It always seems like we should show the illustrators and authors of children’s books more love. Personally, I credit folks like Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle, Bill Watterson, Maurice Sendak and Shel Silverstein for stretching out my imagination as far as it would go when I was a kid. I suppose what distinguishes the great from good in that category are the books you can flip through fifteen or twenty years later and still be blown away by their creativity or their power to convey complex ideas in deceptively simple ways.

Whether or not it’s intended as a children’s book, in the traditional sense of the word, Rop van Mierlo‘s wordless Wild Animals collection has that same sort of classic feel and elegant simplicity to it. Billed by van Mierlo as “a wild book for civilized people” and “a sophisticated book for wild people”, Wild Animals is a collection of gorgeous watercolors, done in a playful, gestural style that almost recalls Rorschach inkblots. Aside from that, the award-winning work is self-published, and now in its second printing. Read on for a closer look inside, or cop here.