There are two good doctors keeping us going these days: Dr. Anthony Fauci … and Dr. Seuss.
It had been years since Boston-based creative director Jim Malloy thought about the latter’s books. After seeing a social media post about Oh the Places You’ll Go!, Malloy began toying around with some wordplay in the spirit of Seuss, and it made him smile—and he realized it might make others smile, too. He thus began passing the time by marrying the covers of Seuss with the wisdom of the doctor on the front lines of the battle with the pandemic (and its related outbreaks of misinformation).
Malloy’s goal was to change the covers as little as possible, and to keep everything in Seuss’ signature style—which Sean Trowbridge’s font Doctor Soos helped with considerably once Malloy discovered it. He credits his wife with the deep Seuss cuts like The Butter Battle Book and The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (the latter interpretation of which Malloy is most proud of, given the texture and style that depart from the author’s later books).
“It’s been fantastic to hear from people about their love of both the original publications and these COVID-related covers,” he writes. “To see that something like this is bringing levity to people is special, and it made the project considerably meaningful.”
It turns out the leadership of Fauci and the illustrative positivity of Seuss are exactly the blend of self-care we need right now. Here are some of our favorite images from Malloy’s series.
