The Carpet Flyers

Hundreds of people are lounging in mid air here, cross legged on patterned rugs, drifting over a city of striped domes and flat rooftops. This is the land of the carpet flyers, one of the stops on Wally's journey through fantasy worlds, and the scroll in the top corner explains the rules of the game before you begin. Look for the small red aeroplane weaving between the carpets, an odd modern intruder in a scene otherwise borrowed from the Arabian Nights, and for the rooftop markets below where merchants are still unrolling the merchandise.

The pictures were made by Martin Handford, a British illustrator who published the first Where's Wally? in 1987 and drew every single figure by hand in ink and watercolour. A single spread could take him around two months. This one comes from The Fantastic Journey of 1989, the book where Wally leaves the ordinary world behind and travels with Wizard Whitebeard through twelve imaginary lands. Handford has said he never expected readers to hunt for Wally at all, he simply liked drawing enormous crowds, and the search was his publisher's idea.

Crowded panoramas like this have a long history, from Bruegel's teeming village scenes to Victorian comic prints, though Handford's version comes with jokes tucked into every corner: falling passengers, tangled carpets, a man clearly regretting his choice of transport. Wally is in there somewhere, along with his dog Woof, his friend Wenda, the wizard, and the yellow and black striped villain Odlaw.