#Leo Dillon

[undergroundrockpress]

The Fox by Leo Dillon (1967)

[garadinervi]

Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness, Cover art by Leo and Diane Dillon, Ace Publishing Corporation, New York, NY, 1969

[thefugitivesaint]

Diane Dillon (1933-) & Leo Dillon (1933-2012), ''Spectrum'', 1994 Last page for ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' by Nancy Willard, 1993

[humanoidhistory]

The ocean world of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon.

[gameraboy2]

The Odyssey, paperback cover by Leo and Diane Dillon, 1969

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

‎Françoise Mallet-Joris - The Witches - Farrar, Straus & Giroux - 1969 (jacket design by Diane and Leo Dillon)

[uwmspeccoll]

Staff Pick of the Week

My name is Elizabeth Voorhorst, and I am a new writing intern for Special Collections this semester. It is a pleasure to share this space, as I am excited to delve into the vast sea of books that Special Collections makes a home for.

I am an English major, with a focus on creative writing. Because of this, my time spent in Special Collections will be focused predominantly on fairy tales and folklore, perhaps dipping into mythology when curiosity and inspiration strikes hardest.

For this week, I wanted to focus on black creators and their works for Black History Month. Because my pride and passion is folklore and fairy tales, I thought it would be fun to take a look at what we have in our collection and share it with you!

Retellings are always enjoyable, as you get to see the way writers recreate and offer their own flare and heritage to the story. One such story is The Girl Who Spun Gold, a retelling of the German classic fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin. This retelling was written by Virginia Hamilton (1932-2002) and illustrated by Leo Dillon (1933-2012) and Diane Dillon (1933- ).The book was published 1n 2000 by Blue Sky Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.

The story is about a West Indian girl named Quashiba, whose mother lies to Big King that she is able to spin golden thread. The King takes Quashiba as his queen, expecting her to fill whole rooms with golden fabrics and finery, which of course she would be unable to do. However, she meets a creature who offers to help, but demands that in three days she must guess his name correctly or be bound to him forever.

Quashiba is now able to fulfill the King’s continuous demands, but is unable to guess the name of her helper, until the King reveals to her that he ran across a strange creature in the woods who was dancing and singing a song that included his name, Lit’mahn Bittyun. So, on the final night, after the room is filled with fabrics and wondrous goods, Quashiba plays dumb for the first two guesses, and on the last guess she gives him his full name and he explodes into a confetti of golden specks. The King repents his greed, but only after three years and a day does Quashiba reconcile with him.

The absolutely stunning illustrations for The Girl Who Spun Gold were made using a four-color process with gold as a fifth color. The Dillons comment on the painting process, stating:

Knowing the difficulty of painting with metallic paint as well as the difficulty of reproducing gold, we still chose to use it, for the story itself revolved around the concept of gold. The art was done with acrylic paint on acetate, over-painted with gold paint. The gold borders were created using gold leaf.

The book was printed on one-hundred-pound Nymolla Matte paper, and each illustration was spot-varnished.  Color separations were made by Digicon Imaging Inc., Buffalo, New York, and the book was printed and bound by Tien Wah Press, Singapore, with production supervision by Angela Biola and Alison Forner. Along with Leo & Diane Dillon, the book was also designed with help from Kathleen Westray.

View more work by African American artists.

View more posts concerning African Americans.

View more Staff Picks.

- Elizabeth V., Special Collections Undergraduate Writing Intern

[retroscifiart]

Art by Leo & Diane Dillon, 1989

[tomoleary]

Leo Dillon (1933-2012) and Diane Dillon (b. 1933). The Odyssey paperback cover, 1969

Source

Leo Dillon (1933-2012) and Diane Dillon (b. 1933). The Iliad paperback cover, 1969

Source

[incorrectclassicbookquotes]

Boy: There is something that happened to me when I was eighteen years old and my life took a strange direction, just for a little bit, because I realized there's something I want to be with my life that's not the norm. There's something that's off the beaten path. I wanna be a fucking criminal. I'm not kidding I wanted to do crimes. I woke up one day at eighteen years old and said "You know what I have to do? I have to do a B and E." I'm talking about breaking and entering and I wanted to do one. I made the decision and I called my buddy Leo because when you do a B and E you need an accomplice and the key is you always need to bring somebody with you who does not want to go. They have to hassle you the whole time and make it difficult for you to enjoy the B and E. I called Leo and I go...*In the past during the story* Hey dude, check it out bro, where going on an adventure tonight.

Leo Dillon, nervously: What? I don't like adventures. What?

Boy: I need you to drive and come with me *whispering* we're doing a B and E.

Leo Dillon whining: No! Whatever your thinking of doing...no! No!

Boy: Dude, you come over and pick me up right now or our fucking friendship is over forever. I will not even talk to you in the next life. Come over! *hangs up phone* *Back to the present where he is telling the story* Leo comes over. Next thing you know we're in the car. *Back in the past* Drive around the community. I wanna find the perfect house to do my B slash E.

Leo Dillon, while driving: Don't do this. Why would you even do this?

Boy: Because I need to. It's a quest and I'm on it.

Leo Dillon: You're gonna get in fucking trouble, dude.

Boy: I know, I'm looking for trouble. Now pull over around this corner. *Pointing at different houses* Not that house. Nope that one feels weird. *Finally finding a house* That's the house right there, Leo. That's the house I'm doing a B and E.

Leo Dillon: *Shaking his head nervously*

Boy: I don't know what that means, but I'm doing it. *Back in the present* He pulls about sixteen blocks away from the target because you always have to park about way to fucking far and then you have to go through backyards, you have to hop over fences and shit. It's part of the fun right and you always have to get caught on that one chainlink fence where your like...*Back in the past*

Leo Dillon, stuck in the fence: Fuck, what the fuck dude. Dude, this is my favorite shirt.

Boy: Well you shouldn't be wearing your favorite shirt on a fucking B and E. Wear your second favorite shirt, you dunce.

*Getting to the house*

Boy: You ready to do this?

Leo Dillon: Wait, dude, I hear a car.

Boy: Yeah, the world's full of them. You're gonna hear a lot of them for the rest of your life. If you hear a humpback whale, that's weird, tell me that shit. Then I'll stop. *Back in the present* I get to that door. I'm three steps away. My heart is racing. I step up, one, two, three and I stop. *Back in the past* Wait a minute, I don't know if I can do this. I got it. *Kicks in door* *Back in the present* And I felt fantastic. So here's what happened. The second that my foot connected and that door flew in, I took two steps into that house and I realized at that very moment that I did not want to do a B and E. No, I just wanted to kick a door in.

[undergroundrockpress]

Leo Dillon, 1967.

[70sscifiart]

Let's take a break from the space bars with a fantasy-themed Space Crowd Saturday: Leo and Diane Dillon's 1993 cover for The Sorcerer's Apprentice, by Nancy Willard. Delightful critters here.

[thefugitivesaint]

Top: Diane Dillon (1933-) & Leo Dillon (1933-2012), ''Cathleen Nesbitt – Little Wildrose and Other Andrew Lang Fairy Tales'', 1973 Bottom: Diane Dillon (1933-) & Leo Dillon (1933-2012), ''Tales of Witches, Ghosts and Goblins'' Told by Vincent Price, 1972

[makemerainbows]

Leo & Diane Dillon covert art for LP: Reading Rainbow Songs (1984).

@thewalrusandmeman

[a-book-of-creatures]

In love with Leo and Diane Dillon’s Greek mythology art, from the 60s Classical Greece book by Time-Life

[diioonysus]

black women + art