An illus­trat­ed zine dives into the world of Wes Anderson

Leaf­ing through the pages of Man­jit Thapp’s ​‘A Wes Ander­son Zine’, you may need to pause a while to drink in the details. The after­noon light cre­ates a balmy glow as Mar­got Tenen­baum smokes a cig­a­rette; a few pages lat­er, Peter, Fran­cis and Jack, gaze wist­ful­ly through a train win­dow. Inspired by some of her favourite moments from the director’s fil­mog­ra­phy, UK-based illus­tra­tor Man­jit Thapp crys­tallis­es icon­ic scenes from the likes of The Roy­al Tenen­baums and The Dar­jeel­ing Limited.

More than sim­ply being an ode to Wes Ander­son, the zine also rais­es a toast to his mot­ley crew of char­ac­ters. ​“I first began watch­ing Anderson’s films when I was 17,” says Thapp, ​“I enjoy so many aspects of his work, but as an artist I’m espe­cial­ly drawn to the visu­als he imag­ines. The cos­tume design, art direc­tion and colour palettes nev­er fail to inspire me.”

This per­son­al project began when Thapp had a few weeks to her­self in between com­mis­sioned work. Giv­en the restrict­ed time frame, she decid­ed to con­cen­trate on a hand­ful of films: Moon­rise King­dom, The Roy­al Tenen­baums, The Dar­jeel­ing Lim­it­ed and The Grand Budapest Hotel.

“The first Wes Ander­son film I watched was The Roy­al Tenen­baums,” says Thapp, ​“and it still remains my favourite. I love the char­ac­ters and remem­ber sav­ing lots of screen­shots after watch­ing it. There were some scenes from the oth­er films which I knew I want­ed to include in the zine, and I rewatched them to pick some oth­er favourite parts.”

Each Man­jit Thapp piece always begins on paper, and is lat­er coloured and fin­ished on Pho­to­shop. This mix of tra­di­tion­al and dig­i­tal media cre­ates a dis­tinct visu­al tex­ture, with graphite scrawls pep­pered across the com­po­si­tions. ​“I love the tex­tures that tra­di­tion­al media cre­ate,” Thapp explains, ​“espe­cial­ly when using pen­cils, and I like to retain that as much as pos­si­ble in the fin­ished piece. I like to com­bine the loose­ness of tra­di­tion­al media with the more refined nature of dig­i­tal art.”

A few years ago, Thapp release a series of nar­ra­tive illus­tra­tions which spoke to the expe­ri­ences of brown South Asian women. When asked about her pro­cliv­i­ty for cel­e­brat­ing women in all their beau­ty and diver­si­ty in rela­tion to ​‘A Wes Ander­son Zine’, she responds, ​“There are very few peo­ple of colour in Anderson’s movies, par­tic­u­lar­ly women of colour. For me it’s impor­tant to show diver­si­ty in my work; being South Asian, I grew up around a lack of rep­re­sen­ta­tion of brown women in pop­u­lar cul­ture. I try to chal­lenge this idea through my per­son­al work. This zine has an equal mix of men and women char­ac­ters, even though most of Anderson’s movies fea­ture men in the promi­nent roles.”

So, can we expect a sec­ond edi­tion of ​‘A Wes Ander­son Zine’? ​“I’d love to expand the zine at some point,” Thapp teas­es, ​“but until then I’m con­cen­trat­ing on watch­ing more movies, and sketch­ing the scenes that stay with me long after the cred­its roll. A few months ago, I drew the last scene from Call Me by Your Name. It was heart­break­ing, and yet so beau­ti­ful. I couldn’t stop think­ing about it.”

See more of Man­jit Thapp’s work at man​jit​thapp​.co​.uk