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"Casting the Runes" ~ Bukowski |
~by
Marie Robinson
We are
big fans of M.R. James here at Fascination With Fear. His
classic stories of ghosts, curses, and monsters are sure to deliver a
shiver down your spine and leave your mind filled with ghastly images to
follow you to bed at night. It’s no wonder, then, that his tales would
provide inspiration for dozens of artists. Today I wanted to highlight
three modern artists that have paid homage to the late great Mr. James.
Hannah
Cooper is a young woman from the UK. She illustrates books (a few being
The Bloody Chamber and Bram Stoker’s Dracula), runs her own shop
(
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/KittenSocksStudio), and shares her
wonderfully fun sketchbooks online at her website
(
http://www.hannahillustrates.co.uk/). Ms. Cooper undertook a project of
illustrating M.R. James’ anthology
Casting the Runes and Other Stories,
and the result is a delightfully eerie batch of black and white
etchings.
I find a touch of Edward Gorey in Hannah’s
illustrations, which adds a disturbing tone of childlike whimsy to them.
It’s like seeing something evil through a child’s eyes, and leaves you
with an uncomfortable (but now unwelcome) sensation. I’ve selected
several of her drawings below, but you can view them all at her website.
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"Whistle and I'll Come to You" |
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"The Tractate Middoth" |
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"Number 13" |
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"A School Story" |
A.E. Brown is a Delaware-based illustrator who, like our
aforementioned artist, has a fun sense of humor but can also scare the
crap out of you. Brown is an illustrator who frequently works on comics,
and who also happens to have a lovely collection of M.R. James-inspired
paintings. If you had any doubt that James is a master of terrifying
tales, then Brown will convince you with his heart-stopping images.
Seriously, we’re talking nightmare-fuel. Brown has lovingly illustrated
over a dozen of James’ stories, which you can view by scrolling through
his tumblr (
http://aebrown-medusawolf.tumblr.com/). You can also check
out his shop, here (
https://www.etsy.com/shop/medusawolf).
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"The Residence at Westminster" |
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"The Ash Tree" |
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"Number 13" |
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"A Vignette" |
Last
but not least is
Michael Bukowski, an artist from New Jersey who makes a
living by making flyers, shirts, records, and etc for punk bands. By
following him on Instagram (
https://instagram.com/illustro_obscurum/) I
found out about a very intriguing hobby of his—illustrating horror
stories. Well, it’s a little more specific than that; Bukowski takes the
ghastly, unimaginable creatures dreamed up by authors like Lovecraft,
Ramsey Campbell, and, of course, M.R. James and brings them to life.
Bukowski has gathered a whole zine’s worth of M.R. James ghouls, but
unfortunately for us, was only released in a limited quantity. So, enjoy
here what you can for free, and check out his wonderfully fun blog
(http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/), and, of course, his shop
(
https://www.etsy.com/shop/StoreDesGhoules).
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"The Treasure of Abbott Thomas" |
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"The Diary of Mr Poynter" |
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"Canon Alberic's Scrapbook" |
If you haven’t
gotten enough M.R. James artwork (how could you?), please check out our
good friend James Gracey’s appreciation post,
here.
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