Department Store

Welcome to a department store gone wonderfully wild, drawn by British illustrator Martin Handford for the "Where's Wally?" series. Since the books first appeared in 1987, readers around the globe have squinted at pages just like this one, hunting for a single cheerful traveler in a red and white striped shirt and matching bobble hat. In some countries he goes by Waldo, but the game is always the same. Somewhere among these hundreds of tiny shoppers, Wally is hiding, and the joy is in tracking him down.

Every figure here was drawn by hand, and Handford filled the aisles with small comic dramas. Shoppers stumble, clerks juggle armfuls of goods, and odd little accidents unfold in nearly every corner. The more you scan the crowd, the more of these tiny stories pop out, each one a self contained joke waiting to be found. Up in the top corner, a cheeky note from Wally himself sets the mood with his usual sense of fun.

No grand symbolism or clever technique sits behind this picture, and it never pretends otherwise. Its whole charm rests on careful drawing and the simple thrill of the search. That honesty is exactly why it works, turning a busy shop full of strangers into a game that pulls in kids and grownups alike.