Presenting my latest cover for Aconyte’s Arkham Horror line, and the third and final book in a trilogy by Tim Pratt.
Carl Sanford, once the Silver Twilight Lodge’s great leader and now presumed dead, lives in anonymity in Spain, plotting revenge against those who betrayed him. Alone, he calculates his first move to achieve power abroad is by being initiated into the mysterious ancient society called the Red Coterie to secretly take it over. Despite Sanford’s reputation, the Red Coterie demands proof of his occult prowess, sending him on a quest to vanquish The Blood Moon, a reclusive blood magus manipulating humans and monsters alike to achieve their own ends. As Sanford uses every scrap of cunning he possesses to outwit his enemies and prove his worth, old foes from Arkham have discovered his existence and are coming to finish him off once and for all.
The brief for this one was for a design that would continue the form of the previous two volumes while incorporating details of Antoni Gaudí’s architecture, Barcelona being one of the story’s locations. I’ve admired Gaudí’s architecture for a long time but I’ve never had the opportunity to use any of it in an illustration before. Most of the details are tiny ones but the unfinished porch of the Sagrada Família is recognisable, as is the iron dragon from the entrance gate of the Park Güell. The windows behind Sarah van Shaw and Carl Sanford are also Gaudí designs.
Less recognisable, but also a Gaudí creation, is the background pattern which is more visible on the back cover of the book. My previous covers for Aconyte have all used Art Deco mofits to complement stories set in the 1920s, with several of them having elaborate background patterns. The Gaudí design was one I hadn’t seen before, a hexagonal tile in which portions of three organic forms—starfish, ammonite and algae—become whole when the tiles are placed together. It’s a beautifully simple and clever design with the additional bonus for this cover of creating a series of spirals and tendrils which suit the Lovecraftian nature of the story. If you search around you’ll find a number of places selling reproductions as either ceramic tiles or coasters in a variety of materials.
The Twilight Magus will be published in July.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The Lovecraft archive
2 years ago you searched for evidence of the use Hollywood films of the ‘40 display surrealist paintings [presumed or genuine] in their sets, Specifically the Dali-look-a-like painting that appear in ‘the dark corner’ [1946]. The same painting appeared also in P. Sturges’ 1948 ‘Unfaithfully Yours’ [39:39]. Presumably it’s a studio prop.
Fabulous cover, John. I will check out Aconyte’s Arkham Horror books.
Hagai: Thanks, I’ve seen the Sturges film but not for many years so can’t recall any paintings appearing in it. I didn’t expect the faux-Dalí it to be anything other than a prop, no attention is drawn to it unlike the similar painting that appears in Crack-Up. I noticed a few more vaguely Surrealist pictures in set backgrounds during my noir marathon, usually those from the late 40s when the movement was at its height of popularity in the US.
Grim: Thanks also. The Aconyte books are spin-offs from the Arkham Horror gaming franchise but they all work as standalone novels, it’s not necessary to play the games to appreciate them.
The Rex Harrison character in ‘Unfaithfully Yours’ also -with the Dali look a like- display on his study wall what looks like Rousseau’s The Sleeping Gypsy [-La Bohémienne endormie]. so you are right about the vaguely Surrealist pictures in set backgrounds in the late 40’s.