One of the most rewarding aspects of working on Bedtime Stories for Awful Children was collaborating with Simon and exchanging references throughout the project. Sharing references is always an exciting part of the creative process—it’s like peeking into the treasure chamber of someone else’s imagination. These exchanges often spark unexpected discoveries that broaden your creative outlook.

At first, we were thinking of making these stories as comics, but time constraints led us to create an illustrated book instead. I initially felt like I had failed the stories by not drawing them as comics, but in hindsight, the illustrated format suits them much better.

Simon and I were closely aligned in our vision. We drew from classic Nordic illustrators like John Bauer and Elsa Beskow. along with Arthur Rackham, Bernie Wrightson, and Mike Mignola. I brought in Hans Arnold, and Simon introduced me to Junji Ito’s Uzumaki.

Ink line drawings felt like the natural choice, echoing the era and mood of the tales. Simon colored my drawings and framed them together with the text in the style of an old storybook. It looked incredible — it elevated the stories, adding texture, atmosphere, and a deeper sense of context.

Folklore is often darker and more grotesque than people expect, and that raised the question: how much horror should the illustrations reveal? Striking the right balance between suggestion and depiction is always an interesting creative challenge.