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Showing posts with label Mary Shelly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mary Shelly. Show all posts

Sunday, February 28, 2021

Her Favorite Thing Is Monsters!


By every standard Emil Ferris is a great artist. Her work is moving, provocative, masterful, entertaining, and just fantastically original and down-right good. Now; on to the Monsters. Like the majority of Emil’s fans it was her breakout graphic novel “My favorite Thing is Monsters” that first got my attention. The title alone was a grabber for me. I have personally always loved monsters too; yes, a true love. Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, the Phantom of The Opera; those familiar guys and many other classics dominates my bed room like those of, I imagine, a lot of kids from my generation. They were there as small plastic sculpture/models that I painstakingly assembled like a mad scientist. There were magazines and comic books too. Whenever “The Wolf Man,” “The Thing” or “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms” aired I was in front of our television, regardless of time of day. I remember my beloved Grandmother saying; “You like all that weird stuff.” My response was: “Well, Yea…I do.”  It didn’t seem weird to me. In fact it made perfect sense. I associated them with religion, mythology, psychology and society as great works of literature and art. I’m sure Emil Ferris would agree. 

 

The Ferris debut work (MFTIM) is as mentioned before as masterful as it is beautiful and an inspiration. Her opening debut to the world stage is every bit as fantastic as her subject matter. She keeps it equally personal and intimate in turn. She explores her awakening sexuality, cultural norms and coming of age. It is a love letter to the discovery of truth and beauty through the study and observation of art.  She does all this while wrapping her narrative in a murder mystery. This is surly enough to satisfy the most demanding of audiences. She skillfully ties it all together while presenting it in great style that is most assuredly her own and uniquely so. 



Ferris chooses to execute her illustrations on compositional notebook paper which gives the work a personal touch. Every aspiring artist and young person begins drawing with lined paper I’m sure. This is a connection to her own past as well as the masses she is reaching with her efforts. What she is putting down is far indeed from any kiddie stuff. 




Ferris often faithfully recreates works of the great academics such as Toulouse-Lautrec and Winslow Homer. She does an incredible take on Henry Fuseceli’s “The Nightmare” that is truly to marvel.  Her work; rightfully so, has been feature in the most prominent art magazine of the day “Art Forum” a welcome validation and honoring of her achievements and uncanny abilities.



Think of “My Favorite Thing Is Monsters” when you think of “Maus,” “Persepolis,” “Sin City,” “The Arrival,” “God’s Man” or Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman.” It is comfortable among the best of the genre and like the other fore mentioned also rates among other works of “High Art.” Ferris fits nicely on the book shelf with Wells, Shelly, Bradbury and Hugo. 



                                                                                                                          




She presents herself with an elegance of presence and off beat flair; a character unto herself. I will not be surprised to see her cast one future day by Guillermo del Toro for one of his screen plays. What an asset she would be to any production. 




No problem, no fear.



Saturday, April 20, 2019

BERNIE WRIGHTSON: The Horror of it All



The work of this artist is as distinctive as that of his signature. They each can be seen as identifications of his purpose.  It is undeniably his own and in a league of rarity. Whether literary classic, graphic story-telling, book cover or poster he has done it all. Few artists cross and include the many boundaries of great illustration in their chosen genre. A standard of a truly great illustrator is the work can stand alone and be admired for it’s mastery of light, draftsmanship, color and craft. Bernie Wrightson passes every criteria as; yes, he is a great teller of story. 








It is in the realm of mystery, suspense, men and monsters that Wrightson thrives. There exist in Wrightson’s world; mayhem, gore, scares and thrills, as it is rightly so. There is horror galore in his art. While along with the horror, brutality and intensity; there is beauty. He is able to convey a sensitivity and understanding in his pieces. That understanding is of the human condition and spirit. 






“People in your life kind of come and go, you have relationships, you get divorced, you move on and things change, but the one constant, never-changing thing in my life has always been monsters.”
                                                                                                                                                                              Bernie Wrightson  






A major housing of his talents is realized in the Dark Horse Edition of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly’s “FRANKENSTEIN.”  It was as a true labor of love in that Wrightson undertook the drawings of the piece without a commission or contract. The Dark Horse Edition of Shelly’s novel is actually the 25th anniversary publishing of the Wrightson illustrated version. Wrightson began to shop around his art (at that time incomplete) to potential publishers. Marvel Comics would be the first to publish Wrightson’s version but it was limited to direct sale comic shops as was a subsequent printing by Underwood Miller. 


The Frankenstein Portfolio




Strangely enough the majority issued by both publishers were destroyed while they languished in warehouses either by fire or flooding. It seemed that the books (like Dr. Frankenstein) were somehow cursed.  The Dark Horse silver Anniversary printing was sold in major book stores to rave reviews and are coveted by Wrightson fans and lovers of the drama’s glory. It is a phenomenal piece and a much treasured article. Wrightson’s drawings hold their own with the greats of any era or style of comparable works of any illustrated fictional narrative.



DC Comics would print in it’s EC comics style book “House of Secrets” what would become a major and lasting contribution to the medium in 1971.  The short story written by Len Wein and drawn by Wrightson; “Swamp Thing” is now one of the company’s and the creative team’s crowns. Wein and Wrightson would work on the comic book series for ten issues. These issues are considered landmarks. Swamp Thing in it’s way has become part of the popular culture; TV, movies, magazines and graphic novels. In particularly the “Swamp Thing” stories of writer Alan Moore are acclaimed by critics and legendary among fans. An all new "Swamp Thing" TV series will be appearing in a few weeks at the DC Universe. This looks to be an excellent adaptation for the character.  
































































The creations of Wrightson exhibited here
Exalted by critics, extolled by his peers

These samplings of horror, his fans’ delights
All for your pleasure, while possibly frights

Take them each and all as you will
Possibly as thrillers and perhaps for the chills

The End


Saturday, October 25, 2014

The Frankenstein Monster


The Frankenstein monster
The lifeless; the dead
Seemed utterly harmless
with probes in his head
 A little of lightning
a bolt and a shock
 delivered the message
it’s time to wake up

The roar of the thunder
the crack of the shock
 he listened and heard them
just like a knock, knock

There’s  business for you
both scary and Grimm
a village to greet you
get going again.

He hurried; he worried
His efforts in vain
He grunted and growled
His brain was insane



He couldn’t remember the joy of a LIFE
The next thing he wanted you know was a wife
So quickly constructed
with bride and with friend
again starting over
his dreams to begin
but they too were shattered
when Bride say his face
this creature of science
could not find his place
He wished to belong
just one in the crowd
he ranted and raved
he shouted out loud
there’s no witches brew
or splendid, warm places
 His bride left him too
her beauty not wasted

The monster moved on
without kit or kin
he’s walking the Earth
resistant to sin
Avoiding each village
each hamlet and den
just can’t get connected
there’s never a  friend
You may see him soon
he’ll visit your town
Just some “thing” much scary
he rambles around

The ocean, the river, the light of the moon

Remarkable, distant, magnanimous goon