'Little Miss Hug'.
Adam Hargreaves is a British children's book illustrator and painter, best known as the son of Roger Hargreaves, creator of the popular children's book series 'Mr. Men' and 'Little Miss'. After his father's death he has continued the franchise.
Early life
Adam Hargreaves was born in 1963 in Surrey, South East England, as son of Roger Hargreaves, a concept artist in an advertising company who'd become famous from 1971 on as creator of the 'Mr. Men' and 'Little Miss' children's novels. The first entry, 'Mr. Tickle' (1971), was directly inspired by a question eight-year old Adam once asked his father. When he overheard the verb "tickling", he wondered "what does a tickle look like?" Roger Hargreaves then wrote a book about a character named Mr. Tickle who goes about tickling people. The books became a universal bestseller, with a truckload of merchandising created around it.
'Mr. Tickle and the Scary Halloween', by Adam Hargreaves.
Farming
While Adam Hargreaves showed artistic promise and followed an art foundation course, he felt embarrassed by his father's childish and formulaic books. Inspired by his mother's side of the family, who were farmers, he decided to become a farmer instead. In a 2011 interview with Lucy Cavendish for The Daily Telegraph he explained: "(...) At the time, there was this whole back-to-the-earth thing going on. When you farm, you do a day’s work, and then you see the fruits of your labor. I liked that aspect to it, physically achieving something rather than doodling around on bits of paper." And so Adam went to work on a beef and arable farm in Sussex. After studying at Plumpton Agricultural College he became a dairyman in 1984. Later that decade Adam traveled to Australia where he met his future wife Annie. As she took interest in the 'Mr. Men' books, Adam finally opened up to his father's legacy. As fate would have it, in 1988 his father happened to die from a stroke, shortly after.
Following in his father's footsteps
After his father's passing, Adam Hargreaves then took it upon him to write and illustrate new 'Mr. Men' and 'Little Miss' books and keep the older titles in production. To emulate his father's graphic style, he took a course in drawing at Brighton Art College. His twin siblings Sophie and Amelia later joined in to concentrate on the merchandising and financial aspects. In 2004 the rights to his father's books were sold to the entertainment group Chorion.
In 2017, Adam Hargreaves also launched a series of storybook mash-ups, which combine the storytelling of the sci-fi TV series 'Doctor Who' with the typical Hargreaves drawing style and humor.
'Dr. Eleventh'.