Mister Random
Picture book, 32 pages
Published by Linoleum forlag 2002
Mister Random was my first published book. The illustrations are made in a wide range of techniques: Pen and ink, pencil, dry pastels, oil pastels, monotype, stamps and digital work. The book is almost without words, as later books Avstikkere and Koblinger.
Some of the characters from the book can also be found in later books.
Articles
”Masks, disguises and dressing-up are a central visual theme in Mister Random, and just as the leopard lady puts on a cowboy hat, and an octopus hides under a large elephant head, Torseter invites us to dress up and enter his surrealistic world in a playful and imaginative spirit. The inquisitive reader may ask what is real and what is imaginary? Does it matter? Where are we, and what is taking place? He further facilitates this creative play by keeping text to a minimum and maximizing the number of story lines. Many of Torseter’s solo works can be read as one narrative or as individual stories, and it isn’t clear, for example, in Mister Random, where the stories begin or where they end. With only very minimal text, this decision is left up to the audience.”
Ingrid Urberg, Pictures First: A Journey through Øyvind Torseter’s Universe
Patafysikk for begynnere: Øyvind Torseters bildebøker Mister Random,
Avstikkere og Koblinger
Helge Ridderstrøm, Barneliterært Forskningstidsskrift
Award
Årets vakreste Bøker 2003: Årets Bildebok
Mister Random is published in France by Editions du Rouergue