"Bookmobiles on Parade" print

“Bookmobiles on Parade” was originally a very detailed wraparound cover I made for the June 2025 issue of the Literary Review of Canada, and it's one of those illustrations too rich to not turn into an art print. If you follow the winding road I've drawn from top left to bottom right, you're treated to 26 bookmobiles from different locations and eras, the oldest being Enoch Pratt's Free Library book wagon that roamed the streets Baltimore in the 1910s to the very modern bookmobile van that serves Nagano right now. 

Some of these vehicles loaned books, some sold them. Some only represented a single publisher's output. And one is fake: yes, I invented the yellow "Camionette Comix" truck near top left. The comics world needs some love, too. 

The real bookmobiles I've included, though, are from from Topeka, Norrköping, Prague, Sydney, Hannover, Italy, Perguia, Detroit, Japan, Frankfurt, Edmonton, Brooklyn, Freiburg, Dunedin, Bas-Rhin, Nagano, Baltimore, Providence, Kentucky, Toronto (ie. York Township), Monroe County, Calgary, and Milan. There's one in the mix that I couldn't find a location for—the horse-drawn wagon driven by a cat in front of the wheelchair guy—but aesthetically it was too good to pass up. Oh, and what's at the front of the parade? A broken-down Sussex County Library van from New Jersey, causing the whole motorcade to grind to a halt. 

One last thing: I was delighted to learn that the bookmobile world's past and present is far larger than I'd thought—a print like this can only explore a corner of it. Interested in seeing more? I command you to watch the fully-restored 1958 Margaret Perry-produced Roads to Reading film right here.