Book Review: The Art of Horror
An Illustrated History
Zombos Says: Very Good
A fine addition to your coffee table or coffin lid, The Art of Horror: An Illustrated History, edited by Stephen Jones, is a horror connoisseur’s choice of movie posters, comic books, paperback and dust jacket art, pulp magazine covers, and ancient and contemporary art that gleefully dwells on the morbid predilections of the frightening genre so many fans clamor for yet know little about.
Similar in jugular vein to Robert Weinberg’s Horror of the 20th Century: An Illustrated History, Jones goes one better by upping the wealth of illustrations throughout and skillfully choosing the artists and writers for each chapter, bringing both older and newer visual imaginations together to exalt its subject matter.
The chapter topics include vampires (David J. Skal), the ambulatory dead (Jamie Russell) , man-made monsters (Gregory William Mank), werewolves (Kim Newman), the ghostly (Richard Dalby), maniacal killers (Barry Forshaw), Halloween bedevilment (Lisa Morton), ye olde alien gods (S. T. Joshi), big beasties (Bob Eggleton), and malevolent alien invaders (Robert Weinberg).
Each chapter provides a concise overview to its topic and ends with a reflection on a key aspect within that topic, and is profusely illustrated with captioned literary and cinematic examples, both foreign and domestic, of the terrors by day and night in all their lavish colors and dread. Full page art, double-page art, and smaller illustrations filling pages, do their best to overwhelm your visual cortex. The mix between movies, books, comics, and contemporary artists is so good, it may leave you wishing the book had been twice or three times its size. Unfortunately, the format chosen is a pedestrian 10 by 11 inches, unlike the more exhilarating 10.5 by 14 inches of Weinberg’s Horror in the 20th Century or Art of Imagination’s 700 plus page count.
But there’s so much horror, isn’t there? While a few more volumes on The Art of Horror would be wonderful to see in the future, this one is quite an informative and visually exciting read all by itself and shouldn’t be missed.
A digital copy of this book was provided for this review.
Halloween 2015 Sighted:
Michaels Stores
Michaels is my first invigorating breath of Halloween because I know they have their displays up in August (bless you!). They always have a wickedly good assortment of home decor items and small collectibles. And how can you pass up their Lemax Spooky Town display? This time I spotted the cute little zombies in the first photo, just as I was leaving. Of course I took a few of them home with me. They even squeak!
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Press Photo: Halloween Barber-B-Q
Wonder what the barber's got cooking?
UPI Telephoto, October 26th, 1960, Pacific Palisades, California: "A steaming calderon painted on a barber shop window, part of a community Halloween window painting contest for children, has David Goldman seemingly simmering while "chef" with shears, Vince Mangio, prepares bill of fare. Artist was Cathy Toland. Cooking time was one haircut."
Double Bill Pressbook:
The Incredible Petrified World
and Teenage Zombies
So, maybe it's me, but…what does a gorilla have to do with Teenage Zombies?
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Double Bill Pressbook:
The Incredible Petrified World
and Teenage ZombiesRead More »
More Bite: Halloween Teeth 2
Here are more Halloween teeth from eBay for you to chomp on, to wet your appetite for tricks and treats to come. (for more bite see Monster Teeth)
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Halloween Bite: Monster Teeth
With Halloween around the corner, here are some cool teeth I saw on eBay you can sink your gums into. The piece de resistance is the Whistling Dracula Teeth. Why bother hypnotizing your prey when you just whistle for them to come to you? (for more bite, see Halloween Teeth 2)
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Monster Laffs: Beauty or Brains?
Here's a great test of whether you're a true horror fan or not: which part of this picture did you focus on first? You'll need to add your own caption for this one. I'm stymied between soap on a rope and clean mind gags. (Kim Parker in a publicity still for Fiend Without a Face)
Mexican Lobby Card:
La Mansion De Las 7 Momias (1977)
I don’t know what’s more terrifying: the mummies or the creepy dude at bottom left.
Mexican Lobby Card: Curse of the Devil (1973)
The not too subtle layout of this Mexican lobby card for La Noche Del Asesino (Curse of the Devil) is quite a sight to behold.
Mexican Lobby Card:
Island of Lost Women (1959)
And here I am thinking it was guys who always got lost. Women always ask for directions. Here's the movie lowdown from IMDb: "A plane crash-lands on a jungle island inhabited by a scientist and his nubile young daughters. Complications ensue." I love a movie with a simple plot, don't you? Boys will be boys, and women in 1950s movies could always be found on tropical islands, lost lagoons, and rocket ships (to keep the coffee warm).