Lotte Reiniger
Here are a selection of screenshots of the many beasts from Reiniger's feature-length silhouette film from 1926, "The Adventures of Prince Achmed".

Click the numbers below to see a large plant turn into a giant elephant monster.
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9

Small gallery of images, check out the Hell pic at the bottom.
Article on Reiniger
2nd Article

Ben Catmull's "Monster Parade"





















One of the few comic purchases I've made this year, Monster Parade is a short anthology about my favorite subject matter. It opens with a person watching a storm brewing across the sky. From it waltzes a giant four armed old man throwing lightning bolts. Then comes a giant bird like creatures squaking, after that a floating whale with eyes lined down the sides of its body, incredibly strange imagery for the opening of a book. The rest of the comic involves a monster on a train, a description of a bizarre town where people fish for unusual sea life in a river, are haunted by unusual demons on the toilet, are subject to giant crazed apes who terrorize the town late at night, and are watched from across the river by peculiar monsters, fantastic stuff. I encourage anyone that is a fan of this blog to purchase this book, you won't be dissapointed.

To see preview pages of the book and an interview with the artist, click here.

Bomarzo - Garden Of Monsters
"Black and white images flicker silently across the screen as the camera slowly pans a dark jungle of twisting vegetable forms. Stone sculptures of decaying dragons, crumbling soldiers and reclining nudes disfigured by layers of lichen stare momentarily from the shadows as if startled by the spotlight before returning to the safety of their dark captivity as the camera passes. The film seems like a retro adventure romp until the familiar waxed moustache of Salvadore Dali appears on the screen.

No Indiana Jones, Dali shot the film in less than a hundred kilometres north of Rome. However, in a way, Dali had discovered his own lost world. The ‘Garden of the Monsters’, a labyrinth of winding paths and colossal sculptures is one of the most unusual creations of the Italian Renaissance, a ‘miraculous phenomenon of Italian gardening history’." continue reading the article quoted above here.

20 photographs from Bomarzo
Another gallery with descriptions of the statues and images
More info and photographs of the garden
Article with more pictures
Some colored paintings on cards of the statues from Bomarzo
Painting details of Bomarzo by Bartholomeus Breenbergh
More on Bomarzo
The first photo on this page shows a good size comparison of the statues to humans.
This painting by Salvador Dali was inspired by the garden of monsters.

And for anyone making vacation plans, here's how to get there.

"Bomarzo is a little more than one hour’s drive north from Rome, and twenty-five kilometers from the provincial capital of Viterbo. It is open from sunrise to sunset, seven days a week. To get there you take the Autostrada del Sole, from Rome heading towards Florence. You can take either the Attigliano or the Orte exits. If you want to explore more of this fascinating area, Orvieto, a little further north along the autostrada, makes a good base, with a number of good hotels and excellent restaurants."

Will Sweeney & Susumu Mukai
Sweeney and Mukai have collaborated on a book collecting many of their drawings from the last 8 years titled "Gas Book 20". On this page scroll down just below the blue patch of color to read an article with the artists and see examples of their art.

Artwork by Will Sweeney
Official Sweeney page