The wonder of it all

08:38 AM EDT on Thursday, July 8, 2004

BY BILL VAN SICLEN
Journal Arts Writer

Fans of Chris Van Allsburg will recognize the entrance to his Web site as part of his first book, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi.

The Polar Express has a new stop -- in cyberspace.

For the past few weeks, book fans of all ages have been climbing aboard www.chrisvanallsburg.com, a new Internet site devoted to the work of Providence author-illustrator Chris Van Allsburg.

The site, which debuted on June 4, offers information about Van Allsburg and his books, including classics such as The Polar Express, Jumanji and The Z Was Zapped. Interactive features also allow visitors to play games, write stories and take part in a virtual scavenger hunt.

"It really came out very well," Van Allsburg says of his first online venture. "One thing you always worry about when you start a new project is how well it's going to turn out. That was especially true in this case, since I basically have no computer skills whatsoever."

To help create the site, Van Allsburg turned to Glad Works, a decade-old Pawtucket company that specializes in corporate identity and advertising campaigns, including Web-site design.

Van Allsburg says he was attracted to Glad Works for two reasons. First, it was local. Second, it was recommended by his wife, Lisa.

"They did some work for Festival Ballet, which we're close to because Lisa is on the board of directors," Van Allsburg explains. "She liked what they did and recommended them to me."

From Glad Works' perspective, working with an artist of Van Allsburg's stature represented both a challenge and an opportunity, according to marketing director Callum Grieve.

"Obviously, it was great for us to work with someone like Chris," Grieve says. "On the one hand, his books are known literally around the globe. On the other hand, we're used to dealing with clients who hire us to do a specific project, then leave it to us to sort out the details. Working with Chris was much more of a collaborative process."

Glad Works also had to cope with Van Allsburg's other commitments -- notably the soon-to-be-released movie version of The Polar Express. The movie, which stars Tom Hanks, is due out this fall.

In the end, Grieve says the site took nearly 18 months to develop, including more than a year of writing and programming.

Fortunately, the results were worth the effort. In fact, visitors to www.chrisvanallsburg.com will find a magical online world much like the ones depicted in Van Allsburg's books.

The first thing you see after arriving at www.chrisvansallburg.com, for example, is a drawing of a young boy standing at the entrance to a mysterious garden. Van Allsburg fans will quickly recognize the scene as part of Van Allsburg's first book, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi.

Web site visitors can play games, write stories or color in images from Van Allsburg's books using an interactive color palette.

Though the drawing, like most of Van Allsburg's work, is shown in black-and-white, visitors can add a dash of color by positioning their computer's cursor over the boy's body. Mouse-click on the boy and he suddenly runs into the garden, as the rest of the image slowly dissolves.

The next thing you see is another Van Allsburg drawing -- this time from the 1981 Caldecott Medal-winning book Jumanji.

The drawing shows a room filled with toys, including a ball, dollhouse and toy dog.

Mouse-clicking on any of these images produces a tiny burst of animated activity. (The ball, for example, turns yellow and bounces up and down, while clicking on the toy dog causes a more realistic looking dog to pop out of a window and begin barking.)

The same page also allows visitors to access other parts of the site.

Ever wondered where Van Allsburg get his ideas? Try clicking on the site's "About Chris" section, then clicking on "Frequently Asked Questions."

Looking for a complete list of Van Allsburg's books? Click on the "Timeline" or "Books" sections, the latter of which allows you to digitally thumb through several pages of each book.

Perhaps the site's most innovative feature is its "Interactive" section.

Here visitors can play games, write stories or color in images from Van Allsburg's books using an interactive color palette. The section also has an online scavenger hunt, in which players advance by answering questions about characters and events in Van Allsburg's books.

"From a technical standpoint, that's something we really labored over," says Grieve. "We wanted all the interactive features to be fun and easy to use, but to still have that special sense of wonder and mystery that makes Chris' work so distinctive."

(Note: to fully enjoy www.chrisvanallsburg.com, you'll need at least two multimedia programs -- Macromedia's Flash Player and Apple's QuickTime Player. Fortunately, free downloads of both programs are available over the Internet.)

Surprisingly, Van Allsburg says he never gave much thought to launching a Web site until recently. Then he learned that his name was being used to lure Web users to an x-rated site.

"One day the babysitter suggested that I might want to check out this Web site that was using my name," Van Allsburg says. "When I did, it was like 'Whoa, I don't want any kids going here.' "

After consulting a lawyer, Van Allsburg says he arranged to buy his name back for an undisclosed sum. During the negotiations, the individual using his name revealed an interesting piece of information.

"Of all the sites this guy had, and he had quite a few, mine consistently got the most hits. Basically, it was his most popular site."