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Engelbrecht again

I’m surfacing this week from a busy couple of months having finished (more or less) two substantial book designs. I mentioned the redesign of The Exploits of Engelbrecht a couple of weeks ago and it’s been a pleasure to have another bash at this. The original design wasn’t bad as such, especially compared to the rudimentary first edition from 1950, it’s more that the production standards were raised so much by the Savoy titles which followed that I frequently felt dissatisfied with it. You can see the new cover above and I’ll post some additional examples nearer publication (ETA for that is still vague).

Maurice Richardson’s tales of the dwarf surrealist sportsman are classics of eccentric comedy and it’s been a privilege having the opportunity to reintroduce them to a new audience. I intended the new dust jacket to be reminiscent of an old theatre or boxing poster and the brown and red design will be printed on uncoated textured paper to augment that effect. In addition to this volume I’ve also designed an edition of Jeff VanderMeer‘s Ambergris novel Shriek: An Afterword for Wyrm Publishing. Once again, I’ll post more details of that closer to release.

So now I take a deep breath and see what’s next. There’s another book project imminent but I’ve been asked not to say anything about that for the time being (don’t you love a mystery?). In spare moments such as these I’ve been trying to keep working on the collected edition of the Reverbstorm comics I created with Dave Britton for Savoy. That series has always been an important part of my work, more important in many ways than The Haunter of the Dark, and it’s frustrating to have over 250 pages of some of my best artwork sitting around virtually unseen. I was supposed to have the book finished off last year but other projects kept intervening. One of the resolutions for this year has been to at least complete the scanning and re-lettering, then we’ll see where it fits into Savoy’s schedule. Watch this space.

The art of Jennifer Maestre

Asteridae.

Jennifer Maestre is another artist who claims Ernst Haeckel’s Art Forms in Nature as an influence. Asteridae is part of a series of works made from pencils, while Dreaming comprises part of another series using nails and other materials to create what might be organic forms.

Dreaming.

• An interview with Jennifer Maestre

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Kirsten Hassenfeld’s paper sculptures
• Darwin Day
• The glass menagerie

Yoshitaka Amano in Berlin

Deva-loka (2007).

Big new paintings by one of my favourite Japanese artists at Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin, until February 29, 2008. The wild details in Deva-loka are completely lost at this size but there’s a larger version on Amano’s site.

Creation (2007).

These works are being sold as fine art but Amano’s reputation rests upon his commercial art which embraces anime, manga and book cover illustration. As is often the case, the art world has a problem with this, regarding work for hire as lower than work for galleries, the latter being no less commercial in the sense that the works are sold to collectors who frequently demand more of the same; Andy Warhol’s studio was named The Factory with good reason. A comment at Creative Europe acknowledges the dilemma:

“There are two reasons why it is necessary to bring Yoshitaka Amano’s immensely successful professional biography into the equation here: on the one hand, the work he has done as a creator of mangas and animes (animations) provides an undisputed frame of reference for his pictures; on the other, it has become difficult where Amano’s oeuvre is concerned to uphold the differentiation popular in German speaking quarters between a more commercial applied visual art and the personally expressive variety.” (My italics.)

Amano’s non-commercial work at Galerie Michael Janssen is for sale, prices on request.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• The art of Takato Yamamoto

Luke Smalley

Medicine Ball (2000).

One of Luke Smalley’s faux-vintage photographs from his Gymnasium series. A new series with a more contemporary perspective, Exercise at Home, was in exhibition recently at Wessel + O’Connor Fine Art, NYC.

Dorian Gray revisited

Today’s book purchase was an edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray published in 1945 by the Unicorn Press, London. It’s rather battered and the spine is stained by some unknown brown fluid that may be blood (which would suit a sanguinary tale such as this) but which is most likely something less dramatic.

The cover is a cropped version of the design drawn by the wonderful Charles Ricketts (1866–1931) for the original Ward, Lock & Co edition of 1891. More about his work below. Ricketts designed and illustrated a number of Wilde’s books and was far closer to Wilde than Aubrey Beardsley, despite the latter’s permanent association with the writer via Salomé. Ricketts’ title design for Dorian Gray was originally lettered in full and the pattern beneath it extended further down the board. The reversed “y” is a unique touch, something I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere else.

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