Thursday, August 22, 2013
Monster Museum
It's still August, but many stores here in the STL area have already started putting out the Halloween merchandise, so what the heck-- let's jump the gun too and take a quick look at some eerie imagery from Alfred Hitchcock's Monster Museum (Random House, 1965.) This is a typically cool collection of creepy horror featuring short story classics by Theodore Sturgeon, Manly Wade Wellman, Ray Bradbury, Guy Endore, and many others-- introduced by Alfred Hitchcock and highlighted by some wildly unusual, scarily surreal art by Earl E. Mayan (seems to be a collage mix of illustration, photography, cut-out elements and image manipulation.) Take a moment to carefully analyze each nightmarish image, you may find a bit more here than you've b-b-b-bargained for!
Those curious to know what the stories are that accompany each image see below-- starting after the end paper image and title page are as follows:
ReplyDeleteThe Day of the Dragon by Guy Endore
The King of the Cats by Stephen Vincent Benet
Slime by Joseph Payne Brennan
Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles by Idris Seabright
Henry Martindale, Great Dane by Miriam Allen deFord
The Microscopic Giants by Paul Ernst
The Young One by Jerome Bixby
Doomsday Deferred by Will F. Jenkins
Shadow, Shadow on the Wall by Theodore Strugeon
The Desrick on Yandro by Manly Wade Wellman
The Wheelbarrow Boy by Richard Parker
Homecoming by Ray Bradbury
wow - these are really cool and freaky! i love the way so much of it blends in. the kid in the bed with the screaming women half faces over him is amazing!
ReplyDeletethanks for posting this!
Yeah, that one's great... these are definitely some of the strangest illustrative conceptual approaches to stories I've ever seen in a collection like this. I especially like the one for The King of the Cats because it's both silly and creepy, just like that story.
ReplyDeleteThat cat-headed guy always kind of cracked me up because it reminded me of those Flying Circus bumpers animated by Terry Gilliam. I think I like number ten the best, though all of them benefit so much from hanging together. I used to check this book out of the central library all the time when I was in third and fourth grade. What a great way to kick off the season!
ReplyDeleteAre you familiar with any other books featuring his art, Mr. C? There aren't many image examples when googling, but I did find this one from a 60's Twilight Zone Revisited collection:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/12436996@N00/7917987992/
wow - that pic is amazing!
ReplyDeletei've been looking around for ebook versions of these old Alfred Hitchcock anthologies for a while now and found a couple at the Open Library but i not this one.
yeah, man! I feel like I've seen his stuff here and there for years, especially back in the day, but I'm hard pressed to come up with any good examples.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Karswell. If we can celebrate Christmas in July why not celebrate Halloween in August? Its too good a holiday for just one month. I wouldn't mind a Holloween holiday from August to October 31, would you?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't mind it, but I don't wanna blow all my good October posts too early either! I'll keep you guys warmed up here and there with the usual mix until All Hallow's Eve is officially upon us! Stay tuned...
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