World Book Day returns for its annual celebration of all things book-related this Thursday (7th March 2024), with events in the works planned in libraries, schools and other venues across the globe – and comic artist Vivian Truong has created this year’s graphics.
This year’s World Book Day illustrator is Vivian Truong, a self-taught British-Born Chinese comic artist who currently lives in London. A natural storyteller and an avid lover of cartoons and comics, she studied Computer Animation Arts at Bournemouth University. Her work focuses on finding the humour in every day situations and exploring fantastical new worlds.
At the start of her journey, she won a runner-up prize for her one shot, “Moving On”, for the Japanese Embassy’s Manga Jiman contest, and won a prize for the best interactive media for her interactive comic, “I Fell in Love with Evil”, at university.
The first graphic novel she co-created, City of Dragons: The Awakening Storm, written by Jaimal Yogis, was listed as a “Best Graphic Novel of 2021” by ALA and was a worldwide hit amongst reviewers. City of Dragons: Rise of the Shadowfire was published by Scholastic last year.
She’s also the artist behind the Wall Street Journal listed self-help book, I Am Fun Size, and So Are You!, and the young adult graphic novel series described as “Naruto but with LGBTQA+ characters”, Cooking with Monsters, written by Jordan Alsaqa. Other work includes illustrations for the Beano project, The Day The Teachers Disappeared, published earlier this year.
Vivian also works as a storyboard artist for game studio and has created artwork for Riot Games, miHoYo, Rebellion, and more, including the Punches and Plants webcomic series for the popular MOBA game, League of Legends.
“It’s a great honour to have been asked to be the World Book Day illustrator,” says Vivian. “As soon as I got the email, I wanted to write a big fat “YES!” immediately and tell the whole world! There’s been an amazing range of fantastic illustrators in the past and I hope I can bring a fresh new take on the World Book Day campaign with my style.
“I’ve always loved World Book Day growing up. It was an exciting occasion to discover new books and bring them home. It has played such a significant role not just in my life but for schools and libraries to keep providing access to books for everyone and to keep the spirit of reading alive to parents and kids alike.”
Vivian says she’ll be celebrating World Book Day by grabbing as many graphic novels that are still on her list to read! “And if any one chooses to dress up as someone from City of Dragons, that would make my day.”
World Book Day, supported in the UK by National Book Tokens, was created by UNESCO on 23rd April 1995 as a worldwide celebration of books and reading. World Book Day is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. The first World Book Day in the UK and Ireland took place in 1997 to encourage young people to discover the pleasure of reading. As World Book Day founder, Baroness Gail Rebuck, recalls “We wanted to do something to reposition reading and our message is the same today as it was then – that reading is fun, relevant, accessible, exciting, and has the power to transform lives.”
The mission of World Book Day is to promote reading for pleasure, offering every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own. Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income. We want to see more children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, with a life-long habit of reading for pleasure and the improved life chances this brings them.
Web: worldbookday.com
• Find out more about Vivian on her website here and read an interview with her about her work for this year’s celebrations here on the WBD official site
• Follow Vivian on Facebook | Instagram | Tumblr | X
• In this video, Vivian reveals the process behind creating the World Book Day illustrations, from her original concept ideas to the final stunning illustrations
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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