MONSTER BRAINS

Heinz Mellmann

2012-01-25T19:46:00.000-05:00

A brief biography on Mellmann can be found here. A variety of fairy tales as illustrated by Heinz Mellmann, and a few other artists, can be viewed here. The artworks were created as hand colored slides that would have been viewed as projected images on a wall.

Six Years Of Monster Brains!

2012-01-23T10:20:00.000-05:00

Monster Brains began on this day in 2006, over half a decade later and I'm still finding amazing monster related artworks on a regular basis. Starting this year you'll be seeing a variety of new Monster Brains logos by many of my favorite artists, Matt Furie contributed the first and Johnny Ryan made a great one that will be revealed in February. I'd still like to get around to making Monster Brains tshirts, one of these days, and progress continues, slowly but steadily, on a book version of the site.

Now dig into the archives and enjoy a vast assortment of abominations!

Michael Berenstain - The Troll Book, 1980

2012-01-20T00:56:00.003-05:00

From the son of the creators of the Berenstain Bears (Stan and Jan) Berenstain Bears, I stumbled onto this amazing children's book cover here. I hope to find good scans to share here in the future.

Edward William Cooke - Grotesque Animals (1872)

2012-01-19T07:20:00.000-05:00

GROTESQUE ANIMALS / INVENTED, DRAWN & DESCRIBED BY E. W. COOKE, 1872.

Artworks originally found here.

Mexican Pulp Art

2012-01-15T22:56:00.005-05:00

A book was published a few years ago that collects many of these paintings, get it for a reasonable price on Amazon here.

Boris Diodorov - Illustrations for The Little Mermaid

2012-01-13T19:13:00.000-05:00

Jeremie Perin - Music Video For DYE - Fantasy

2012-01-10T01:43:00.002-05:00

NOT WORK SAFE music video by Jeremie Perin for DYE, the solo project of the bassist from Joakim. His debut album Taki 183 can be purchased through Tigersushi here.

Shigeru Mizuki - Illustrated Guide To Yokai Monsters, 2004

2012-01-08T14:51:00.002-05:00

"The Kuro-kamikiri ("black hair cutter") is a large, black-haired creature that sneaks up on women in the street at night and surreptitiously cuts off their hair. Anatomical features include a brain wired for stealth and trickery, razor-sharp claws, a long, coiling tongue covered in tiny hair-grabbing spines, and a sac for storing sleeping powder used to knock out victims. The digestive system includes an organ that produces a hair-dissolving fluid, as well as an organ with finger-like projections that thump the sides of the intestines to aid digestion"

"The Hyōsube, a child-sized river monster (a relative of the kappa) from Kyushu that lives in underwater caves, ventures onto land at night to eat rice plants. The monster has a relatively small brain, a nervous system specialized in detecting the presence of humans, thick rubbery skin, sharp claws, two small stomachs (one for rice grains and one for fish), a large sac for storing surplus food, and two large oxygen sacs for emergency use. A pair of rotating bone coils produce an illness-inducing bacteria that the monster sprinkles on unsuspecting humans."

"The Makura-gaeshi ("pillow-mover") is a soul-stealing prankster known for moving pillows around while people sleep. The creature is invisible to adults and can only be seen by children. Anatomical features include an organ for storing souls stolen from children, another for converting the souls to energy and supplying it to the rest of the body, and a pouch containing magical sand that puts people to sleep when it gets in the eyes. In addition, the monster has two brains -- one for devising pranks, and one for creating rainbow-colored light that it emits through its eyes."

"The Doro-ta-bō ("muddy rice field man"), a monster found in muddy rice fields, is said to be the restless spirit of a hard-working farmer whose lazy son sold his land after he died. The monster is often heard yelling, "Give me back my rice field!" Anatomical features include a gelatinous lower body that merges into the earth, a 'mud sac' that draws nourishment from the soil, lungs that allow the creature to breathe when buried, and an organ that converts the Doro-ta-bō's resentment into energy that heats up his muddy spit. One eyeball remains hidden under the skin until the monster encounters the owner of the rice field, at which time the eye emerges and emits a strange, disorienting light."

"The Kijimunaa is a playful forest sprite inhabiting the tops of Okinawan banyan trees. Anatomical features include eye sockets equipped with ball bearings that enable the eyeballs to spin freely, strong teeth for devouring crabs and ripping out the eyeballs of fish (a favorite snack), a coat of fur made from tree fibers, and a nervous system adapted for carrying out pranks. The Kijimunaa's brain contains vivid memories of being captured by an octopus -- the only thing it fears and hates."

"The Mannen-dake ("10,000-year bamboo") is a bamboo-like monster that feeds on the souls of lost travelers camping in the woods. Anatomical features include a series of tubes that produce air that causes travelers to lose their way, syringe-like fingers the monster inserts into victims to suck out their souls, and a sac that holds the stolen souls."

"The Fukuro-sage -- a type of tanuki (raccoon dog) found in Nagano prefecture and Shikoku -- has the ability to shapeshift into a sake bottle, which is typically seen rolling down sloping streets. The bottle may pose a danger to people who try to follow it downhill, as it may lead them off a cliff or into a ditch. The Fukuro-sage usually wears a large potato leaf or fern leaf on its head and carries a bag made from human skin. The bag contains a bottle of poison sake. Anatomical features include a stomach that turns food into sake, a sac for storing poison that it mixes into drinks, and a pouch that holds sake lees. The Fukuro-sage's urine has a powerful smell that can disorient humans and render insects and small animals unconscious."

"The Bisha-ga-tsuku is a soul-stealing creature encountered on dark snowy nights in northern Japan. The monster -- which maintains a body temperature of -150 degrees Celsius -- is constantly hidden behind a fog of condensation, but its presence can be detected by the characteristic wet, slushy sound ("bisha-bisha") it makes. Anatomical features include feelers that inhale human souls and cold air, a sac for storing the sounds of beating human hearts, and a brain that emits a fear-inducing aura. The Bisha-ga-tsuku reproduces by combining the stolen human souls with the cold air it inhales."

"Kasha, a messenger of hell, is a fiery monster known for causing typhoons at funerals. Anatomical features include powerful lungs for generating typhoon-force winds that can lift coffins and carry the deceased away, as well as a nose for sniffing out funerals, a tongue that can detect wind direction, and a pouch containing ice from hell. To create rain, the Kasha spits chunks of this ice through its curtain of perpetual fire."

"Yanagi-baba ("willow witch") is the spirit of 1,000-year-old willow tree. Anatomical features include long, green hair resembling leafy willow branches, wrinkled bark-like skin, a stomach that supplies nourishment directly to the tree roots, a sac for storing tree sap, and a cane cut from the wood of the old tree. Although Yanagi-baba is relatively harmless, she is known to harass passersby by snatching umbrellas into her hair, blowing fog out through her nose, and spitting tree sap"

"Yōkai Daizukai, an illustrated guide to yōkai authored by manga artist Shigeru Mizuki, features a collection of cutaway diagrams showing the anatomy of 85 traditional monsters from Japanese folklore.."

Images and text found thanks to Pink Tentacle.

The above four scans found here.

Much more Shigeru Mizuki art to come in the future.

Manuel Gago - Piel de Lobo (1959)

2012-01-05T10:32:00.001-05:00

Comics illustrated by Manuel Gago and written by Juan Antonio de Laiglesia.

Artworks found at El Desvan del Abuelito and LA BURBUJA DE ALEJANDRO.

Many of the comic pages from a handful of issues can be found in the second link.

Matt Furie

2012-01-04T02:30:00.000-05:00

Starting this year I've chosen to have a different artist illustrate the Monster Brains logo each month. As you can see Matt Furie did an awesome job depicting the Monster Brains title in his uniquely insane creatures.

Check out more of Matt's artwork at MattFurie.com You can buy his artwork through his shop on etsy. And Matt's first kids book "The Night Riders" will be out in May of this year, see a preview of it here. Pre order it on Amazon here.

I encourage anyone that is a fan of Matt's art to check out his ongoing comic series "Boys Club" one of the funniest comics I've ever read. Here's a preview of issue four.

Vintage German Advertisement Cards

2011-12-31T07:43:00.000-05:00

Lahusen's Tonic's (Iron-Iodine-Liver Oil) Sinbad the Sailor c1900

Kalodont Dental Cream "The Fisherman & The Genie" (Arabian Nights story) c1900

Lahusen's Tonic's (Iron-Iodine-Liver Oil) Sinbad the Sailor c1900

Artworks found thanks to cigcardpix. While I think that I stumbled onto the only few illustrations in his collection that are monster related, he has one of the most impressive high resolution collections of vintage advertisement trade card art around, see more of it here.

V. Britvin - Sinbad the Sailor

2011-12-31T07:02:00.000-05:00

Artworks found at Book Graphics.

Treat Studios - Xmas Idents

2011-12-25T13:20:00.000-05:00

More work from Treat Studios can be found here.

Boleslaw Biegas

2011-12-22T18:15:00.005-05:00

The Third Vampire Metamorphosis, 1916 - 1917

The Vampire In The Form Of Allied, 1915 - 1916

The Vampire In The Form Of The Dragon, 1917

The Vampire In The Form Of Tura, 1916 - 1917

The Vampire In The Form Of The Serpent, 1916 - 1917

The Vampire In The Form Of The Elephant, 1915 - 1916

The Fight With The Vampire, 1915 - 1916

The Second Metamorphosis Vampire, 1917 - 1918

The Vampire In The Form Of Polyp, 1916

The First Metamorphosis Vampire, 1917

Vampire Suyene, 1917

Kiss of the Vampire, 1916

Humanity's Victory Over The Vampires, 1918

Ironic Fight Vampires, 1915 - 1916

Title Unknown

Vampire In The Form Of A Grasshopper, 1914

Vampire War Dance, 1918

Family Tree of Adam and Eve, 1918 - 1920

Kobyla Winged, 1918 - 1920

Vampire Appearing In The Form of an Explosion, 1916

Vampire Resting On The Cannon Barrel, 1916

The Vampire In The Form Of The Demon, 1917

The Glorious Vampire, 1916

All artworks originate from private collections.

Polish surrealist Boleslaw Biegas created many artworks in paint and in sculpture. It was, of course, his series of fantastically bizarre vampire themed paintings that appealed to me the most. Where the traditional depictions of vampires portray humanoid bat like creatures, Biegas carried through a wild bestiary of intepretations.. insect vampires, winged camel vampires, elephant vampires, and so on.

Many thanks to Krzysztof from the Boleslaw Biegas website for providing these larger versions of the artworks! See more Biegas artwork at the site.

Peter Croy

2011-12-22T08:42:00.002-05:00

Charon, 1975

Metamorphosis, 1976

Artworks found at The Cabinet of the Solar Plexus.

Carcosa and Isle Of The Unknown

2011-12-22T01:23:00.001-05:00

Here's a couple of illustrations from two books, Carcosa and Isle Of The Unknown, published by my friend James Edward Raggi IV at Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Both are weird fantasy role playing books available here. Isle Of The Unknown, with creature designs by Amos Orion Sterns, contains dozens of hybrid animals and strange monsters in the tradition of Dungeons and Dragons monster manuals. Carcosa, with artwork by Rich Longmore, includes a variety of weird fantasy illustrations, drawing inspiration from the likes of H.P Lovecraft.

Jo de Meester - The Wonderful Journey Of A Christmas Tree

2011-12-20T15:55:00.001-05:00

Illustrations from The Belgian Christmas book "The Wonderful Journey Of A Christmas Tree" dated 1943 by author Joseph C. Boon.

Artworks found thanks to Arthur van Kruining.

Trenton Doyle Hancock

2011-12-18T22:00:00.001-05:00

"Hancock's cast of characters is a rogue's gallery: some are headless lumps and others look more like animals than human beings, with a walrus, four-eyed rooster, and other mutants. These creatures are part of an ongoing saga that Hancock has been telling for the past decade. He calls them "Mounds"-plant-animal hybrids that behave like all of us, sometimes admirably and sometimes badly. Hancock's homegrown mythology includes a creation story, an epic battle between good and evil, an attempt at reconciliation between color-loving carnivores and scrawny, subterranean vegans, and much more." - Quote source regarding another artwork by Trenton.

More of Trenton's art can be seen at the James Cohan Gallery.

Trenton Doyle Hancock was previously mentioned on Monster Brains in 2006.

Walton Ford - It Makes Me Think of That Awful Day

2011-12-16T22:22:00.005-05:00

Gigantic painting of King Kong from Walton's new trio of paintings titled "I Don’t Like to Look at Him, Jack. It Makes Me Think of that Awful Day on the Island."

See the other two paintings in their exhibition space at Arrested Motion.

“I was reading the script of the original movie,” Mr. Ford said at the gallery the next day, “when I realized, when Fay Wray says this, ‘I don’t like to look at him, Jack. It makes me think of that awful day on the island,’ that was the best day for King Kong, that was the best day he ever had. He had his best girl. He undressed her, he saved her from a tyrannosaurus, he climbs up Skull Mountain with her, he had this wonderful day and he has this beautiful plaything. The worst day of her life was the best day of his and you can’t have a worse stalker disconnect than the one between Kong and Fay Wray.” - Walton Ford

Artist in the studio picture and quote found at Gallerist NY.

Top image found thanks to Sarcoptiform.

On the subject of King Kong, I have an epic assortment of images, many high resolution scans of concept art and film stills from the original film, going on Monster Brains early next year.

Limited Edition of Golem Prints For Sale

2011-12-15T05:48:00.000-05:00

I'm now selling a limited edition of 100 prints of my Golem artwork, originally created for a dj set by electronic musician Kauf at Lost In Records.

Details regarding the prints can be found here.

George Barr - Cover Illustration For "Elidor" by Alan Garner, 1965

2011-12-15T04:46:00.002-05:00

Domenico Gnoli - Modern Bestiary, 1968

2011-12-14T17:10:00.001-05:00

Scans originally provided by Mr H of the gone but not forgotten Giornale Nuovo.

Limited Edition Of Grimscribe Prints Now For Sale

2011-12-10T03:23:00.000-05:00

Available now is a limited run of 100 prints of the cover artwork that I made for Thomas Ligotti's Grimscribe: His Lives and Works, published by Subterranean Press.

See further details here.

Franz Sedlacek

2011-12-06T16:22:00.006-05:00

Moulage Studio, 1932

Nocturnal Homecoming, 1927

Fanciful Ink Drawing II, 1931

Song in the Twilight, 1931

The Audit, 1913

The Unicorn, 1925

The Moon Calf, 1936

Double Heads, 1933

The Sad Family, 1935

Flower Piece, 1922

Ghost With Butcher Knife, 1934

Imaginary Heads, Study, 1936

While there is unfortunately no Franz Sedlacek website that I can direct you to, all images were found in half a dozen different places, there is a brief biography on the artist at Wikipedia, read it here.

Also, if anyone knows where I might find the top painting "Moulage Studio" and the third artwork "Fanciful Ink Drawing II" at a higher resolution, please share in the comments, thanks!

G. Yudin - Illustration from "Sirin Bird And A Rider On A White Horse" 1991

2011-12-05T03:07:00.000-05:00

See more here.

Suzanne Van Damme

2011-12-04T15:15:00.002-05:00

See more of Suzanne's paintings at http://www.andrebreton.fr Keep in mind that when the paintings come up in their small pop up window, you can drag the images to the url bar to bring up their full size versions.

While there is very little information or exhibits online featuring Suzanne Van Damme, I did manage to find this brief biography detailing her life.

Herbert von Reyl-Hanisch - Nausea (from the series: The land of the soul), 1928

2011-12-03T15:50:00.002-05:00

Days after seeing this painting I'm still trying to wrap my head around what it is I'm seeing here, a truly bizarre and disturbing painting.

Steele Savage

2011-12-03T00:51:00.001-05:00

Images found thanks to Cadwalader Ringgold and letslookupandsmile.

A detailed list of paperback covers by Steele can be viewed here.

A very brief biography on the artist can be found on Wikipedia.

Allison Schulnik

2011-12-01T00:30:00.001-05:00

Mound by Allison Schulnik from garaco taco on Vimeo.

Film by Allison Schulnik
Cinematography by Helder K. Sun.
"It's Raining Today" written by Noel Scott Engel, sung by Scott Walker.

Forest, music video for Grizzly Bear.

Hobo Clown, music by Grizzly Bear.

See more of Allison's work here.

An interview with Allison was previously mentioned here.

Charlie White - Understanding Joshua (2001)

2011-11-30T23:01:00.012-05:00

The above photographs are from the series "Understanding Joshua" depicting a horrifically realistic muppet. The following is another great example of how Charlie poses fantastical things in real world settings, making them appear all the more bizarre.

Justin Mabry of Nightowl Productions mentioned that sculptures for Charlie's photographs were created by Schell Sculpture Studios, check out more of their amazing work here.

More on Charlie White can be found at CharlieWhite.info

Charlie also directed a video for the band Interpol that includes a disturbingly like like muppet creature, similar to the Joshua series.

Fabrizio Riccardi - Paintings Of Pantagruel

2011-11-26T22:31:00.010-05:00

Fabrizio's detailed paintings bring a strangely realistic life to the original woodcuts from nearly half a millennium ago. I drove myself insane trying to match up many of these paintings to the originals and I've numbered them in a way so that you can match most of them up. For example, Fabrizio's 39th Pantagruel matches up to the original woodcut by Franquis numbered 39. This will only work through number 55 as I was no longer able to match up the remaining 15 some paintings, likely from the assortment of 20 original woodcuts that I've not included. I'll come back to this later and try to match them all up after posting the remaining woodcuts.
Fabrizio's website can be found here.

Salvador Dali - Dreams of Pantagruel (1974)

2011-11-25T11:25:00.000-05:00

See the entire portfolio, with remaining prints not shown here at a much smaller size, here.

François Desprez - The Droll Dreams of Pantagruel (1565)

2011-11-20T20:17:00.000-05:00

Included here are 100 of the 120 woodcuts of various bizarre characters from "Les songes drolatiques de Pantagruel" translated into English as "The Droll Dreams of Pantagruel" published in 1565. A detailed article on the woodcuts can be found at Poemas del rio Wang. Additional information regarding the artworks can be found at BibliOdyssey.

The Pantagruel woodcuts were previously mentioned on Monster Brains five years ago.

Perry Rhodan

2011-11-12T23:52:00.002-05:00

Scans from the collection of Micky The Pixel.

Dark Shadows Comic Covers (1968-76)

2011-11-10T07:50:00.002-05:00

Eerie Publications

2011-10-31T09:45:00.004-04:00

Happy Halloween! On this day of monsters at The House of Monster Brains I offer you the many grotesque and creature ridden covers of Eerie Publications, enjoy!

Witches' Tales
Tales of Voodoo
Weird
Terror Tales
Tales From The Tomb
Horror Tales

"Eerie Publications was a publisher of black-and-white horror-anthology comics magazines. Less well-known and more downscale than the field's leader, Warren Publishing (Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella), the New York City-based company was one of several related publishing ventures run by comic-book artist and 1970s magazine entrepreneur Myron Fass. Titles published during their 15 years of operation included Weird, Horror Tales, Terror Tales, Tales from the Tomb, Tales of Voodoo, and Witches' Tales. All of these magazines featured grisly, lurid color covers.

New material was mixed with reprints from 1950s pre-Comics Code horror comics. Writer/artist credits seldom appeared, but included Marvel Comics penciller/inkers Dick Ayers and Chic Stone, as well as Fass himself, with brother Irving Fass and Ezra Jackson serving as art directors. Long-time Golden Age comics producer Robert W. Farrell had the title of publisher. Golden Age great Carl Burgos, creator of the original Human Torch, was editor;" - quote source

A recently published book on Eerie Publications titled "The Weird World of Eerie Publications: Comic Gore That Warped Millions of Young Minds" is available through Amazon here.

And I couldn't finish this series of posts without mentioning the amazing animated short bringing to life so many of the fantastically grotesque, colorful and bizarre creatures from these monster infested comic covers.

This animated short was created by Jason of Scar Stuff. See the original post here.

And yes, I shared this video one year ago today.

Tales From The Tomb (Eerie Publications, 1970-75)

2011-10-31T08:34:00.003-04:00

Horror Tales (Eerie Publications, 1969 - 79)

2011-10-31T06:15:00.004-04:00

Terror Tales (Eerie Publications, 1969 - 79)

2011-10-30T22:38:00.004-04:00

More Eerie covers can be found in the following links.

Witches' Tales
Tales of Voodoo
Weird
Tales From The Tomb
Horror Tales

Weird (Eerie Publications, 1966 - 79)

2011-10-29T20:30:00.006-04:00

More Eerie covers can be found in the following links.

Witches' Tales
Tales of Voodoo
Terror Tales
Tales From The Tomb
Horror Tales

Tales of Voodoo (Eerie Publications, 1968 - 74)

2011-10-28T09:50:00.001-04:00

More Eerie covers can be found in the following links.

Witches' Tales
Weird
Terror Tales
Tales From The Tomb
Horror Tales

Witches' Tales (Eerie Publications, 1969 - 75)

2011-10-26T20:35:00.003-04:00

Not to be confused with the previously posted Witches Tales published by Harvey in the 1950's.

More Eerie covers can be found in the following links.

Tales of Voodoo
Weird
Terror Tales
Tales From The Tomb
Horror Tales

Alessandro Bavari - METACHAOS

2011-10-20T23:10:00.001-04:00

METACHAOS from Alessandro Bavari on Vimeo.

"Metachaos, from Greek Meta (beyond) and Chaos (the abyss where the eternally-formless state of the universe hides), indicates a primordial shape of ameba, which lacks in precise morphology, and it is characterized by mutation and mitosis.
In fact the bodies represented in METACHAOS, even though they are characterized by an apparently anthropomorphous appearance, in reality they are without identity and conscience. They exist confined in a spaceless and timeless state, an hostile and decadent hyperuranium where a fortress, in perpetual movement, dominates the landscape in defense of a supercelestial, harmonic but fragile parallel dimension. In its destructive instinct of violating the dimensional limbo, the mutant horde penetrates the intimacy of the fortress, laying siege like a virus. Similar to the balance of a philological continuum in human species, bringing the status of things back to the primordial broth." - quote source

See more of Bavari's incredible art here.

Alessandro Bavari was previously mentioned here.

The Official Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Coloring Book - Illustrated by Greg Irons (1979)

2011-10-19T00:06:00.025-04:00

I've chosen to share the entire coloring book for anyone interested in printing it out and coloring it themselves. Every page is included in order. I don't normally share copyrighted material in its entirety, however considering this "coloring book" has been out of print for over 30 years, I feel this thing deserves to be shared. If copyright holders of this book are opposed to my sharing it, feel free to contact me and I'll remove it by request.

Monster Brains viewer Brett Hack has provided a pdf version of the book with single pages set to 8.5 x 11 inches to make it easier to print out, download it here.

A second pdf (set as an 11x17 inch booklet with the pages laid out so that you an print it double-sided and then fold it in the middle to center-staple it) has been provided by Irfon-Kim Ahmad, download it here.

"After working on the film Yellow Submarine, he returned to work for Graham Productions and soon branched out into album covers and work for the Print Mint, Last Gasp Eco-Funnies, and other local underground publishers. Irons' collaborations with writer Tom Veitch in the early 1970s (the creative team known as "GI/TV") included such titles as Legion of Charlies and contributions to many other underground comix, including Skull Comix and Slow Death Funnies.

In the mid-1970s he started doing book illustrations mainly for Bellerophon Books. One of his books was a coloring-book format illustration of Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale" which was issued with "The Miller's Tale" illustrated by Gilbert Shelton. It was also around this time he began doing tattooing.

On November 14, 1984, while on a working vacation in Bangkok, Thailand, Irons was struck and killed by a bus."

- This brief summary on the tragically short life of Greg Irons was taken from his page at Wikipedia.

Grzegorz Moryciński - Demons

2011-10-15T00:30:00.002-04:00

From a series of 50 drawings located at The National Digital Library of Poland website.

Josh Kirby - The Voyage Of The Ayeguy, 1980

2011-10-13T03:06:00.003-04:00

Departure

Arrival Of The Ark

Adoration Of The Imag

Death Of A Spaceman

Deposition

Ascension

"Voyage of the Ayeguy is a series of paintings of deep personal significance to Kirby, widely regarded as his tour de force. The paintings chart the epic voyage of ambassadors from the Ayeguy civilisation commanded to: 'Go, civilise the savage planets!' in their spaceship, the Ark. The biblical parallels are overt: the central traveller is Kirby’s idealistic ‘Christ’ figure, Jay Zuzz.

Initially separate paintings, by the third a thread emerged. An American commission to publish six works as a portfolio (1980) accelerated the project and Kirby wrote an accompanying text. He added new paintings right up to the time of his death.

Each scene presents challenge, confrontation and emotion as the spaceman protagonist pursues his mission across a strange planet. They are masterpieces of baroque composition, complex allegories orchestrated in rich colour and detail, combining the influences of Hieronymous Bosch, Pieter Breugel, Rubens and the muralist Frank Brangwyn." - quote source

Many thanks to David T. Alexander Collectibles for the scans.

This portfolio of amazing Josh Kirby prints is for sale on their site here.

See more of Kirby's art here.

Till Nowak - Salad

2011-10-10T18:24:00.003-04:00

"In November 2006 Till Nowak created the image "Salad". For this image he created digital vegetable models
and combined them to become a tribute to the fantastic biomechanical creations of H.R. Giger and the
vegetable portraits of Giuseppe Arcimboldo." - quote source includes a pdf document showing the process of the artwork.

Other monsters created out of vegetables were previously mentioned here.

Bernie Wrightson - The Edgar Allan Poe Portfolio, 1976

2011-10-10T00:54:00.007-04:00

"One of the first paintings completed for the Edgar Allan Poe Portfolio was 'The Pit and the Pendulum'. Wrightson experimented using an impasto technique -- painting with very thick, broad strokes. The colors were very dark, being made up primarily of blacks, and browns. When the painting was finished, it was then varnished with a high gloss to protect it. The result, when lit by the printers' lights was a glare making it impossible to reproduce. When informed of the technical limitations of his painting, Wrightson painted a second version which was dominated by great areas of dark green. Wrightson's original idea for the 'Pendulum' painting can be seen in the photograph of Jeff Jones as the hapless victim of the Inquisition. Wrightson painted Jones chained to a cold concrete slab awaiting the blade of the pendulum." - quote taken from Christopher Zavisa's monograph on the artist, Berni Wrightson: A Look Back, page 251.

Jeff Jones was mentioned here on Monster Brains a few months ago regarding the artist's unfortunate passing.

The Pit And The Pendulum
"I saw clearly the doom which had been prepared for me..."

I was only able to find a few examples of the original paintings to compare against the portfolio prints, you can see the color differences between the original painting of Murders in the Rue Morgue and its printed version below.

Murders In The Rue Morgue
"As the sailor looked in, the gigantic animal had seized Madame L'Espanaye by the hair..."

The Tell - Tale Heart
"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! - tear up the planks! - here, here! - it is the beating of his hideous heart!"

The Back Cat
"She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan."

The Premature Burial
"The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and the other begins?"

Masque Of The Red Death
"Seize and unmask him - that we may know whom we have to hang at sunrise, from the battlements!"

The Cask Of Amontillado
"For the love of God, Montressor!" "Yes," I said, "for the love of God!"

Descent Into The Maelstrom
"...I began to reflect how magnificent a thing it was to die in such a manner..."

The excellent Golden Age Comic Book Stories recently shared the Wrightson Poe prints, you can see slight color variations in those posted there.

Terry Oakes

2011-10-08T17:18:00.002-04:00

The Brain Slayer - Out of the Pit,1985

Terry Oakes - Vangelis, The Dragon (Album Cover) 1971

The Hildebrandt Brothers

2011-10-04T15:11:00.005-04:00

L.J. Jordaan - The Vampire

2011-10-01T13:53:00.001-04:00

From the series of anti war artworks titled "NACHTMERRIE OVER NEDERLAND" published in 1945.

Artwork found thanks to Arthur van Kruining.

Keiko Nelson

2011-10-01T11:14:00.002-04:00

Cover for a collection of poems by Robert E Howard titled Always Comes Evening, published by Underwood/Miller 1977

- found thanks to Tim Underhill

I couldn't find any other examples of Keiko's artwork, if anyone has any interesting links/imagery, please share in the comments, thanks!

Frank Utpatel

2011-10-01T01:34:00.003-04:00

Robert E. Howard - The Dark Man and Others, Arkham House, 1963

William Hope Hodgson - Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder, Mycroft & Moran, 1947

August Derleth - Someone in the Dark, Arkham House, 1941

L. Sprague de Camp - Demons and Dinosaurs, Arkham House,1970

Stanley McNail - Something Breathing, Arkham House, 1965

llustration from Selected Poems by H.P. Lovecraft published by Arkham House, thanks to the anonymous Monster Brains viewer for this information.

Kezeff - Sam's New Pet

2011-09-27T18:08:00.000-04:00

Here's a fantastic sculpture inspired by an illustration by Stephen Gammell from the Scary Stories trilogy of books.

The original Stephen Gammell artwork that inspired the sculpture.

Sculpture originally shared by artist Kezeff here.

Rowena Morrill - Twilight Terrors and Dunwich Horrors

2011-09-24T01:10:00.004-04:00

Cover illustration for 1978 paperback edition of "The Dunwich Horror" by H.P Lovecraft

Twilight Terrors (designed for a Halloween edition of National Lampoon magazine, 1979)

France Mihelic - Midsummer Night III (Dance display), 1955

2011-09-22T16:59:00.006-04:00

More of Mihelic's art can be found at Art Of The Beautiful Grotesque presented by previous Monster Brains contributor and musician, Félix Lachance.

Artwork found at Frank T. Zumbachs Mysterious World.

Carl Spitzweg - The Wizard and The Knight, 19th Century

2011-09-21T19:07:00.003-04:00

Kenneth J. Reeve - Fantastic Adventures, July 1939

2011-09-19T09:37:00.017-04:00

I despise the lightbox feature that blogger has forced on all of its sites. The above image is a good example of how their annoying tweaks to all of blogger messes up the intent of my site. The above image is much larger and I go to great pains to acquire as high resolution images as I possibly can to give to you, meanwhile their lightbox feature actually shrinks its viewing size. I'm holding off on cutting it out of the code of the site until I see if they give the option to remove it without my taking it out manually and possibly screwing up some of the blog in the process.

I'm delaying all future posts that take up more than a few images until this is sorted out.

Also, to those who don't like the new larger format, I'm working on putting in a liquid image design and elastic template that will shrink depending on screen size. Ideally, I'd like the site to function like this. Stretch your browser window left and right to see how it changes in size. If anyone is familiar with coding liquid image design, please contact me at evilenergy at yahoo.com

Don Marquez - Cthulhu Painting (2003)

2011-09-19T09:05:00.003-04:00

Hedorah and Godzilla - Anatomical Paintings

2011-09-18T09:22:00.002-04:00

Artist unknown.

Kaiju themed paintings previously posted on Monster Brains can be found here.

Images found at the amazing Kaiju themed blog, Black Sun.

Buddy Jiang - Soap And Water

2011-09-17T10:40:00.001-04:00

See more of Buddy's artwork here.

Nestor Redondo - The Bat

2011-09-14T19:01:00.003-04:00

Originally published in The Rook #12. Artist attached to this image thanks to FUKITOR and xiaozhuang xia.

Jeff Easley

2011-09-13T21:52:00.001-04:00

The Mutating Monster Brains From Beyond Space And Time!!!

2011-09-12T07:18:00.006-04:00

As you can see things are getting a little bigger around here. There's a few reasons I'm experimenting with this, the main reason is I want to make the viewing of the artwork as simple as possible, no clicking dozens of times to see all the art, it's all there on the page. There is the extra loading time but I think it will be worth it. I'm working towards adding more page breaks so browsing the site history is less image intensive. And I'll be slowly editing the html in previous posts to fit the larger format over the rest of the year. It's incredibly time consuming so it will take awhile. One of the benefits of the larger image sizes, I can now share this amazing Junji Ito story at its originally scanned file size, making it much easier to read.

Above illustration by Jim Mooney from the comic story "What in the World" published in Amazing Detective Cases #12 (May 1952). The entire issue can be downloaded here. Panel originally found thanks to the excellent blog Lady, That's My Skull.

Witches Tales Comic Covers (1951-54)

2011-09-08T01:08:00.007-04:00

Covers by Lee Elias, Warren Kremer, Al Avison, Bob Powell, Rudy Palais and others.

You can find most of these at the Digital Comic Museum.

Bernard Kliban - Playboy Magazine Illustration, 1972

2011-09-06T20:07:00.005-04:00

"I Spend Twenty Seven Years Making Monsters and What Does it Get Me?...A Room Full of Monsters!", Playboy cartoon illustration, page 251, June 1972

The Monster Is Taken To The King Of Spain, 1784

2011-09-01T10:24:00.008-04:00

Artist unknown, the French text from the engraving, "Départ de la Harpie ou monstre amphibie de Cadix pour être conduite au roi et à la famille royale d'Espagne" roughly translates to the following in English.. "Start the Harpy or amphibious monster of Cadiz to be brought to the king and the royal family of Spain." It's like an ancient version of King Kong.
Full translation provided by Wood. "This animal was taken on the banks of the lake of Fagua, in the Realm of Santa Fe, province of Chile, in Peru in the Meridional America. It was taken to the Viceroy qui made it travel inland to the Gulf of honduras where it was shipped to Havana and from there to Bermuda in the Azores, and lastly to Cadiz. A great cage was built, who could easily contain it. Six strong horses lead the cart on which this cage is resting ; Oxen, cows and pigs are made to follow, in order to feed it. It is hoped it will soon reach its destination, where it is most impatiently waited. This moster is roughly 12 foot long : its face is like that of a man, the mouth very large ; it has two bull horns, donkey ears and a long mane like that of the lion : it has two woman's teats bat wings. It has only two paws large and short, each armed with 5 horn claws. It has two tails, one shaped like that of the snake, able to seize its prey, and the other with a sting is used to kill it, the lower part of its body is covered with scales, and the upper part with hairs. It eats every day and ox and three pigs.

In Paris, at Esnauts & Rapilly, rue Saint Jacques, at the sign of the City of Coutances"

Image found while digging through the Gallica Digital Library.

Katherina Shtanko

2011-08-30T17:33:00.001-04:00

Illustrations for Sergei Aksakov's The Scarlet Flower, 1984

Found at the excellent Book Graphics blog.

David Solot - The dentist has a toothache, 1940's

2011-08-29T20:45:00.003-04:00

"A dentist rushes away in fear from a phantasm of animated dental instruments that have turned against him." quote and image source from one of my favorite collections of imagery online, the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Virgil Finlay

2011-08-27T04:35:00.005-04:00

"Virgil Finlay is widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest illustrators of science fiction and fantasy. Born on July 23, 1914 in Rochester, New York, Finlay took to art early in life, selling his first illustration at the age of 21 to Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright for the magazine’s December 1935 issue. Over the next 35 years he completed more than 2,500 drawings and paintings, an achievement made even more impressive by the time required to execute his painstaking and labor-intensive pieces. To give his black and white drawings a photorealistic look, Finlay developed a unique style that combined stippling with scratchboard techniques (scratchboard being a type of art board manufactured with a white clay coating that accepts ink and can be cut away, allowing artists to “scratch” white lines into black areas). The result was an image so detailed that pulp editors were initially hesitant to accept his work, fearing that the tiny dots would not reproduce on their coarse paper stock. Fortunately they did, and the mesmerizing visions that Finlay brought to the page proved to be tremendously popular with readers across the decades, from the heyday of the pulps in the late 1930s to the opening of the Space Age. Working to the end, Finlay died of cancer in January of 1971, just before Donald M. Grant published Virgil Finlay, the first of many books celebrating his unique talent." - quote source

An excellent six page article on Virgil Finlay from a June 1978 issue of Starlog magazine can be found here.

Some of the above Finlay artworks were found at Golden Age Comic Book Stories.

Virgil Finlay was originally posted on Monster Brains in 2006.

Silly Symphony - Hell's Bells (Walt Disney, 1929)

2011-08-23T14:09:00.000-04:00