Alexandre de Riquer book covers

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A pair of cover designs by the very prolific Alexandre de Riquer (1856–1920), an illustrator and designer who might be described as the Catalan equivalent of Alphonse Mucha. It’s often the case with the artists of this period that you find one or two examples of their work in books but see little else. Riquer has better representation on the web than most. These are from a post at Bajo el Signo de Libra which features other cover designs while this site has many pages devoted to the artist’s paintings, bookplates, poster designs, decorative work and even his books of poetry.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The book covers archive

Krazy Kat animations

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Krazy Kat – Bugologist (1916).

Among the films at the Library of Congress YouTube channel are a number of shorts from the early days of animation including several of the first Krazy Kat films. George Herriman apparently had nothing to do with these, they were Hearst corporation spin-offs, which perhaps explains their lack of Herriman’s eccentricities. They’re necessarily crude, of course; cartoon animation had barely begun in 1916 and Walt Disney was yet to make a film. It’s curious watching a cartoon which transcribes the comic strip conventions so literally, with speech balloons growing from the characters mouths. Also at the LoC channel is one of the later Gertie the Dinosaur films and the very strange The Centaurs, both by Winsor McCay and son.

The specimens of Alex CF

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Artist Alex CF makes beautifully detailed—and very authentic—cases for cryptozoological specimens. I think I’d seen examples of these before but not the Lovecraft exhibits like this collection which presents samples and studies retrieved from the Mountains of Madness. Among other Lovecraftiana there’s also a case devoted to artefacts from R’lyeh. These would have been ideal additions to the Lovecraft show at Observatory which (as a reminder) opens this Friday.

Via ~Wunderkammer~. (I think. If it wasn’t, it should be…)

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Previously on { feuilleton }
• At the Mountains of Madness
• Walmor Corrêa’s Memento Mori
• The art of Ron Pippin
• Custom creatures
• Cryptozoology
• The Museum of Fantastic Specimens

The Thorns of Love by Antoni Maiovvi

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The Thorns of Love CD cover.

One of the consequences of having been so productive of late is having less time to update my web pages. The CD design section is now a year out of date so I’ll be trying to amend the situation as time allows.

The Thorns of Love by Antoni Maiovvi was released last month and is another of my designs for the Caravan label. The attention-grabbing photos are by Liz Eve whose work adorned earlier designs for 2562 and Pinch. It’s great to work with quality images like these, and Liz’s gory pictures are an ideal match for Maiovvi’s music, a series of lengthy compositions in a style which might be described as Giorgio Moroder scoring a Dario Argento horror movie. This is a fantastic album and the CD’s fourth track, Class Dagger, is one of the best new electronic pieces I’ve heard this year.

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The Thorns of Love vinyl sleeve.

The Thorns of Love was released on double-12″ vinyl as well as CD so I’ve also posted the vinyl art, something I need to go back and do for previous designs. Vinyl isn’t dead by any means, and it’s a pleasure to work for the larger format.

• Antoni Maiovvi interviewed at Electrofreaks

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The album covers archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Dead on the Dancefloor