Find the 80s character and win a prize!
It has been forty years since English illustrator Martin Handford created Where’s Waldo? Back in the UK (and the rest of the world) they call him Wally and wherever he is, we’re all still looking for him. The cartoon explorer finds himself in the world’s most crowded places but stands out with his round spectacles, red and white striped sweater and ubiquitous beanie.
For the last fourteen years, the American Booksellers Association has invited independent booksellers to hide illustrations of the beloved character in their shops, asking customers to come look for him (and maybe pick up a couple of books while they’re inside). Find Waldo Local is an annual project from Indiebound, a hide-and-seek game that brings in customers and urges them to explore. Through August 16, shoppers can request a special stamp card that the bookseller will sign or stamp. Prizes and discounts vary by bookshop. Collect ‘em all!
More than 300 bookshops are participating nationwide, but only five of them are in greater Los Angeles. The local stores are: Chevalier’s Books in Larchmont, Children’s Book World in West L.A., Diesel, a Bookstore in Santa Monica, Pages: a Bookstore in Manhattan Beach and Village Well Books and Coffee in Culver City. Completists can add the Frugal Frigate in Redlands, ninety minutes east of L.A.
The Waldo character has appeared in tens of millions of books, as well as video games, TV cartoons, posters, pillows, coffee mugs, puzzles, action figures and even a Funko Pop. Handford has said that he was inspired by the toy soldiers he collected as a kid, but that’s about all he says since he hasn’t done an interview in years. He sold off his creation to Entertainment Rights Group in 2007 for $2.9 million.
“All of humanity is represented in Waldo’s world,” cartoonist Lorenzo Etherington wrote in a column in The Guardian in 2016. “Politics, economics, war, love, death, art, yes, even literature is offered up, discussed, lampooned and celebrated within the simple interactions of his million-strong cast.”