All posts by greydogtales

John Linwood Grant writes occult detective and dark fantasy stories, in between running his beloved lurchers and baking far too many kinds of bread. Apart from that, he enjoys growing unusual fruit and reading rejection slips. He is six foot tall, ageing at an alarming rate, and has his own beard.

Sebastian Cabrol: Strange Secrets of South America

December 5, 2015 greydogtales 2 Comments

Hola y bienvenido. Our dark art theme continues to grow. Following M Wayne Miller‘s great contribution, another first for greydogtales – an exclusive, fully-illustrated interview with the talented Sebastian Cabrol. Sí, es nuestro primer artículo de terror Sudamericana.

If you didn’t already know, there’s a whole South American scene for fantastic dark art and literature, with linguistic links to horror in Spain and Portugal as well. We’re quite excited about these new connections of ours, because we love to poke around in other people’s weird backyards.

Sebastian Cabrol is an Argentinian artist who has produced many fine, moody pieces of weird art and who deserves wider recognition, especially outside the Spanish-speaking world. Not only that, but Diego Arandojo, another gifted Argentinian creative, has written a short article for us on working with Sebastian, which provides further insights.

Aquí es Sebastian…

greydog: You’re not totally new to greydogtales, Sebastian – we featured some of your work during our William Hope Hodgson festival in October, particularly your striking illustrations for The Night Land and The House on the Borderland. So we want to start by asking you about your other work in the past. Can you give us an example of an earlier project which you enjoyed, something which we might not know over here?

sebastian: Although I’m not new in the artistic field either, somehow I haven’t published a lot of things, in fact my favourite project is still unedited. It’s an illustrated version of William Hope Hodgson’s “Demons of the Sea”. I think it will be released in 2016. Of course I strongly recommend the illustrated Spanish version of “The House on the Borderland” which was released just a month ago!

greydog: And we’ve seen inside it, great examples of your style. Is there any one illustrator or painter who inspired you at the start?

sebastian: A lot of people inspired me as a kid, from Argentinian artists such as Lucho Olivera, or Alberto Breccia, to foreign ones as Moebius, Enki Bilal, Berni Wrightson and Brian Bolland. Movies like David Lynch´s Dune and Alien were a great source of influence too.

alberto breccia - the dunwich horror (1979) — alberto breccia – the dunwich horror (1979)

greydog: We’re reading Breccia comic strips at the moment, and we were mad for Bilal when we were younger. Looking at your own portfolio, many of your pictures have muted, sometimes monochrome, tones. Is this done for the disturbing effect, or do you prefer to work in these tones rather than full colour?

sebastian: I enjoy full coloured illustrations, I really do, but I don’t feel confident enough to use a great variety of tones as I colour my work. One part of me thinks that a limited palette adds more atmosphere and mood, and another part just give this advice: you’re not an expert on handling colours, so have some restraint! In my defence I must say that I’ve always focused more on lighting and composition rather than colour.

hermidainteriorcabrol — cabrol, courtesy arondojo

greydog: As mentioned, we first came across your work when we were looking at horror books around the world, through your work for Hermida Editores. Do you work with other publishers in Spain and elsewhere, or is most of your art for Argentinian markets?

sebastian: I’ve worked mainly for Argentina and Spain for now, but I hope that will change in the near future.

demons of the sea-08 — demons of the sea, cabrol

greydog: It should do – publishers take note! So, we’re asking two or three other book illustrators about creative freedom. Do you find that you get strict instructions from the publishers, or do they allow you the freedom to select images and interpretations?

sebastian: I guess I’ve been very lucky since in every project done as an illustrator I’ve enjoyed true freedom to do the things that please me (in the comic field usually there’s more control from the writer or the editor) I really can’t complain at all.

Secret worship-01 — secret worship, cabrol

greydog: We admit we don’t know much about the Argentinian weird and horror scene. On the horror film side we hear interesting things about film writer/director Adrián García Bogliano and his brother Ramirez. Many people will have read a lot of Jorge Luis Borges‘ magical-realism, which includes some weird twists. And there’s you and Diego, of course. Is there anyone we should all be reading/watching?

sebastian: Oh, I’m not an expert nor have I read everything produced in South America to be honest, but you definitely should check the work of Alberto Breccia (Uruguayan master of horror and chiaroscuro, often imitated, but never matched), as we said above, plus Horacio Lalia, Oscar Chichoni and the exquisite work of Quique Alcatena, perhaps the best living illustrator from Argentina. Perhaps they sound familiar, since all of them worked for UK publishers Thompson on 2000AD.

Talking about literature, you already mentioned Borges, and I would like to add Julio Cortázar, Leopoldo Lugones, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Horacio Quiroga, Jacobo Bajarlía, Mario Levrero and Antonio Di Benedetto. Sadly I don´t know a lot of modern writers (with the exception of Diego Arandojo) but they surely continue the path of those Latin American masters.

secret worship_02 — secret worship, cabrol

greydog: There are some fantastic names there, which we’d like to follow up in a later article. But back to you – you’ve also been an inker, for example your work for Caliban by Garth Ennis and Facundo Percio. Is it easier, or more frustrating, to ink someone else’s work?

sebastian: I find it easier to ink over someone else’s pencils, I don´t struggle at all. I know that in the beginning it can be hard to face that responsibility of finishing the pages, and it’s a bit stressful, but as the pages flow you become more sure. I enjoy it, actually.

Secret worship_03 — secret worship, cabrol

greydog: Which writer(s) would you most like to illustrate if you had the chance?

sebastian: I would like to work with the authors I love, the previous mentioned and I would add one of my favourites: Arthur Machen. Of course I would be happy to do something based on the work of RL Stevenson, A Blackwood, Sheridan Le Fanu, M R James, Clark Ashton Smith, Ambrose Bierce, Clive Barker, etc. Basically my main group of favourite authors since my teenage years.

greydog: And finally, greydogtales would love to see more of your work. Do you have any other new projects that you can share with us?

sebastian: Right now I’ve just finished my part in a comic anthology called “H.O.U.N.D.S” based on supernatural detectives such as Jules de Grandin, Carnacki or John Silence. Writer Rodolfo Santullo and I adapted “Secret Worship” and I think it´s one of the best work I’ve done so far. I’m very proud of it.

greydog: And as a bonus, readers can see some of the “Secret Worship” panels throughout this article. Gracias, Sebastian Cabrol.

sebastian: Thanks very much to you, John.

Sebastian’s own website, with many other illos, is here:

cabrol art

If you read Spanish, below is the link to the William Hope Hodgson works which Sebastian has illustrated for Hermida Editores.

hermidastitch hermida editores – william hope hodgson

####

Our second guest, Diego Arandojo, has published stories and plays, is a film director, a comic writer and is trained in graphic design and illustration. He has recently edited Lovecraft en Argentina by Carlos Abraham, containing essays on H P Lovecraft‘s status and influence in Argentinian writing. While we were chatting to him about the Abraham book, he offered this reflection on Sebastian, which was perfect for today. For the original Spanish text, click the next link:

memorias de la oscuridad espanol

Y aquí es Diego…

MEMORIES OF THE DARKNESS – My journey with Sebastian Cabrol

Throughout my years as a writer and screenwriter, few times have I felt so impressed by the work of a cartoonist. One of these artists, possessed of a deep and very personal way of working, was Sebastián Cabrol.

We started working together in 2007. I did a free adaptation to comic of the story by Robert Bloch “The Feast in the Abbey”. Editor Matías Timarchi (who currently runs the Argentinian publishers OVNI Press) appointed Cabrol to draw my script. The result was stunning. The pages were full of darkness, of coldness; Cabrol’s style works in a mystic way with an incredible density.

Three years later, in 2010, our adaptation “The Feast in the Abbey” was published in the book “Relatos de No Muertos” (Tales of the Undead) (OVNI Press).

From this first collaboration onwards I was interested in continuing to work with Sebastian. In 2009 (before the publication of Bloch’s story) we did the comic “Trapped in Sleiggh”, much in the style of the BBC’s horror series. This comic was published in 2015 in the digital magazine “Lafarium”, in a special edition of horror stories in English.

Returning to the year 2010, I asked Sebastian permission to include his illustration of the Blason de Cthulhu in the CD tribute to H. P. Lovecraft issued by the Spanish label, GH RECORDS.

At the same time, Cabrol did illustrations for a book of mine (as yet unpublished) called “Disposable Kids”, and illustrated the cover of a play (also unpublished) called “The Four Messengers”, based on the film “Las 77 Páginas” (The 77 Pages), which I did together with Mauro Savarino, produced on DVD, also by GH RECORDS of Spain.

With the release of the DVD of “The 77 Pages”, Cabrol drew a comic based on this film (not yet unpublished).

In 2014 Cabrol drew the cover of my book “Lafarium”, a collection of esoteric essays and short stories from my magazine of the same name. In this book, there is also an illustration of Sebastian based on my short story “Knonix”.

In 2015 I published in the online edition of “Lafarium” an eBook entitled “Suspira de Lobos” (Sigh of Wolves), with art by Cabrol, that tells a story about the Genesis of the Bible, and the birth of the fight against the werewolves and vampires. There were originally two chapter titles drawn by him, which formed part of an unfinished project that I undertook together Matías Timarchi many years ago, called “Wolfmaiden”. Cabrol drew the opening titles of each chapter and Facundo Percio did the rest of the work. “Wolfmaiden” was never published.

We currently have many ideas for working on various comic strips. For me it is an honour to work with an artist like Sebastián Cabrol, who, in addition to his talent is an excellent human being. In 2014, I was able travel to meet him in person, after so many years of working at long distance. On that occasion I took the opportunity to make a short film about him.

I admire and respect him.

Have a look at Diego’s Lafarium site, which has the special September 2015 Horror edition on it. Check the link below the image.

lafarium

We should add that vital translational expertise was provided by our good friend Sarah Mooring from Alicante, who deserves praise for the bits we got right. Any mistakes are ours. As usual.

####

We hope to have Diego and Sebastian back again in the New Year to tell us more about what they’ve been up to, and it would be foolish of us not to pursue more of the writers, artists and projects raised in the above pieces, so Argentina will return to greydogtales. Or the other way round. Much reading and research is called for. Más de terror Sudamericana y Española en el futuro.

We wanted something audiovisual to end with, so we picked a short Argentinian horror film by Andres Borghi, with English sub-titles. Be warned, it’s a little unsettling.

Now go walk the dog, and stay off the computer for a while. You’ll feel better soon…

Coming next week: classic supernatural fiction, an interview with artist Raphael Ordonez, and some lurchers in there somewhere…

Share this article with friends - or enemies...

Common Lurcher Questions: It’s Lurchers for Beginners 4

December 3, 2015 greydogtales 2 Comments

or An Expert Avoids Most of the Issues.

Every so often we glance at the doggie search questions people use to find this site. Alarmingly, some of them are quite serious ones. We’re just people who live with lurchers and longdogs. I may have to post a photograph of me in a white coat, like in the adverts, saying “I am not a veterinarian, but…”. Pictures of me in a grubby khaki jacket with a poo bag in one hand and the leads tangled around my legs are not inspiring, that’s for sure. So let’s forget that ‘expert’ word.

However, we thought that Lurchers for Beginners might look at some of the top searches and see what we could make of them. Today’s brilliant photos come from Lurcher Link forum member Ann, and are of her gorgeous deerhound/greyhound cross, Roxy.

Here are the seven most commonly asked questions, and they are all genuine, taken from the last four weeks:

1) What’s the best way to get a lurcher fit?

Haven’t the faintest. We walk ours twice a day, stop Django eating discarded Greggs pasties from the pavement (and the contents of every other food bowl), and run them as often as possible. The running really does help (them, not you). And we feed raw, using meat and bone that isn’t too fatty and some blitzed fruit or veg now and then, but that’s optional. If you want to know, the approach is called BARF, which is what people do when they see you hacking up raw carcasses with a maniacal enthusiasm. Just don’t let your pups trough on endless kibble and cake, whatever you do feed them. When we’re exhausted and we’ve settled down, our dogs like to keep fit by jumping on and off the bed, playing bitey-face and generally exercising themselves – and our patience. It works for them.

2) Why are lurchers a funny shape?

This is down to God, evolution or human breeding programmes. Possibly all three. They are designed to run, with deep chests, very flexible spines and skeletal articulations which make them good at it. The sighthound crosses run in what is called a ‘double-hung’ suspension gallop, with all four feet off the ground a lot of the time. Lurchers have large hearts – they pump up on the old oxygen and charge at up to 45 miles an hour for short periods.

They’re not built for marathon-type stamina running, but for bursts of hyper-speed. They are built for dead-legging you, hitting trees and overshooting into rivers (see ‘muddy lurcher’ below). With a low body fat and wiry build, they can also look very leggy compared to other dogs. Chilli has at least eight legs, like furry stilts, which stick out all over the place, often in our faces. Or maybe we accidentally rescued a gigantic spider on a diet. It’s hard to tell. Django, on the other hand, resembles a kangaroo with identity issues, especially from behind.

3) Do sleeping lurchers growl often?

The best we get is the occasional excited set of whimpers and a frantic kicking of one or more legs. This is presumably when they are taking down the Squirrel Army on their fantasy hunting trip. See Lurchers v Squirrels – the Battle of Dork’s Drift:

squirrel madness

Or they’re finally teaching next door’s cat a lesson. In Chilli’s case it may mean that she’s having a dream about how to reach the liver treats, thus becoming an even more independent girl than she is now. Many lurchers and longdogs make very little sound even when awake, unless they’re taunting each other to run across the coffee table and see what they can knock over.

4) How do you deal with a muddy lurcher?

By covering every surface of your house in cling-film and polythene sheeting, then hosing the place down once a week. You can try bathing them, at which point they look woeful, thin and distinctly put-upon. We don’t bother. Fox poo gets a quick wet scrub in the appropriate area, everything else gets a towel-down and ‘let’s hope the vacuum can pick up all the dried mud tomorrow’. Twiglet gets a towel-down even though she doesn’t go out much, because it annoys her to be left out. But we’ve had too many dogs for too long to care much nowadays. The world is, after all, primarily mud in one form or another.

a typical lurcher owner's carpet — a typical lurcher owner’s living room carpet

5) Why does my lurcher sleep so much?

Because he or she is a lurcher. Almost every dog charity seems to have posters up trying to correct people’s views of lurchers and sighthounds. The dogs are seen charging around wildly, and people go, oh, I couldn’t deal with one of them. Lurchers and longdogs are famous for kipping – as long as they have had their burst of exercise a few times during the day. Chilli dozes for twenty plus hours of the day, and is fit, slim and one of the fastest dogs we’ve ever seen. When she’s not being fast, she just wants to cuddle and sleep. Although – have we said before that lurcher puppies are insane? They may bounce off the walls quite a lot for the first couple of years. So you’ll be asking ‘Please God, why won’t my lurcher puppy just go to sleep?’ instead.

ann's roxy (louise kingston) — ann’s roxy (louise kingston)

6) What equipment do you need for a lurcher?

A rocket-pack for catching them, chainmail gloves for interrupting bitey-face, and American football-style padding for impact damage. Numerous sofas, cushions and comfy dog-beds, because lurchers are usually low in body fat, short of an undercoat and thin-skinned. They do not appreciate sleeping on hard surfaces, and will point this out to you. Repeatedly. If nothing else is available, they will use you as the required padding. You’ll learn eventually.

Alternatively, for lead and collar issues, we refer you to our post Lurchers for Beginners 2:

this time it’s personal

with the addition that if you muzzle, be sure to use an open basket muzzle of some form. These allow the lurcher to drink and pant, which are very important given their love of charging about at high speed. Don’t use a closed or constrictive muzzle whatever you do.

a typical basket muzzle — a basket muzzle looking unnaturally clean

Basket muzzles are also a good way for your lurcher to bring more mud back into the house. Or snow. Or stinky water. Lurchers and longdogs are tool-using animals, after all.

The seventh and last question for today has no funny answer, because of what might come of it. So we’ll take this one seriously.

7) Does my lurcher need a bowl off the ground?

Again, we are not a substitute for proper advice, and studies are still mixed in this area. Deep-chested and large dogs tend to be more prone to bloat, or gastric volvulus, a terrible condition which is often treatable if caught early but can also be lethal. It may sometimes be genetic, but there are some indications that raised bowls can increases the risk of bloat, maybe because the dog eats more quickly or takes in more air. Basically they’re not sure. We feed on the floor, in case they’re right. However you choose to feed your dogs, to reduce the risk of bloat ensure that you portion food out over at least two meals a day, never one big one, and don’t exercise too soon before or after feeding. Small meals and sensible exercise rules, basically. Those might help.

Bloat needs immediate veterinary treatment. This is not an area for dithering or home remedies. If you have a large or deep-chested dog, look up the symptoms and familiarise yourself with them. You may never encounter it, so don’t start stressing out. We know what people with medical dictionaries are like. It is simply better to be prepared.

####

So there you have it. Another addition to the encyclopaedic Lurchers for Beginners series, bringing you everything you needed to know about your lurcher and some rubbish which you might want to forget immediately. That’ll teach you to look things up properly in a real book.

Next time: Some of those weird, dark pictures that make you feel peculiar. It’s for your own good, you know…

Share this article with friends - or enemies...

M Wayne Miller: An Artist Speaks

November 30, 2015 greydogtales Leave a comment

Weird art today, longdogs in the mid-week(ish) and horror fiction by Saturday. We’re careening all over the place at the moment, which means that we’re both ‘moving swiftly and erratically’ and ‘being hauled over for repairs’. Lots of background and menu bits to freshen up, basically. We did think about going wild and becoming the Internet’s premiere ‘Nice Pussycat Photos and Enid Blyton Tribute’ blog, but then we felt slightly ill. So we won’t do that. Lurchers and creepy stuff must prevail.

The Horror out of Toytown has its appeal though….

As promised, we now have our interview with that most excellent artist friend of ours, M Wayne Miller. Instead of some made-up introduction, we quote from his bio at Dark Renaissance Books, for whom he has done many covers and illustrations:

“M. Wayne Miller made his mark in the 90’s as a consummate b/w illustrator for numerous book and magazine publishers as well as several role-playing game publishers. While the b/w market was a fine place to cut one’s freelance illustrator’s teeth, and he did well, it was a stepping-stone to the more competitive and lucrative color illustration market. After an artistic conversion to color work, Wayne re-emerged as a cover illustrator for specialty press and mass-market book publishers, as well as for role playing games, online publications, and private commissions.”

For us, Wayne’s work is particularly fun because he captures the ‘full-on’ action style which represents weird adventure at its best, and what they used to call a rollicking good story. Let’s hear from The Man (the art below should be clickable for larger versions – possibly):

greydog: Welcome to greydogtales, Wayne. We’ve been looking forward to having you here, as many of our listeners will know you from your cover art for so many weird and horror books. Was working in that genre a personal choice or one driven by the market?

mwm: Horror has always been a genre I enjoyed in both narrative and visual format. As a kid I loved old b/w movies late at night such as The Creature From the Black Lagoon, The Giant Claw, and The Black Scorpion. Of course there was Godzilla, and all the giant monster movies, as well as the creepy sci-fi stuff like Forbidden Planet and The War of the Worlds (the original, of course). My reading followed in this vein, though it was middle school and high school before I really got into much actual horror. I blame Stephen King for making me an avid horror reader. In the years since, I have continued to read and watch horror fare, so one would be safe in saying that I was seasoned and simmered in the genre through my formative years, which I have no doubt led to my enjoyment in creating such artwork.

arvis winfield's fate, deathrealm magazine (1995) — arvis winfield’s fate, deathrealm magazine (1995)

With regard to my illustration career, I would say the market provided the opportunity. My first published illustration appeared in Deathrealm magazine in 1995. From there I went on to have work appear in lots of other horror genre periodicals and story collections. Like stepping stones, one led to another, and momentum was achieved. Once my cover illustrations began to appear on Dark Regions Press publications, cover opportunities came my way. I won’t go as far as to say I am typecast as a horror illustrator, but for many years, that is exclusively where I worked. As with most things, times change, so much of the horror work has fallen away, replaced by fantasy and sci-fi.

the grey boats, dark renaissance books (2015) — the grey boats, from willie meikle’s carnacki – heaven & hell, dark renaissance books (2015)

greydog: We interviewed Willie Meikle here last month, and of course you’ve illustrated many of his stories, particularly his Carnacki pieces. Are you a fan of William Hope Hodgson?

mwm: Yes indeed. Willie and I have worked together on countless projects. He is hands down the writer I have worked with the most in my career. We often joke that we are a tag team, and unbeatable as such. One of the things I love about Willie’s work is that he takes characters like Carnacki, Sherlock Holmes, and Professor Challenger, and writes new fiction that is every bit as authentic as the original works featuring these characters, with the added spice of lots of supernatural happenings and creepy monsters. And yes, I am a fan of William Hope Hodgson, as well as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, so doing artwork based on these writer’s legacy is a special treat for me.

the island of terror by willie meikle, dark renaissance books (2013)

greydog: We’ve seen a wide range of sketches, monochrome pictures and glorious technicolour pieces from you. What’s your own favourite medium?

mwm: If by favourite medium, you mean the one I use most often, digital is my thing. All of my published work for hire, outside of a very few in the beginning, is digital. That meaning that I do my sketching, concepting, and refined drawing with pencil and paper, and all finished painting whether monochrome or colour, in the computer. While I do all my painting digitally, I honestly can’t say it is my favourite medium. I still miss the smell of oil paints and linseed oil, which digital does not provide. In the past I loved pen and ink illustration, but nowadays, charcoal pencil on mid toned paper would be my favourite.

bedlam in yellow, dark renaissance books (2015)

greydog: How competitive is the world of weird art? We know that a number of illustrators collaborate, but for those who are just entering it, is it a dog-eat-dog sort of market?

mwm: Honestly, I find the fantastic illustration market to be a very welcoming and nurturing environment. There are many artists I know personally who go out of their way to provide advice and tutelage to aspiring artists entering the field. The internet has opened an entire vista of learning, tutorials, and avenues for showing work. Certainly a good thing in itself. However, making one’s work stand out in this maelstrom is now more important than ever. Getting work is far from a simple affair, as one still needs dedication to improve one’s craft, as well as perseverance in the face of rejection and stiff competition.

greydog: That last bit’s painfully true for many of us. Now, we never ask where people get their ideas or inspiration if we can help it – it’s a bit of a stock question. What we would like to know is how much you can get your own vision across. Do you have much creative freedom on a book commission?

mwm: Having the freedom to pursue one’s own artistic vision is not the goal of an illustrator. That is not to say an illustration is not the artistic vision of an artist, but only that the aim is to support the narrative or concept for which the work was commissioned. I never go into a job hoping to fulfil my own artistic agenda. Rather, I aim to capture the subject matter, whether idea or text, and make it a visual reality. This process is very much my own vision, and often I have full freedom to do as I wish in this endeavour, but ultimately it is the subject that dictates the result.

greydog: And what sort of time-scale do you allow to produce a full colour book cover from scratch?

mwm: Most of my commissions take one to two weeks. This does not include reading time for a manuscript. The concepting process is the variable, as that is the part of the job where an idea is settled upon through working with the publisher and author to clarify the rough drawing. Sometimes this process is quick and painless. Other times it is a real effort to clarify the agreed upon rough. Once painting begins, a week will suffice for most covers in an ideal world where that is the only project on my plate. The reality is that I work on more than one concurrently, with each one at different stages. This allows me to maintain an efficient workflow, and also to “get a break” from one project when I work on another.

for the bible tells me so, orson scott card's intergalactic medicine show (2015) — for the bible tells me so, orson scott card’s intergalactic medicine show (2015)

greydog: On the subject of workflow, your style would obviously be perfect for graphic novels. Have you ever considered, or been approached about, taking on that sort of work?

mwm: It has been offered, and while I would love to do such work, honestly, I don’t have the patience for sequential art. Drawing the same characters interacting is not something I am well suited for. I do enjoy inking existing sequential art, but that happens rarely. I would, however, take all the cover work for comics and graphic novels that I can get. That way I get to draw the characters in one really big detailed scene, and then I am on to something else.

the time mechanic, orson scott card's intergalactic medicine show (2014) — the time mechanic, orson scott card’s intergalactic medicine show (2014)

greydog: Our last shot – when the work’s over, and he wants to chill out, what does M Wayne Miller really do? Sketch, read, get the DVDs out or head for the bar like most of the greydogtales team?

mwm: Is work ever over? Ha! What down time I get usually involves reading, movies, TV, or video games, but even unrelated past times are still feeding my artistic well, so it could realistically be said I am always “on the job”. All that being said, I am not averse to having a pint at all!

greydog: Good man! And thank you very much, Wayne.

story emporium, purveyors of steam punk & weird western adventures (2015)

And we’re out of here, as you can see from Wayne’s illo above. I think Wayne’s the one driving. He has a website, with more illos, and links to where you can buy his prints, that you can visit here:

mwaynemiller.com

And for completists, Dark Renaissance Books can be found here:

dark renaissance books

Don’t forget, if you subscribe to greydogtales or follow me on facebook, you’ll never miss a post. If you don’t subscribe, I’ll just whine outside your bedroom door all night, so you might as well do it…

Share this article with friends - or enemies...

The Hell Horse and the Autumn Boy

November 28, 2015 greydogtales Leave a comment

The First Reading

His hands are old, his fingers older.

They reach into other years, with their walnut joints and yellow nails, and draw out the Deck of Seasons. As steady as they have always been, they remove the deck from its box of polished yew, and cut the cards, just once.

He lays the initial card upon the kitchen table, between the ashtray and the butter. A single shred of marmalade clings to the edge of the butter, burnt gold on a pale field.

The Hive. Many minds, a single thought. The card is not a threat, not in itself.

The second card, placed carefully next to the tomato ketchup, is the Bright Spear. Merciless intent. He is not surprised. It is one of the cards most coveted by the Children of Angles and Corners.

His blue-tinged lips tighten, and he glances at the sleeping dog, who snores and kicks, lost in dreams of small things which she will never catch. The joy of the chase, and the approval of others. His face relaxes, and he places the third card.

The Stone. Unwelcoming, resistant to change. It is the nature of those who are coming, after all.

He rolls a cigarette, because he still can, and places it neatly on top of the three he has already rolled this morning. The ritual matters, even though he no longer smokes. And there is a thought crouching between ragged eyebrows.

Might the card mean his own kind as well?

This is the moment of hesitation, the completion of the initial spread. The fourth card will be a charm, and show what is to come. His fingers reach into the deck without conscious thought. The card is found, turned, and placed next to the congealed egg of yesterday’s breakfast…

The Autumn Boy.

He sighs, sits back and nods his head. The weakest of the ruling cards in the Deck of Seasons. Unless you really understand the world.

Which he does.

####

We’re feeling into the northern folk-horror world today (which happens surprisingly often). Hence the extract above from The Children of Angles and Corners, which may be coming from greydog next year if he writes faster. It’s a project based on the re-emergence of the huldrefolk and other things of the past, once thought extinguished by the new religions, as the land grows cold…

As a writer (I love saying that. It’s like saying ‘as a man with a beard’, or ‘as an enthusiast of pork pies’) I have trouble with the fact that more than half of my stories do not fit anyone’s submission requirements. Or the other way round. As a man with no money, I tend to follow the requirements when I can. The huldrefolk stories are not on anyone’s buying list, but I might just hack my way through anyway. What’s three or four months of my life with no paying contracts, hey? I like ‘past-its-use-by-date’ value corned beef, really I do. Those bacteria are full of protein, aren’t they?

Hang on, I think we were blogging. Yes, so after our tripod-based last episode, we got rather carried away and wanted to write all about the Chinese Three-legged Crow, the lucky Three-legged Toad, and why the Isle of Man is such an odd place. But we haven’t (we’ll save them for another time). Art is cool with greydogtales at the moment, and so we settled for an illustration of the Helhest, the three-legged hell horse of Scandinavian lore.

8195e071cc-Bech_Helhesten_troldfolk — by bech

The helhest is said to be associated with death and sickness. Some say that if its presence signifies death, then it appears as a black beast; if it signifies disease, then it appears white. A haunter of graveyards, the helhest legend may be based on the old custom of burying a horse in a new graveyard, the helhest being the manifestation of the sacrificed horse.

This horse’s ghost is called the ‘Helhest’. If anyone meets it, it is a sign to him of an early death. It is a tradition of the cathedral at Aarhus, that such a horse is occasionally seen there…

A Danish Parsonage, J F Vicary, 1884

helhest_and_crow_by_piasdatter-d4b3e13 — by piasdatter

The helhest is also associated, naturally, with Hel or Hela, the Norse Goddess of the Underworld, and in some stories is the beast she rides. Why it is three-legged we have no idea. Hel herself is one of Loki‘s children, along with the wolf Fenrir and the world-serpent Jormungandr. She is usually referred to as appearing discoloured on one side of her face and body, tinged with the blacks and blues of death and decay, and quite normal on the other.

This tends be portrayed rather less ickily by illustrators, who either miss out the rotting bits or depict her as skeletal on the decayed side. My own first introduction to Hel was through Marvel Comics and her appearances in Thor, where she was a mysterious figure clad in green and black.

And rather cool with it. It’s quite tragic what a teenage boy can find exciting. But here’s a more recent version:

Back to the hell horse. The first painting of the helhest at the start of the article comes from the site of the talented Jørgen Bech Pedersen, a self-taught Danish artist who produces wonderful renditions of figures from Nordic folk-lore. We shall try to get him on greydogtales if we can.

His site Troldfolk is an illustrated bestiary of such beings, and we recommend a visit. The text is in Danish, but the pictures aren’t:

troldfolk

The second helhest is by piasdattir on deviantart, to be found here:

piasdattir

All art copyright belongs to their creators, as usual.

You know that we at greydogtales like to add the odd soundwave to our posts wherever possible. So, if you’re into pagan power metal, then you really should check out Fimbulvet, a European group who slam out some heavy pagan tunes. Rather conveniently, they have recorded a track called, yes, Helhest:

Given that in some legends the barghest (see Game of Groans & Clanking Chains) is also a denizen of cemeteries and a beast of ill omen, it makes us wonder if there is any common root that connects helhest and barghest.

####

You may remember that we mentioned Andy Paciorek’s excellent illustrations a couple of weeks ago, as part of our weird art celebration. It’s worth adding that he has now finished compiling the book Folk-Horror Revival: Field Studies, and it’s available to buy. We quote:

500 pages. Illustrated throughout including artwork by Alan Lee, Paul Rumsey, Julia Jeffrey, Morgaine Art, GB. Jones and Andy Paciorek. Featuring essays and interviews by many great cinematic, musical, artistic and literary talents, Folk Horror Revival: Field Studies is the most comprehensive and engaging exploration to date of the sub genre of Folk Horror and associated fields in cinema, television, music, art, culture and folklore. Includes contributions by Kim Newman, Robin Hardy, Thomas Ligotti, Philip Pullman, Gary Lachman, Jim Moon, English Heretic, The Hare and the Moon and many many more.

100% of all profits from sales of the book will be charitably donated to environmental, wildlife and community projects undertaken by The Wildlife Trusts.

It’s available now from lulu.com

We’re grimmed out. We have some glorious longdog pictures to come next time. Also, our interview with artist and illustrator M Wayne Miller is back from the cleaners, and should be ready soon, along with many other fine pieces. Do join us, dear listeners, in a few days…

Share this article with friends - or enemies...

MEMORIES OF THE DARKNESS – My journey with Sebastian Cabrol

or An Expert Avoids Most of the Issues.

1) What’s the best way to get a lurcher fit?

2) Why are lurchers a funny shape?

3) Do sleeping lurchers growl often?

4) How do you deal with a muddy lurcher?

5) Why does my lurcher sleep so much?

6) What equipment do you need for a lurcher?

7) Does my lurcher need a bowl off the ground?

The First Reading

Literature, lurchers and life