The Goblin Court


"A hand-painted, large format magic lantern slide, painted by an unknown artist and shown at the Royal Polytechnic Institution, London in about 1860. This slide is from 'The Story of The Goblin Who Stole A Sexton' by Charles Dickens (1812-1870), a popular tale shown at the Royal Polytechnic Institute over Christmas. It would be used with a second, background slide. When shown together they would give an illusion of movement. 'The Story of The Goblin Who Stole A Sexton' appears in 'The Pickwick Papers'. It is similar to Dicken's later story 'A Christmas Carol'. Told at a Christmas party it tells how Gabriel Grubb, a drunken, cruel man who hates everyone, is visited one Christmas Eve by goblins. They torment him and show him scenes of the happy domestic life from which his actions exclude him. Learning from this lesson, Gabriel Grubb changes his ways and goes on to lead a long and happy life The Royal Polytechnic Institution in Regent Street, London, was renowned for its spectacular magic lantern shows" - quote and images found here and here.

More works by this unknown artist can be found here. There's a lot of other fantastic imagery collected at Ingenious.org.uk, here is a good place to start.

Lee Brown Coye





















Click here to download a 2 megabyte collection of 20 some works by the artist.

An American artist who lived from 1907 through 1981, Coye was best known for his black and white illustrations used for pulp magazines and horror fiction.

"Lee Brown Coye was one of art's "almost men"--not a loser, but never quite a winner. Bad luck haunted much of his career. He began his life as an artist on the eve of the Great Depression and was forced to labor as a malcontented advertising agency art director through much of the 1930s. Coye was ready to make a breakthrough when he began to appear in the Whitney Museum's annual exhibitions and had a watercolor bought by the Metropolitan Museum for its permanent collection--then Pearl Harbor was attacked.

The arrival of abstractionists fleeing war-torn Europe forced American artists working in a realistic style, like Coye, to the periphery of the art world. While Coye dabbled in abstract paintings, and later worked as a medical artist and cartoonist, he always considered himself primary an illustrator. In periodicals such as Weird Tales and Amazing Stories, Coye's uniquely macabre and original art found the perfect home. Illustrating horror stories matched Coye's anatomy lessons with his macabre sensibilities. At this time his studios were gothic abodes filled with skeletons, dead animals, live rats, and human body parts from a medical college - all models for his art. Some of his best work was done for pulp magazines and Arkham House works by H.P. Lovecraft.

In author Luis Ortiz' words, "Coye was an art machine and an American Original. As a child he was considered a 'holy terror'. As an adult, after a hard day of doing medical illustrations, he thought nothing of walking into a bar carrying a decapitated human head under his arm, placing it on the counter and buying his guillotined 'friend' a drink. On another occasion he 'borrowed' the finger-bone of a saint (a holy relic he was building a reliquary for) from the Catholic Church in his hometown of Syracuse, New York. The Syracuse diocese was beside itself and had to send clergy to perform a blessing on Coye's studio since the relic could only travel to holy places."

Ortiz adds, "Coye's horror illustrations are not like anything done before-or since. You would have to go back to Goya's black paintings to find anything comparable. Yet despite the darkness, Coye's art was always filled with traces of humor."

Parts of The Blair Witch Project film may have been based on a true life incident that occurred to Coye as a young man when he discovered a strange, isolated farmhouse in the backwoods of upstate New York. The house was surrounded by bizarre constructs of lashed-together sticks and had an unusual tenant. The unexplained display seemed to allude to some dark nature, and stayed with Coye the rest of his life. Later on, sticks would become a recurring motif in his illustrations. Horror writer Karl Wagner transmogrified the incident into an award winning story, "Sticks", which may have influenced the makers of Blair Witch." - quote source.

Read more about Lee Brown Coye's life at this Wikipedia article.

A collection of lost Coye illustrations will be featured in the limited edition "Knickerbocker Tales Portfolio" from Nonstop Press this fall.

A fantastic book from Nonstop Press collecting over 350 works by Coye titled "Arts Uknown: The Life and Art of Lee Brown Coye" is available at Amazon.com

Many thanks to Jerad of Centipede Press for providing the PDF file of Lee Brown Coye artwork linked to above.

H.P Lovecraft Art Book





















Jerad of Centipede Press has provided me with a fantastic selection of Lovecraft inspired artwork appearing in a book collecting a wide variety of Lovecraft related artworks. The book will include an introduction by Harlan Ellison and an afterword by one of my favorite authors, Thomas Ligotti.

" A unique art book available in a cloth slipcase edition and leather
deluxe edition.

Cloth edition in slipcase
2,000 copies

400 pages, four color, sewn with cloth covers, enclosed in a cloth
covered slipcase. Front cover image, black embossing, two ribbon
markers,
fold-outs, detail views.

The first 300 orders will receive a numbered copy with a special
slipcase
and a hardcover folder with an extensive suite of unbound
illustrations.

$395 postpaid.


Leather edition in traycase
50 copies
400 pages, four color, sewn with full leather binding, enclosed in a
giant size traycase. Front cover image debossed on front, two ribbon
markers, fold-outs, detail views, signed by H.R. Giger, Harlan Ellison,

Michael Whelan, J.K. Potter, Mike Mignola, and many others.

$2,000 postpaid.


This huge tome features over forty artists including JK Potter, HR
Giger, Raymond Bayless, Ian Miller, Virgil Finlay, Lee Brown Coye, Rowena
Morrill, Bob Eggleton, Allen Koszowski, Mike Mignola, Howard V. Brown,
Michael Whelan, Tim White, John Coulthart, John Holmes, Harry O.
Morris, Murray Tinkelman, Gabriel, Don Punchatz, Helmut Wenske, John Stewart,
Thomas Ligotti and John Jude Palencar, and dozens of others.

The field has never seen an art book like this -- indeed, it is an art
anthology unlike anything ever published before. Many of these works
have
never before seen publication. Many are printed as special multi-page
fold-outs, and several have detail views. The book is filled with four
color artwork throughout, all of it printed full page on rich black
backgrounds. A special thumbnail gallery allows you to overview the
entire contents of this 400-page book at a glance, with notations on
artist, work title, publication information, size, and location, when
known.

H.P. Lovecraft fans will simply have to have this book. Because of its
sheer size and scope, this book will never be reprinted and will sell
out very quickly. Twenty years down the road people will be paying huge
prices for this book because of its scope and the quality of
reproductions. This is the H.P. Lovecraft fan's dream come true. Don't
miss it! "

Visit the Millipede Press website to order the book.

Jerad also sent along an amazing collection of Lee Brown Coye works which I'll be doing a seperate post on the near future.

Dossier Negro








See more covers from this weird horror magazine here.

Bernie Wrightson










Bernie Wrightson is an American comic artist best known for his work in the horror field. My favorite creation by Bernie is STERRRNNNN!!!!!! The maniac seen in the "Captain Sternn" animated episode from the Heavy Metal film. Bernie also illustrated the comic version of the Stephen King/George Romero film "Creepshow" as well as the poster for the film.

Read more about Bernie Wrightson at Wikipedia.

The above artwork was found at WrightsonCollectior.com which has on display a large variety of covers and illustrations by Bernie Wrightson. More art by Wrightson can be seen here.