The Evidence Part #2

The Illustrations

Roger Hargreaves had been evolving his style since he first created the Mr.Men. A style that Adam Hargreaves, son of Roger, has now adopted. Let's take a look at it -

Here's what some of the earliest Mr.Men illustrations looked like:

But, by the '80s, Roger Hargreaves had refined his style, making the characters rounder, chubbier, more cuddly. Happier, in many ways. He had begun putting lines around the eyes of some of the characters.

By the mid-'80s, Roger Hargreaves' Mr.Men and Little Misses looked like this:

Worth noting that Adam Hargreaves picked up this style where his father left off when he began illustrating the books. But, in that '90s period, between the death of Roger Hargreaves and Adam taking over the illustrations, the style looks quite different. Gone are the lines around the eyes. The line work more crude.

And, with characters like Mr.Grumble, comes the introduction of some odd mouth shapes that Roger Hargreaves never did.

The style does not match where Roger Hargreaves' earlier books were. And they don't have what Adam Hargreaves brought. These '90s books have the charm of neither.