Space Colony

Welcome to a bustling moon colony, straight out of Martin Handford's famous "Where's Wally?" books, known as "Where's Waldo?" across North America. Since the series launched in the late 1980s, kids and grown-ups alike have squinted at these packed pages hoping to spot the grinning fellow in his red and white striped shirt. This scene, titled Space Colony and drawn in 1990, sends the hunt into outer space, with glass domes rising from a rocky lunar surface, rockets streaking overhead, and aliens of every shade going about their strange little lives.

Handford drew all of this by hand, filling each layer of the picture with hundreds of tiny figures and jokes. Wobbly robots trundle through the crowds, spaceships crash and zoom, and countless small dramas play out inside the multi-level domes. Spotting Wally is really just the excuse, since the true pleasure comes from wandering through the mess and catching all the goofy moments tucked into the corners.

This sort of art never pretends to be lofty or deep. It exists purely for the fun of searching, and that simple pleasure has kept people happily scanning these crowded worlds for well over thirty years. Find Wally right away or hunt for ages, either way the picture delivers a cheerful little puzzle worth the effort.