Edmonton artist crafts comic books for Smithsonian Institution
Drawings focus on America's storied aviation history
Edmonton-based illustrator Lee Nielsen's career has taken flight with a commission to explore America's rich aviation history.
Nielsen was contracted to illustrate a trilogy of educational comic books developed by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and has spent the last six months bringing the story — filled with soaring balloons, blimps and dirigibles — to life.
Drawing inspiration from the agency's collections and founding history, the series follows a group of kids on a field trip to the world's largest museum and turns into an expedition through space and time.
"Each book is based on one of the Smithsonian museums, so the first one centres on the National Air and Space Museum," said Nielsen during a Tuesday morning interview on Edmonton AM. "They go the Smithsonian and get up to a bunch of wacky hijinks."
The first part of the series, The Wrong Wrights (Secret Smithsonian Adventures), makes its way to bookstores Feb. 16.
The scripts were written by New York Times bestselling author Steve Hockensmith and television producer Chris Kientz.
Nielsen says getting the details of the storyline just right was a huge challenge.
Since he's never stepped inside a Smithsonian museum, Nielsen had to rely on images from Google street view and photographs from Smithsonian staff to create his illustrations.
"Even though it's a fictional story that takes place in a kind of fantasy world there was a lot of historical components that had to be accurate."
Nielsen started his career in video game and television animation, and over time has become an established artist.
"You keep at it, and eventually things begin to snowball," he said. "You make connections and you have working relationships that extend over 15 years.
"Before you know it, you are too busy to wonder if you can find work or not."