Steampunk Horror Shortcuts

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steampunk2.jpgTime again for some work updates and other news. I mentioned in August that this Steampunk design—created to illustrate a formula definition of the genre by Jeff VanderMeer—was originally going to be a T-shirt. That idea fell by the wayside when an opportunity arose to submit it to Modofly who were asking for Steampunk-related work for a new line of their laser-etched Molekin books.

I’m pleased to announce that the books are now done and on sale at the Modofly store. These are available in two sizes, large (5.25ins x 8.25ins; 13.3cm x 20.9cm) and small (3.5ins x 5.5ins; 8.9cm x 13.9cm), $36 USD and $22 USD respectively.

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Next up is issue 11 of Penny Blood, an American horror magazine due out shortly which includes a feature on David Britton’s Lord Horror character and runs through the often tormented history of Savoy Books. Savoy’s Mike Butterworth and I were both interviewed and the piece should also include some comments from Keith Seward whose Savoy title, Horror Panegyric, examines the Lord Horror mythos. They don’t say yet when the magazine is out but it’s available for pre-order now.

While we’re on the subject of his lordship, I recently updated my pages for the Reverbstorm comics with a lot more samples taken from the re-scanned and re-lettered artwork. Work is still progressing on assembling the definitive single-volume edition of Reverbstorm as time permits. I’ve finished work on all seven published issues and am now engaged with the eighth and final section. More about that, and Reverbstorm itself, at a later date.

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Finally, there’s another new CD design out, my fourth this year and there are more on the way; I’m starting to feel prolific. As can be seen from the cover, this was a very minimal job. A Made Up Sound is a pseudonym of Dave Huismans, aka 2562, whose excellent Aerial album I also designed. Shorctuts is a collection of electronic sketches and Dave took the moodily anonymous photographs himself.

Heaven and Hell Calendar

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It was only a week ago I announced a new calendar for 2009 and now here’s an additional CafePress creation which manages to offer more than another collection of Lovecraft illustrations. This is a sampling of my work from the past few years gathered under the vague rubric of Heaven and Hell. A couple of pieces are variations on earlier designs reworked so as to fit the square page format. Details follow below.

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1: Angel Passage (CD cover)
2: The Lucid View (detail; book cover)
3: MBV Arkestra (magazine cover)
4: Emissaries (CD cover)
5: Snakes and Ladders (CD cover)
6: Salomé
7: Fallen Angel
8: The Highbury Working (CD cover)
9: Acid Mothers Temple (poster design)
10: Steps of Descent (CD cover)
11: Metal Sushi (detail; book cover)
12: “Mirage in time—image of long-vanish’d pre-human city” (detail)

Previously on { feuilleton }
Coulthart Calendar 2009

Last in Line by Light Syndicate

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Last in Line is the debut album by Manchester band Light Syndicate and the CD packaging is something I put together after being asked to rescue a design which wasn’t quite working. I kept the band’s original idea of black trees on a red background but substituted their drawing with an adaptation of a 1910 folk tale illustration by Reginald Lionel Knowles. Knowles’ name is an obscure one today, his most visible work being the florid endpaper design which the Everyman Library used on their books up to 1935.

Last in Line is available locally from today (I guess that means Piccadilly Records) and nationwide from January 12th.

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Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
The illustrators archive

Le Sphinx Mystérieux

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Le Sphinx Mystérieux (1897).

Charles van der Stappen’s most impressive sculptural work and one I missed including in this earlier post. Van der Stappen doesn’t seem to have done anything else like this which is a shame as it’s a very striking fin de siècle image, conveying a sense of enigma without resorting to the usual human/animal hybrids; Sarah Bernhardt would have loved the costume. This picture was swiped from Beautiful Century and Mariana took it from the book with the best reproduction I’ve seen to date, Gabriele Fahr-Becker’s Art Nouveau.

Previously on { feuilleton }
La belle sans nom
The Feminine Sphinx
Le Monstre
Carlos Schwabe’s Fleurs du Mal
Empusa

Peacocks

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The Modern Poster by Will Bradley (1895).

A selection from the NYPL Digital Gallery. There’s more by the great Will Bradley (1868–1962) here.

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Abstract design based on peacock feathers by Maurice Verneuil (1900?).

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Pavo; Lophophorus (1834–1837).

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
The illustrators archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
Rene Beauclair
Elizabetes Iela 10b, Riga
The Maison Lavirotte
Whistler’s Peacock Room
Beardsley’s Salomé