Martin Handford

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Martin Handford (born 1956 in Hampstead, London, UK) is a children's book writer and illustrator who gained worldwide fame in the early 1990s with his Where's Waldo?/Wally? creation.

Handford began drawing as a child, making stick figures on paper. His inspiration to draw such figures were classic movies and the toy soldiers he played with during that era.

As a young adult, Handford worked illustrating crowds for clients who paid him to do so. Soon after, Handford was asked to draw a character with peculiar features. After much thinking, the self-confessed Bee Gees, Clash and Sergeant Bilko fan came up, in 1986, with the idea of "Waldo", a world traveller and time travel afficianado who always dresses up in red and white. Waldo was joined on most of his travels by a girlfriend who wore clothes with the same colors as Waldo's, and by an evil Waldo (named Odlaw - Waldo spelled backwards) who dresses in yellow and black.

Handford became a millionaire with "Where's Waldo". The "Where's Waldo" trademark sold in 28 different countries. Beginning in 1987, Handford produced a total of six "classic" "Where's Waldo" books, but his character was branched out into other products, such as notebooks, pillows, posters, video games and many others. There was even a syndicated comic strip as well as an animated TV series.

Handford is a very reclusive writer. Sometimes it would take him up to eight weeks to draw a two page sketch of the equally reclusive "Waldo" and the characters surrounding him.

The "Where's Waldo" books were printed in Hong Kong and published for Handford by Candlewick Press, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

A movie based on the "Where's Waldo" series of books was planned for filming in 2005 by Nickelodeon Movies, but was cancled due to Paramount's management change.

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