Story by Donald H. Harrison; Photo by Shor M. Masori
SAN DIEGO – In the guise of an anonymous sales lady tending a display of books at Comic-Con, Sara Ann Varon watched as people laughed while they thumbed through copies of Bacon and Sausage.
Varon was the illustrator of the children’s book written by Gabriel Smith. This was her debut effort as a children’s book illustrator, and as people would laugh, she peeked to see what illustration had tickled their funny bone. And next, “I remember how much it made me laugh to think about that image and to draw it.”
“I love when kids are looking at it, and saying, ‘Oh, God, I really want that. Can I get it!’”
Varon is a graduate of the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. As a girl, through seventh grade, she attended the Jewish Day School in Bellevue, Washington, before going on to public school in the middle and high school levels.
“Bacon and Sausage?” I asked her. “It couldn’t have been “Bagels and Lox?”
“What can I say?” she responded. “The writer is not Jewish. I realize that bacon and sausage aren’t kosher food, but these are just drawings.”
Two bears in the story—one small and clever, the other large and dopey—decide to name themselves “bacon” and “sausage” in honor of the foods they just love to eat. (Bears know gornisht about the rules of kashrut.)
Varon’s parents knew Smith’s parents, and realizing that their children were in the same field, introduced them. A collaboration developed.
What is it like trying to put someone else’s thoughts into pictures? I asked
“It is actually very fun. At first I was worried would I be able to do it the way he was thinking, but once I started to read his script – and he is really good at script because he has done this for a while – I start to picture it in my head. Then we start laying things out, and I show him, and he’s laughing, saying ‘This is awesome, I love it!’ So he is really easy to work with. I had a great time.”
Varon hopes that the lovable bears will become popular enough to be worthy of serialized treatment.
She said she knew from a very young age that she wanted to be an artist.
“In the third grade, I got really serious about drawing,” she said. “But I have comics that I drew back when I was maybe seven years old, like Wizard of Oz characters doing silly stuff. I love looking back at those. They make me laugh so hard, at what was my humor back then.”
“I really love drawing,” she added. “I’m the sort of person who likes ‘me time.’ I like quiet. I’m not a big loud person, so that sort of hobby fit in well with that type personality.”
I asked about her studio, and she said for now it is a Tablet, a computer, and some good programs and “they’re just in my room. Maybe I’ll have a studio some day.”
Probably so.
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Harrison is editor and Masori is a staff photographer of San Diego Jewish World. Their emails are donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com and shor.masori@sdjewishworld.com, Comments intended for publication in the space below MUST be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the United States.)