahame.

Back in his studio, where he's surrounded by the books, toys and memorabilia that inspire so much of his work, the artist reflects on how his childhood hobbies and dreams have morphed into a successful career. The income from his books, he notes, has afforded him the luxury of "focusing on nothing but making more books. I'm at a point now where I can do whatever I want, art-wise and book-wise," DiTerlizzi said. "I made a living out of my imagination."

Kristina Tedeschi can be reached at ktedeschi@gazettenet.com.