The Gland Factory

Illustrator Clayton Hanmer launches new book at Picton Library

The human body can be a pretty messy thing. Bloomfield resident Clayton Hanmer’s new book, The Gland Factory: A Tour of Your Body’s Goops, Juices, and Hormones, aims to make the inner workings of the body accessible and understandable to youngsters ages eight to 12. The book, written by Rachel Poliquin, explains how the endocrine and exocrine systems work to maintain a healthy body, and Mr. Hanmer’s illustrations depict the human body as a factory filled with fanciful figures acting as supervisors, bosses, workers and saboteurs— the germs that every now and again throw a spanner into the works.

Mr. Hanmer was trained as a graphics designer at George Brown College in Toronto. After graduating in 2001, he did editorial work for publications such as the Globe and Mail, New York Times and Toronto Star. About 15 years ago he started working on children’s books and comics through Owl Magazine, Nickelodeon and National Geographic Kids. “I shifted naturally over to drawing kids stuff, because I just love drawing goofy, silly stuff,” he said. This is his 11th children’s book. “They are all non-fiction books to help kids learn complex scientific ideas,” he explained. “I’m given the text and I read all the information and then distill out what the characters are going to be like. The illustrations using a factory analogy helps readers understand the text about how the different parts of the body function together. I’m using visual language to explain complex ideas.” He said this project took about two years from start to finish, with about six months of intensive drawing. He uses an iPad with software that mimics the use of pens and pencils. It’s a faster process, but Mr. Hanmer initially resisted the move away from paper. “I didn’t want to transfer over to digital unless it felt real, and the software that I use helps me with that,” he said.

The book was launched last Saturday afternoon at the Picton Library in conjunction with a children’s drawing workshop. About two dozen children took part in the workshop where they were encouraged to use their imagination to create offthe- wall cartoon characters. Mr. Hanmer showed a few techniques to make the characters dynamic with a sense of movement and emotion, and ended the session by using ideas from the kids to create a comic strip about a character taking a plane to go on vacation in Mexico.