Tony DiTerlizzi

Background

DiTerlizzi was born on September 6, 1969, Los Angeles, California, the first of three children in an artistically inclined household. He grew up in southern Florida, and although he enjoyed activities such as insect collecting, camping, and swimming, he was also deeply interested in drawing and reading.

Education

DiTerlizzi attended the Florida School of the Arts and later received a degree in graphic design from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale in 1992.

Education period of Tony DiTerlizzi in Florida School of the Arts

Education period of Tony DiTerlizzi in Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale

Career

After graduating from college in 1992, DiTerlizzi worked for TSR on the company's Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. Throughout most of the 1990's, he illustrated gaming materials and character guides worked on other games such as Planescape and Changeling, and contributed to role-playing magazines such as Dragon. His distinctive style garnered fans almost immediately. DiTerlizzi also illustrated a number of items in the wildly popular collectible card game Magic: The Gathering, published by Wizards of the Coast. His work in the gaming industry firmly established DiTerlizzi as an artist in the fantasy field.

In the late 1990's, DiTerlizzi expanded his repertoire and started illustrating books, including Peter S. Beagle's Giant Bones, Doug Cooney's The Beloved Dearly, and Greg Bear's Dinosaur Summer. He has also contributed covers to a number of novels.

Tony Johnston's Alien and Possum: Friends No Matter What and Alien and Possum Hanging Out, both illustrated by DiTerlizzi, are about the friendship between Alien, all metal and unhappy at his difference from the other animals in the forest, and Possum, a furry and soft creature who reassures Alien that he is special no matter his differences. In the first book, Alien and Possum consider that they are not the same colors, realize the benefits of friendships, and enjoy the ability to have things in common while treasuring the things that make them different.

In Alien and Possum Hanging Out, the two protagonists continue to develop their friendship and learn about the world while recognizing their differences, celebrating their birthdays, and simply "hanging out" on a tree branch in unique and individual ways.

The Spider and the Fly, Mary Howitt's classic tale, was republished with illustrations by DiTerlizzi in 2002. The Spider and the Fly was named a Caldecott Honor Book in 2003.

DiTerlizzi is also the author of two self-illustrated books, Jimmy Zangwow's Out-of-This-World Moon Pie Adventure and Ted. The first follows precocious and adventurous child-inventor Jimmy Zangwow as he undertakes a mission to find Moon Pies, his favorite snack. When his mother refuses to let him eat a Moon Pie before dinner (because, of course, it would ruin his appetite), Jimmy rockets to the moon in search of his beloved treat. On the moon, Jimmy gets 1,000 pies from Mr. Moon, but later he shares all but one of them with 999 hungry Mars Men. He saves himself and his Martian friends by giving the dreaded Grimble Grinder his last Moon Pie. Jimmy returns to Earth on a Moon Pie wrapper balloon made by the Mars Men.

In Ted, a young boy is visited by his imaginary playmate, Ted, who has lots of great ideas for fun but little appreciation of the consequences of his outrageous acts. The boy's father finally banishes Ted from the house. When the boy finds Ted at an old playground, he learns that his father was, like him, a lonely boy in search of companionship and attention from his own father. Ted has also been around before; the boy's father knew him as Ned during his own troubled youth. The father ultimately finds the boy at the playground and reunites with Ned.

DiTerlizzi wrote and designed Star Wars: The Adventures of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight, published in 2014 by Disney Lucasfilm Press (an imprint of Disney Publishing Worldwide). Accompanying his words were illustrations by Ralph McQuarrie.

Author/illustrator Mo Willems partnered with DiTerlizzi to illustrate the book The Story of Diva and Flea, inspired by Willems' year living abroad in Paris. Disney-Hyperion published the New York Times bestselling book in 2015.