Noriyoshi Shin’s witch target Written by Kazumasa Hirai Kadokawa Shoten 1974
Have you ever come across a piece of art so bold and breathtaking, so heart-stopping and jaw-dropping, that you feel dizzy and faint but also wildly ecstatic and a bit crazed, all at the same time? Perhaps a soupçon of le Syndrome Stendahl?
I’m sure I must have, at some point, seen some of Noriyoshi Ohrai’s works, a prolific master illustrator of iconic film posters for movies that we all know and love–Star Wars, Mad Max, Goonies, etc. But somehow, he flew under my radar until last month I saw his Godzilla movie posters, and frankly, I lost my shit. They are freaking fantastic! So beautifully vivid and detailed, gorgeous and terrifying all at once! More than an artist of poster art approved by George Lucas, Ohrai created thousands of illustrations, usually in the genre of science fiction and special effects films like the Godzilla series, as well as numerous artworks for pulp fiction books and video games.
Elusive and somewhat mysterious, he was known to be an immensely meticulous worker who immersed himself in an incredible amount of research before working on a commissioned piece. It is said that moviegoers would comment that his illustrations of Godzilla looked even more powerful and violent than the real thing. Ohrai passed in 2015, sadly before I had even heard of him. He’s left behind a vast body of work to discover, though, and I have been having an absolute blast scouring the internet to see all of it! This post took me a while to put together because I like to be able to share both the artist and give some details about the work itself if only just a title. It took a little digging and a lot of Google Translate, but here are some favorites, below. Please forgive any errors in translation, I tried my best!
Movie poster for Godzilla vs Space Godzilla in 1994
The Empire Strikes Back
for Noriyoshi Shin’s Shingenma Taisen 6 big interlude Tokuma Shoten, published 1983
Noriyoshi Shin’s Shingenma Taisen 1 Encounter with the Superconscious Tokuma Shoten, published 1980
A few weeks ago I woke up to see that one of my sisters had posted the following on Facebook, along with the photo below.
“My mother was a DEEPLY flawed woman. She probably did the best that she could with what she had to work with at the time, but ultimately, her daughters still suffered quite a bit from the baggage and damage that SHE carried. That said, in the end, if she did ONE thing right, it was raising three girls that grew up to be each others’ VERY BEST friends. I know that she would be proud if she saw us now. I love my sisters.”
L-R: Me (eldest); Melissa (baby); Mary (middle sestra)
LOOK AT THOSE LITTLE WEIRDOS. There doesn’t exist enough or maybe even any language at all to express how much they mean to me. But then again, it’s probably beyond words anyway. I love them beyond anything I could write, or say or think, beyond bone, beyond blood, beyond time. Always and again, in every lifetime. And we’re probably gonna be fucked-up weirdos forever, in all of ‘em,
Anyway, it got me thinking about us and just how OFTEN I think of us. Certainly anytime I see a painting or an illustration with three women doing whatever, or three kids looking strange and derpy…or three graces…or three queens…or three fates…or three witches. It’s always us. I see the three of us in every trio, across every genre and movement, across every era, in every stylistic detail and brushstroke.
Here are a few canvases that I always return to. I can’t always have my sisters close by, but it’s a trip to imagine these characters bickering and laughing and gossiping and scheming and making each other cry (WHY is that so much satisfying fun?? I don’t know. I’m mean.) Sestras, I always see you everywhere, in everything. I love you with my whole, stupid, mean heart.
Circle of Robert Peake the Elder? Follower of William Larkin? this one is a bit of a mystery
Kate Greenaway
John Watkiss
Leonora Carrington
James Sant
Valentine Cameron Prinsep
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Viktor Vasnetsov
Alexander Rothaug
Franz von Stuck
Florence Harrison
Leonor Fini
Noriyoshi Ohrai
Oliver Rhys
Pablo Picasso
Palma il Vecchio
John Singer Sargent
John Collier
The Triumph of Death, or The 3 Fates. Flemish tapestry
Delphin Enjolras
Daniel Gardner
Charles W Hawthorne
Bonus! Three Cats with Bowls of Milk, by Gertrude Abercrombie
Today I am experiencing : that incredibly intense, violent prickle of compulsion to share ALL of the incredible art, ALL OF IT, ALL AT ONCE that has been contributed by the shadowy coven of contemporary artists who appear in The Art of Darkness. Because while I’ve given some peeks here and there…it’s just not enough!
In the immortal words of Bilbo Baggins, “…after all, why not? Why shouldn’t I SHARE THE REST OF IT??”
So here’s where a bit of magic comes in, between you, me, and the pages of this book. I am going to share it, and you are going to be mesmerized by the stygian kaleidoscope of these works–utterly ensorcelled–and you are going to follow the links and tags back to the artists and take a gander at all of the other incredible things they create, and then you are going to hit the “order” button on your bookseller website of choice, and then you are going to PROMPTLY FORGET ALL OF IT! Like it was all a strange, tenebrous dream! And then you will be surprised and overjoyed when The Art of Darkness appears on your doorstep on September 6, and you will get to see all of these pieces again for the first time.
<<INSERT BIG WINK IN THE KEY OF WEIRD>>
…but in the meantime, if you would like to learn more about a handful of these creators, you will find features and interviews on this very blog on the following artists…
Anyone who has ever worked on any number of projects knows that while it’s tough to pick favorites amongst them, or favorite pieces and parts from within them…well, you’re always going to have a best-loved darling or precious or two.
Jaime Johnson Aelavanthara
Some of my favorite types of art to research and gaze upon in The Art of Darkness might not be what you’d expect to hear from me (or maybe it is if you’ve listened to my ramblings long enough!) Though I love me some ghosts and ghouls and myths and monsters…do you know what I absolutely love to lose myself in? Mysterious vistas creeping with strange flora, ancient lands, and eerie ruins. Marveling at the fragile, verdant curve of a fern, the unexpected colors and textures revealed in the heart of a crimson rosebud, a glistening drop of morning dew atop a plump, inky nightshade berry. Lonely landscapes and tenebrous topographies shadowed in wild darkness and raw beauty, where a boundless sense of nature overwhelms with breathless, bewitching intensity.
And why, even though these scenes feel fraught, fearsome, fatal – why do they still, despite everything, call to you? Why do we at times find ourselves desperate to crawl deep within these somber scenes, to disappear forever?
Nightjar Illustration / Adam Burke
Do you feel it calling, too? I’ll meet you there, in the darkness.
…where you’ll also find all of the artists I have included in this post today.
Marco MazzoniYaroslav Gerzhedovich Agostino Arrivabene
This was originally written for Haute Macabre in 2018; considering that Alex’s work is on the cover of my forthcoming book, I thought it was definitely time to revive and reshare this post…!
Initially, I was torn, truly torn, when examining the painstaking collage work of Alex Eckman-Lawn. Deep, dense, full of doom and gloom and dark details, these surreal, lonely portraits, on one hand, called forth a sickening dread in the pit of my stomach and give my heart a little lurch. But on the other, and at the same time… they caused an involuntary, choking giggle. As if a shadowy horror had crawled its way from the void to the sanctity of my home, and after an agonizing wait whilst I cowered at the peephole, it gave a smart rap on the door and told me a knock-knock joke.
Perhaps it’s an odd take on things, but I once envisioned the above scenario, I saw these pieces through fresh eyes– and instead of a face-full of nightmarish chaos, they appeared wondrously playful, like a funny postcard from the midnight recesses of your soul, just when you need it most. Have a laugh, they seem to say, or here, have a kitten! Oh, hey, it’s just your dear old skull peeking out to say hello, that’s all, no worries! Little voids, the faces-within-your face, checking in on you from the inside, popping out to say, “hi!” and, “how’s it going?” and, “have you heard the one about…?”
A Philadelphia-born illustrator who “spends his days in the gutter and his nights in the sewer”, Alex creates multi-layered, hand-cut, paper collages using everything from his original digital paintings to imagery from old medical texts. His work has appeared in comic books, on album covers, book covers, T-shirts, music videos, and posters.
Foxes stalking the darkness, padding through a thicket of thorns. Shadowy snakes snarled in somnolent repose. A skull cupped tenderly, a candle’s flame snuffed. Rendered in ash, chalk-lead, and ink on black cotton rag, the funereal monochrome visions of artist and printmaker Dylan Garrett Smith reflect the artist’s views regarding our relationships with the natural world. Combining ecological and occult concepts with existential fears and anarchism, Smith stresses the importance of the cycle of birth, bloom, and decay and the ultimate triumph of nature in the end–whatever that ‘end’ might be.
More peeks and pages from The forthcoming The Art of Darkness (September 6th is coming quickly, preorder now!)
This is a piece titled Vögguvísa by Becky Munich, a long-time like-minded weirdo, kindred spirit, and occasional partner-in-crime. You may recall that Becky and I worked together on the beloved fan-favorite Occult Activity Books, volumes one and two!
“… On the surface these sinister, ethereal wraiths and monstrous femme fatales simultaneously menace and beguile, but in a strange and playful twist, there’s sly and creepy clever mischief to be found in the details, and it’s clear to see that this artist takes her spooky business quite seriously while winking at us playfully at the same time.”
I’ve been OBSESSED with Becky’s works ever since I first laid eyes on them and I am so pleased to have been able to include her work in The Art of Darkness. And as you can see in the second photo, the original Vögguvísa hangs on my wall, cautioning me every day to shush my pie-hole. Or choose my words wisely. Who knows! She is a very mysterious lady, after all.
I have long been familiar with the haunting romanticism of Deborah Turbeville’s fashion photography, and have often lost myself in their eerie atmospheres and spectral moods– elegant ghost stories, and hazy hallucinations of antique decadence, beloved and perfect, all.
I had never seen until tonight, though, her 1981 series Unseen Versailles:
“In the late 1970s, Turbeville was living in Paris. She discovered the Château de Versailles, but was refused access for a fashion shoot. Fortunately, thanks to Jackie Kennedy Onassis – an admirer and a friend! – she was finally granted permission to photograph the estate during its renovation. She spent a whole winter there and presented her work in a book, Unseen Versailles, in 1981.” (via)
The photographer went in search of unused, unaltered rooms, scattering their floors with autumn leaves to emphasize the chambers’ abandonment and neglect. The result–a haunting vision of this excessive place, a ghostly evocation of memory and melancholic magics in those long-waiting derelict, dust-shrouded and twilight chambers.
There exists bizarre, dramatic Tom Adams Agatha Christie book cover art for your every mood. Tag yourself! I’m a disembodied foot crawling with flies and dripping with jewels.
