The incredible Rebbe Lev Tov and his ragtag group of shipwrecked passengers… A green-faced Esther Hamalkah and a hamantasch-eared Haman… The weeping Jews in Mitzrayim and the downtrodden Fishel the beggar… Which kid hasn’t spent hours enthralled by Gadi Pollack’s awesome comics and illustrations? Let’s speak to Gadi and find out how he makes his drawings come to life.

For the past 15 years, Gadi Pollack has been illustrating children’s books on topics ranging from good middos and proper behavior to alef-beis and Jewish history. How, I ask, did he get started?

“I started drawing like all kids do,” Gadi says, half joking. “The difference is that most kids stop at some point and I didn’t.” Jokes aside, Gadi attended art school for many years and trained under master artists in Russia, all of which helped him develop his wide-ranging techniques (see sidebar).

The first book Gadi illustrated for the frum world was Tell Me What You Think! by Tzila Margalit, published in 2000. After that he introduced himself to artist Yoni Gerstein, asking him for help in finding clients. Yoni was the one to make the shidduch between Gadi and talented author Rabbi Baruch Chait, an introduction that led to The Incredible Voyage to Good Middos and its sequels, written by Rabbi Chait and illustrated by Gadi; the beautifully illustrated Pesach Haggadah; and many others, including their most recent collaboration, The Desert Diary. But Gadi has written several of his own books as well, all known for their beautiful, highly detailed illustrations.

How, I wonder, did Gadi hit upon his mashal series, the Once upon a Tale set?

“People used to call me all the time and ask me to illustrate their stories,” he explains. “I would take a look at them and the stories didn’t make sense, they didn’t have enough historical background. All of a sudden it occurred me, why wait for someone to bring me a book to illustrate? There are so many meshalim in sifrei kodesh; you don’t have to look further!” The first book of meshalim, Once Upon a Tale, wasn’t intended to be part of a series, but its popularity persuaded him to continue.

Clearly a perfectionist, Gadi won’t stop working on an illustration until he’s satisfied with the results. He works with all different types of equipment — markers, precision pens, pencils, and computer. How long does it take him to create each drawing?

He laughs. “It’s impossible to know. The shortest drawing I ever did took me one day, and the longest took four months!”

How does he decide what to depict and how?

“When you draw a scene, the first thing to do is to look at it through the eyes of a child, to think about what he’ll see. I try to step into a child’s shoes and see what he’s seeing,” he explains. Simple enough, isn’t it? But most clients, Gadi says, are concerned more with the bottom line or with the message they want to deliver, and he often has to convince them to try it his way.

“When I work with Rabbi Chait, he has opinions too,” he adds. “We argue it out until we reach something we’re both happy with.” Yet, what often takes the most time isn’t the illustrations but the research behind the book or sefer. “The Desert Diary took us four years to research,” Gadi says. It was very labor intensive, but they felt the sefer “had to come out.”

Does he prefer to do funny illustrations, like PurimShpiel, or more serious ones, like the Pesach Haggadah? “I enjoy working on a variety of jobs,” Gadi says. “After a project like The Desert Diary, I may want to do something lighter. But after a book like Once upon a Tale, I want to work on something more serious.”

When I ask which is his favorite book to date, Gadi quickly responds, “That’s like asking a mother which child is her favorite. I can tell you which book was more successful, which less, but not which is my favorite.”

Gadi is also realistic about the projects he takes on. “I don’t take everything. First I see if the book interests me, because if it doesn’t, the illustrations won’t come out good. Then I see if it’s educational, and whether the author is someone I can work with. If I don’t think a project is going to work, I don’t take it,” he states firmly.

One reason why Gadi’s books are so successful is because he recognizes that everything he produces will have an impact on his audience, the kids. “It’s a mission,” he says, “and a very big responsibility. There’s a big difference between selling falafel and illustrating for children. I don’t want a child to read a book of mine and take away a negative message.”

Well, we’re glad to hear that! I ask Gadi if he has any final messages for Jr. readers, but he answers in his typical to-the-point way. “Everything I have to say, I say in my books!”

Gadis Life Journey:

Age 5: My father still has a drawing I did then, of my family in the car. It’s drawn from a child’s perspective, you see the car’s underbelly. We were traveling toward Moscow, which you see in the background. (At the time we lived in Odessa, where I was born.)

Age 10: I left music school, where I had been for four years, and my father helped me get accepted to a drawing school. It was a very exclusive school, which only accepted kids from age 11. They didn’t even want to let me apply, but my father begged because I couldn’t handle another year of playing piano.

Age 15: I graduated from drawing school and went to a famous artist to get training. The next year I applied to an art university and was accepted.

Age 20: I finished university and was drafted into the Russian army. At first I didn’t do any drawing there, but eventually I was asked to do caricatures for an army paper.

Age 25: I came to Eretz Yisrael, where I’ve lived ever since.

(Originally featured in Junior, Issue 603)