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Cthulhoid and Artflakes

Cthulhoid (2012).

Hot on the scaly heels of my recent Cthulhu God comes a new collage work I was messing with over Christmas. This was done in part as a reaction to the earlier picture which I’m very happy with but which looks cleaner and flatter than I prefer for Lovecraft-related things. I’d also found some new books of copyright-free cephalopoda that I wanted to try playing with. There are trace elements here of Haeckel’s Kunstformen der Natur but I’ve plundered Haeckel so much in the past it’s better to search elsewhere for source material.

I’ve been selling reproductions of works such as this at CafePress but now have an additional outlet with a new print venture, Artflakes, who asked me late last year to contribute to their site. Artflakes is a German company operating as CafePress does: artists upload their pictures which can then be sold on a variety of products. The product range is smaller than their rivals but they do canvas prints which CafePress don’t. These are costly items but canvas prints tend to be expensive anyway, even at a high street copy shop. On the plus side, being based in Germany means the shipping costs will be slightly cheaper inside Europe. I’ve not uploaded much at the moment but this new piece is there together with six other works. More will be added in the next couple of months.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The Lovecraft archive

The art of Ronald Searle, 1920–2012

Undertakers. From Punch magazine (undated).

I started trying to draw like Ronald Searle when I was about eight. So there was Jabberwocky and Ronald Searle I was turning into by the time I was thirteen. You know, I was determined to be Lewis Carroll (giggles) with a hint of Ronald Searle.

John Lennon, 1968

Does the late Ronald Searle need any introduction? Everyone knows he created the anarchic schoolgirls of St Trinian’s in the 1940s, although their exploits had the greatest audience in the films based on Searle’s cartoons rather than the original drawings. Searle’s work first came to my attention through reprints of the Molesworth books he produced with Geoffrey Willans in the 1950s—Down with Skool! (1953), How to be Topp (1954), Whizz for Atomms (1956) and Back in the Jug Agane (1959)—a masculine riposte to St Trinian’s which allowed for a broader range of humour than the slapstick and short-skirted salaciousness the films drifted into. The Molesworth books are perhaps best appreciated at age 11 as this LRB review notes; looked at with older eyes all I see is a portrait of a rigidly class-bound nation whose boarding schools, gowned masters, “maters” and “paters” could only inspire affection in the Etonians currently attempting to govern Britain. But the drawings remain a treat: wiry and mordant with flashes of a viciousness that make Searle the godfather of Gerald Scarfe and Ralph Steadman.

The girls of St Trinian’s, Lilliput magazine, December 1949.

Given Searle’s influence on generations of newspaper cartoonists it’s no surprise that the British papers are being free with the plaudits. Links to various stories follow. The images here are taken from earlier posts or pulled from my bookshelves. The illustration of Engelbrecht below is from the Savoy Books edition of Maurice Richardson’s The Exploits of Engelbrecht which I designed in 2010.

• Guardian obituary | Telegraph obituary | NYT obituary
• Ronald Searle in pictures: Telegraph | Guardian
• Ronald Searle: a life in pictures by Steve Bell.
• Mike Leigh: ‘Ronald Searle was my inspiration’.
• Ronald Searle: Now let’s have some fizz: Gerald Scarfe remembers his friend and childhood hero.
• Ronald Searle was our greatest cartoonist – and he sent me his pens, says Martin Rowson.

Other links:
• Perpetua, the Ronald Searle tribute
• Searle at VTS
• Winespeak at BibliOdyssey

Engelbrecht versus Grandfather Clock. From The Exploits of Engelbrecht (1950) by Maurice Richardson.

“A trap for dere Santa”. From How to be Topp (1954) by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle.

The Coming of the Great Cat God (1968).

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The illustrators archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Engelbrecht lives to fight another day
• Ronald Searle book covers
• Engelbrecht again

Cthulhu for sale

As promised last month, my latest piece of Cthulhu art has spawned itself over a range of CafePress products including posters, cards, T-shirts and CafePress’s recent line of iPod/iPad cases. For the latter items and the apparel I’ve used the simpler version of the drawing above. See the artwork larger size here.

And it’s customary at the beginning of January to reduce the Coulthart calendars to a dollar above their base price. Psychedelic Wonderland and Through the Psychedelic Looking-Glass for 2012 can now be had for $17.99/£13.50/€16.00 each. My thanks to everyone who bought copies before Christmas.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The Lovecraft archive

Joseph Noel Paton’s Ancient Mariner

From Patten Wilson to Joseph Noel Paton (1821–1901), a Scottish artist whose illustrations for Coleridge’s poem I much prefer to his generic paintings. Other artists often skimp on the ship details but Paton’s crowded deck scenes are done with such accuracy they must have been based on a real vessel. The book was published in 1893, and the plates would appear to be engravings given the presence of another monogram besides that of the artist. The Internet Archive scans aren’t as bad as the Patten Wilson but Paton’s meticulous draughtsmanship is best seen in the near-complete set of images posted at Golden Age Comic Book Stories. And for anyone familiar with my comic strip adaptation of Lovecraft’s The Haunter of the Dark, the portrait of Enoch Bowen, founder of the Starry Wisdom cult, was based on Paton’s head of the Ancient Mariner in the scene where the sailors are fastening the albatross around the accursed man’s neck.

Continue reading “Joseph Noel Paton’s Ancient Mariner”

The Courts of the Feyre

Three new cover designs of mine for Angry Robot which were made public a few hours ago. The Courts of the Feyre is a fantasy series by British author Mike Shevdon set in present-day Britain and involving “a world of dark magic and strange creatures hidden in plain sight.” Two of these titles are reprints, Strangeness and Charm is a new addition to the series, and there are plans for a fourth title later on.

Marc at Angry Robot wanted a distinctive, uniform look for the series, and I’m very pleased with the way the designs turned out. Since the plan was to use a decorative frame printed on black I decided to have a tilted square in the centre of each cover to make a shape that would catch the eye on a shelf or when seen as a thumbnail image. It’s also possible to interpret the squares as a kind of “court” within each design, with each court containing articles relevant to that story.

All three books are due to be published in June 2012.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The book covers archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Steampunk overloaded!