Cartwright the Creepy

The Beast!

Short post for now. I’d looked before at the artwork of Stephen Cartwright in the children’s book Dragons  (Rawson, 1979), and its early influence on my appreciation for the worlds of fantasy here. There are five more books in the same series that I plan on talking about in the future, each with Cartwright’s humorous and idiosyncratic watercolor artwork. However, while ransacking the library at work for books to stock my classroom, I came upon another volume illustrated by him and thought I’d shared some of the pictures with you. Interestingly, although I was aware of some of Cartwright's other work (Roxbee Cox, 2004), I'd never seen this book before.

The Usborne Book of Creepy Poems (Emery & Cartwright, 1990) features an anthology of disturbing poetry, although disappointingly given the subject matter, a lot of Cartwright’s art is a little mundane. There are however a few wonderful gems, where both the poem and the accompanying image form a satisfyingly gruesome blend.

First up we have the Beast, from Tell Me It Isn’t by Trevor Millum, which you can see at the top of this blog. I really like this creature – colour, pose and expression are all simple but very effective:

        Tell me – the movement I saw

        Behind the door…

        It wasn’t a paw

        It wasn’t a claw

        It wasn’t the Beast

        About to roar

        And pounce and gnaw – WAS IT??

        (Emery & Cartwright, 1990, p. 2)

The Mary Celeste...

Next is Mary Celeste by Stanley Cook. Cartwright’s picture is gloomily evocative, based of course on a true story, but the poem itself isn’t up to much snuff:

        On the Atlantic Ocean

        The light winds blow

        And the abandoned ship

        Tacks crazily to and fro.

        (p. 6)

The Dusk Jockey rides again!

Then we meet my second-most favourite, Dusk Jockey by Vernon Scanell, a ghoulish combination of DJ and nightmare. The picture is awesome, particularly the look of determination on the face of the Dusk Jockey's steed. This one concludes with:

        And then I’ve got to go, before the blind

        Of total night comes down. But don’t believe I’m through:

        Dusk is the time I find most work to do.

        I’ve got to groom my mount while there’s still light;

        I’ll ride my mare into your sleep tonight.

        (pp. 22-23)

Beware the Thing behind you!

The final poem in the book features a nameless thing in It’s Behind You by David Harmer, which would be more amusing if it weren’t for the rather disturbing image of a boy having his head torn from his shoulders by what looks like a giant green lizard. The final stanza:

        

        Oh what a shame!

I thought you’d make it

        To the door. Hard luck.

        I still think it means no harm        

        I expect it bites all its friends.

        (p. 31)

March of the Zombies! (from Dusk Jockey)

References

Emery, H. & Cartwright, S. (1990). The Usborne Book of Creepy Poems. London: Usborne Publishing.

Rawson, C. (1979). Dragons. London: Usborne Publishing.

Roxbee Cox, P. (2004, February 21). Obituary: Steven Cartwright. Accessed fromhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/feb/21/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries

Death by Header

Apologies for the scruffy mess at the top of the blog. Ideally, I would have started this blog with a perfectly conceptualized header already in place, but given my high levels of procrastination, particularly involving the creation of my own artwork, this was never going to be the case. As a result we have the pencil rough/nightmare above, as a place-holder, until I find the time to develop something rather more polished. In a bid to hasten the pace of development, I'm turning my progress with the header into a series of occasional blog posts, of which this is the first.



Figure 1. "What were those header dimensions again?"



Figure 1 shows my original sketch that I've cannibalized to create the header through some Photoshop manipulation and the addition of the title using New Land Contour font. The font appears freely available across the net, and though I liked it initially, it's looking a little cramped now, so I may go for something different by the time the header is finalized.

Figure 2. "Ape shall not kill snake..."

The original idea, riffing on the theme of "Fantasy Game Book", was to go for an old grimoire or tome, from which were crawling a hideous host of small but horrific beasts. Figure 2 shows some sketches on the development of this concept. Figure 3 also presents further details on the precise types of creatures:

• Goblinoid, armoured, with weapon.
• Ape-beast with claws.
• Fanged scaly serpent with horns.
• Fire-breathing bat-bird with tattered wings.
• Slimey mollusc/frog hybrid.
• Insect/arachnid combination with pincers and stings.

Definitely trying to cover all the bases there!

Figure 3. "All things foul and furious..."

Unfortunately, it quickly became apparent that the header dimensions were not conducive to displaying a horde of capering beasts, plus an ancient grimoire, plus my blog title. So, I appropriated the ones I liked the best - the  armoured goblin and the flaming bat-bird - and then from nowhere came the image of the 'frog-ranger' complete with bow, arrows, and jaunty feathered cap, squatting amidst out-sized fungi. Figure 4 shows another sketch of this amphibian archer...


Figure 4. I'm sure he'll give Aragorn a run for his money!


Anyway, as and when time allows, the plan now is to sketch these fellows out in more detail, ink them up with black markers, and colour via Photoshop. It remains a work in progress, but at least now you know why. Rest assured, you can read about it in future updates right here (and nowhere else!).