Exciting! Electrifying! Eckhardtian! Episcopalian! These are just four words beginning with E. None of the illustrated books we mention today are episcopalian (we don’t think) but they are fun – even scholarly but fun in one case. And we have some exclusive illos to show off. Our targets are Jason Eckhardt, Sam Gafford, Brandon Barrows, Hugo Petrus, Edgar Allan Poe and a surprise guest, David Langford.

NOTE: All pics should be clickable for larger versions, and sales links are provided for each book should you fancy a copy.

The Artist at the Threshold

We start with an illustrated volume we mentioned a while back, as a neatish link. Our first in-depth exposure to Jason Eckhardt’s striking work was in Some Notes on a Nonentity: The Life of H.P. Lovecraft (PS Publishing 2017), written by Sam Gafford.

The art of Some Notes on a Nonentity, a biography in graphic novel form, is fascinating, and was very well received:

“Eckhardt’s art deserves especial praise here: while he has published many drawings on Lovecraftian subjects over his career, the breadth of style and expression in SOME NOTES ON A NONENTITY is a cut above what anyone might have expected, and those familiar with the people and places involved will appreciate the considerable care that has gone into photo-references of the historical persons and places within. It’s an attention to detail that is echoed in Sam Gafford’s text, although the pace is kept lively – this is a work that could easily have been twice as long, and yet have become less accessible.” (Amazon Reviewer)

We even bought a copy at the time, and were most pleased with it – a lovely work to browse, and very informative.

Eckhardt: Behind the Masque

Now Jason Eckhardt has turned to Edgar Allan Poe, a fitting choice given Poe’s influence on Lovecraft.

“Poe has probably influenced me more than any other one person. If I have ever been able to approximate his kind of thrill, it is only because he himself paved the way by creating a whole atmosphere & method which lesser men can follow with relative ease.” (HPL to J. Vernon Shea, 19 June 1931)

The new book, The Masque of the Red Death and Others (Ulthar Press 2018), includes a selection of Poe’s original stories, each beautifully illustrated by Eckhardt:

“Edgar Allan Poe lives again in this collection of 13 of his most famous short stories and poems brought to life by exclusive, never-before-seen haunting illustrations from famed artist Jason Eckhardt. Stories include ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’, ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, ‘Metzengerstein’, ‘The Gold-Bug’ and many more including the title story.”

The Masque of the Red Death and Others

Amazon UK http://amzn.eu/d/fn8ygc7

Amazon US http://a.co/d/g99wlZs

Some Notes on a Nonentity: The Life of H.P. Lovecraft

Amazon UK http://amzn.eu/d/2E48Yz7

Amazon US http://a.co/d/ezZVFgx

By Langford Station, We Sat Down and Wept

The curious thing is that whilst checking out more of Eckhardt’s work, we knew he’d done a lot of line art for other Lovecraftian projects, but hadn’t realised that he’d illustrated an old friend of ours, that erudite author, editor and reviewer David Langford, a Britlander like ourselves. Many and many’s the time we have shouted at him across a crowded convention bar – and discovered that we were on his deaf side. No, really.

The item in question is the Irrational Numbers Pamphlet (Necronomicon Press 1994) by David Langford (Author), Jason C. Eckhardt (Illustrator).

“Irrational Numbers by David Langford is a collection of three short stories in techno-Lovecraftian vein, where occult investigations intersect dangerously with physics, mathematics and computer software.

“Neil Gaiman’s back-cover quote reads “Only Dave Langford knows the meaning of the word ‘fear’,” with the tiny footnote The other words only Dave Langford knows the meaning of are ‘Labile’, ‘Glabrous’ and ‘Scrotiform’.”“

The pamphlet itself is around occasionally, secondhand, but the three stories are still available in Different Kinds of Darkness by Langford:

“Different Kinds of Darkness collects 36 “straight” sf/fantasy/horror stories, complementing the parodies and pastiches in He Do the Time Police in Different Voices — there is no overlap. The stories range from the first Langford professional appearance in (gulp) 1975 to my latest piece of fiction at the time of delivery in October 2003.”

He Do the Time Police in Different Voices is an especially delightful book of parodies which we have mentioned on greydogtales before:

http://greydogtales.com/blog/parodies-possibilities-end-of-the-year-part-the-last/

Different Kinds of Darkness is available through Ansible (as is Time Police).

https://ansible.uk/books/dkod.html

Barrows Wrangles with Lovecraft’s Worlds

Finally, as we’re in the zone, it seems well worth mentioning another graphic work from last year, Mythos: Lovecraft’s Worlds, written by Brandon Barrows and illustrated by Hugo Petrus, published by Calibre Comics. Petrus has worked with writer Roy Thomas for Marvel Illustrated: The Three Musketeers, amongst other projects.

Barrows is, of course, a writer of both comics and many varieties of weird and thriller fiction, including his recent novel This Rough Old World, which is published by… Ulthar Press, run by Sam Gafford. Degrees of Kevin Bacon explode.

“Remembered as the father of modern horror, H.P. Lovecraft is best known for tales of terror, cosmic abominations and especially his most famous creation, the dreaded Cthulhu! Few realize, however, the true creative breadth and depth spanned by Lovecraft, who penned stories of horror but also of fantasy, science fiction and even humor. Within this Mythos series, writer Brandon Barrows and artist Hugo Petrus go beyond tentacles and evil gods to explore the rare corners and the myriad worlds created by H.P. Lovecraft!”

Barrows has adapted Lovecraft’s original texts clearly and appropriately to fit the medium of graphic stories, and there are two other particular pleasures in Mythos:

It’s not all the usual stories, and the collection includes ‘The Strange High House in the Mist’, and ‘The Beast in the Cave’, as well as the wry, humorous ‘Ibid’.
Petrus has selected different styles of B/W work for each story, so you get a rather clever contrast between them. In some cases the art is almost EC Comics style, but then it becomes finer, or more subtle, or more pervaded with greyscale, depending on the tale being depicted.

We found it an enjoyable collection, and a nice change.

Amazon UK http://amzn.eu/d/6pqUVaX