Roger Hargreaves Brainstorms & Research

Roger Hargreaves

This entry will cover the illustrator and author, Roger Hargreaves who fir those who don't know, he was a British Author and illustrator, best known for illustrating and writing the Mr Men Books which have also inspired a series based of the classic books we see and read to children today that Hargreaves wrote and illustrated which I have previously stated. This blog will cover the history of the mr men books, when each book was made etc, do you ever wonder, what the first ever mr men book of all time, I know I do and I bet you wonder now that I say to. well this link here has answered your question: https://mrmen.fandom.com/wiki/Mr._Men_characters?fbclid=IwAR1yrWXLg5M_x6hZh-dcx_HJi-8z-XkuwNcQovo3ho_mP3nsoMr49w8WRBs

Here is some research footage, I put together below, of the Mr Men on the history on Roger Hargreaves book releases, I found that he's created the books in a series of hulks, as in there were more than one Mr Men books released on the same day and month and year, which you'll see on that link where I found this information above and on my timeline I have created below, if that's not so legible, look at the link!

Mr Men book release history History Timeline 

This timeline above is basically the history of the Mr Men books released, which I found out from a website called Fandom.com... where I drew each Mr Men which helped me learn the history of each character and when these books were actually released, because. I have wondered this for some time now and was interesting to learn something about my past and childhood where I now know the origin and what Mr men were the original Mr's! I actually found this interesting, it taught me something I didn't expect to find myself learning and widened my knowledge a little bit also. I felt the need to search the history behind the Mr Men books as I felt it was needed to learn the history, the origin and what character came when as I am doing my project on the Mr Men, I therefore need to research the original Mr Men to get me started and researching the history will help me when I come to cross referencing my imagery and It will and has already given me a widened understanding on the Mr men consumerism. 

The origin of the Mr Men, the first characters Hargreaves created!

These were the classic unforgettable Mr Men we live, love and know back in the 70's to now, we still read these books to the infants and youths and we still see these characters as a childhood classic.

I even found out recently thanks to a video call with my tutor on Friday the 24th April and told me to search for sound for the Mr Men and suggested the theme tune to the tv show... holy christ, I had no idea it was a tv show, I thought it was just a successful book series but, it goes to show, it developed to a series also, here is an episode I watched just the other day... I was curious okay!! (You don't have to watch this, but if you want to relive nostalgia... watch it, if you don't want to watch it- don't) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxTpA5_T-fU anyway, I found watching this programme inspiration to create some 10 second bumpers and tests from the books and recently watching this episode and a few more... yes you could say I was getting into it, anyway, it inspired me much more to unleash my ideas and hope to create something I can call my own more by doing so I would be create some characters and footage of my own.

I started this segment of this project, by creating a brainstorm for a couple of Hargreave's Mr men for inspiration and then inspired me to doodle and draw some Mr men of my own also, this was just for experimentation and for fun and something else to do in quarantine giving me a break from looking at a computer screen constantly. Anyway, I drew his mr men first for inspiration and to give me an idea on how I can draw my own mr men inspired by Hargreaves himself.

My Mr men characters on the left inspired by Hargreaves's characters on the right

For my characters I wanted to create a design for a new Mr Man, to join the crew, my very own Mr man, inspired by Hargreaves's Mr Men I drew on the righthand side and before you ask or check, you can if you want but, I have checked to make sure this character hadn't already existed, which it does not! so my character is called Mr Blurt and I came up with a few design concepts that could work well as Mr Blurt, by looking at my doodles I think the characters o the top right and middle is the one for Mr Blurt, I wanted my character to forfeit the series, Blurt- if I remember rightly the programme was to do with art... and blurt means to suddenly shout something out as we have already accomplished and so I drew the character blurting away using a megaphone. I also liked the idea of my megaphone character but for me I think the Blurt splat won for me because it made the most sense and I feel worked best and personally ticked the box for me, and looks like my logo designs for Blurt, as I found some of my logo designs as an inspiration for the format of my Mr man character... Mr blurt. I also had the idea of creating a couple of my fellow peers as Mr Men also which is what the middle left is, whilst the rest of them were just design ideas for Mr Blurt. 

Considering the fact I have already mentioned before that Mr men's target audience is aimed towards children and infants, as they're easy and simple few page books to read and as a child you then grow up to read these books and through the nostalgia giving it a few years, you'll enjoy re-reading the classics, reminding you of your childhood and that is basically happened to me even just by researching the Mr men in the first place, it has taken me back, wonders... I feel old but at the same time I also feel so young and nostalgic, I enjoy it so I would even say this audience for the Mr Men, giving the history behind the Mr men and the various different generations who from the 70's and to current day have grown up reading these classic Childrens books and now watching the series... I would say the audience can be open, again for the stigma of nostalgia.

You could even say the reasons and purpose of creating my own mr man not only as inspiration from Roger Hargreaves but also as a tribute to the great man, who sadly is no longer with us. Seeing as he passed away in 1998, his son Adam Hargreaves took over the legacy for the Mr Men books made after 1998.

I found this out from this footage, below.

"People also ask, How did Roger Hargreaves die? Stroke

Roger Hargreaves/Cause of death

"Roger Hargreaves died on 11th September 1988 due to a sudden stroke. His son Adam Hargreaves is also a writer and he has taken over the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters in new stories."

Roger Hargreaves: 9th May 1935- 11th September 1988