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Steve Martin, Roz Chast build an 'Alphabet'

By Emily Hulme | ehulme@am-ny.com

5:10 PM EDT, October 30, 2007

Illustration from 'The Alphabet from A to Y With Bonus Letter Z!' (Handout Photo)

Yes, "A" is for apple, but it's so much more. Funnyman Steve Martin and illustrator Roz Chast use this conceit as the central thesis of "The Alphabet from A to Y With Bonus Letter Z!," a book that should delight both children and the adults who read to them over and over.

Besides employing non-traditional words to showcase the letters of the alphabet, the book's illustrations encourage close examination to discover the little visual jokes in the background that New Yorker cartoonist Chast is known for. We spoke with Chast about what it's like to draw for children versus adults, and where she gets all her ideas.

For you, is there a noticeable difference between cartooning for grown ups and kids? Not really. When I was a kid I really liked Charles Adams, and I like to think that, [with] people who are funny, as long as a person can read, [they] might not get all the references but [they] can enjoy them.

There is a perception that cartoons are just for kids. Do you ever feel like you face that? I don't know. I watched "The Simpsons" with my kids when they were little, when they were growing up, and we still enjoy them, so I think [the book] is really one of those things that can appeal across a broad spectrum of ages.

While you were working on this book, were there any kids in your life that you were thinking about? No, I think I was thinking about kids in general and my own experience being a kid. I loved detail, I loved drawings where the more I looked at it, the more I could find. I was picturing a kid looking at, let's say, the "A" page and they're not going to see all of it, depending on the age. They're not going to know that thing is an ampersand, but they'll notice there's an axe in the corner, or maybe they will know the word for abacus and they'll see that there are things in the picture that aren't in the rhyme, and it'll be like a game.

Does your process differ in going about a project like this and stand-alone cartoons for The New Yorker? It's very different in some ways because with The New Yorker, even if I have ideas written down, I'm kind of starting with a blank slate. Illustrating [someone else's idea] is kind of different. You have the script in front of you. In some ways, it's easier because it's already in motion. For me, sometimes working is trying to get something started that is totally still.

When you come up with those cartoons, do you get an image in your head first? What's your starting point? It really varies. Probably most of the time I have a more verbal idea, like something that's funny, or something I've heard, or some funny thing that happened to me, gives me an idea for something else and that's a verbal kind of thing. But sometimes I'm just doodling, and I'll draw one of those end-of-the-world old men, and then suddenly I'll see an idea for a cartoon once a picture is sort of there.

Your cartoons often deal with basic insecurities that feel so true to life. Are they ever autobiographical? Some of them are more autobiographical than others, but I think for me, I have to go with what's funny for me, and if somebody else finds it kinds of funny I'm just thrilled to pieces.