Monday, August 8, 2011
The Art of Dracula by Harry Borgman
After the last two posts you'd think we'd be moving on to another subject, but no, today the vampire theme switches from seductive to sinister and goes for the throat with the grand-daddy bloodsucker of them all-- Count Dracula! In 1974, Galahad Books published a terrific collection of suspenseful horror tales containing classics by the likes of Poe, Irving, Wilde, Dickens, Bangs, Middleton, Nesbit and Stoker... so great and suspenseful is this book in fact that they called it "Great Tales of Horror and Suspense." Perfect. Also perfect: the two artists they chose to illustrate this 260+ page treasury of terror! Some of you may already be familiar with Norman Nodel, (we'll look at some of his art closer to Halloween), but today's focus is on the art of Dracula by Harry Borgman. It's richly detailed, moody stuff, loaded with atmosphere, sometimes frightening, sometimes just simply gorgeous, and with superb touches of graphic design styled lay-outs that really bring the masterful inking to screaming bloody life!
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10 comments:
Thanks for sharing all this wonderful, old, forgotten stuff on your blog.
These are especially nice. Like Kriegstein on a poor man's budget. I always find the one & two spot color illustration style suits my taste quite nicely.
These illustrations are frikkin' amazing! The one with the ship's sails looking like a ribcage, wow. That is macabre and beautiful. I love the blue and black two tone pallet too. Limited in color but not effect. They are stunning.
I tend to like the straight-up drawings (like the one where Dracula is answering the door) better than the really clever/designy ones* (like Harker writing in his diary or the bat and bride illustration). There is something about this specific look, with its faux collage of layered contrast changes and incorporated dynamic borders, that was so over-used by hacks in my childhood that even geniuses like this guy have been somewhat ruined for me. That said, I still love a lot of this, I just have to look around the parts that feel too seventies for me.** Like, I think the right half of the one where the three brides are standing in the moonlight is fan. tas. tic.
* That said, I'm with Amber Von Felts about the ribcage boat picture. Wow.
** And that said, I am still really entertained by Jonathan Harker looking like such a groovy Age Of Aquarius tosser. That dude just stepped out of the Joy of Sex or something.
Darn, I Had tis book as a kid, but sadly I didn't take care of it and it was thrown out.
All of the artwork in that book added to the stories.
Thank you for posting a flashback of a favorite childhood book.
This is cool! Those illustrations are definitely awesome packed! Gues the blue themed works for me. Nice! buy aion accounts
Dracula is pulling a Dio in that first pic with the Devil Horns. That alone sold me on the whole thing. Although, frankly speaking, I always thought of Wolf Man as the more Metal of the monsters.
Truly glorious. Thanks for posting... don't think I saw this one when I was a kid, alas.
Thank you very much for sharing this.
Wow. These are really amazing. There's so many really cool images but I really love the third image from the top - the entry with the two guys and the lantern, and both of the window images with stuff going on outside and inside. Plus the hot chicks!
Re-reading my intro on this just now reminded me that I never posted the Norman Nodel art from this book like I said I was going to! Check back after Xmas for it!
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