"This is not right at all?" lamented Zombos. He exerted great effort to disentangle himself from the strings of Christmas tree lights tightly winding around him. We were engaged in putting the lights on the tree, but that didn't go as planned.
"I hear putting up a menorah is much easier," I said. "You just plug it in."
I watched in wonder as the mesmerizing, brightly-colored bulbs blinked on and off, bathing him in their warm glow. The cheery colors were comforting even while he struggled helplessly against their ever-tightening grip; the Saw torture devices were not as insidious. I sipped my Toboggon' Egg-Noggin' prepared by Chef Machiavelli, with a dash of rum and splash of lime.
"Perhaps if I unplug the main strand from the wall socket, that might help?" I volunteered. It didn't. Deep within that mess of tortuous cords was the perfect analogy for heaven, limbo and hell. Heaven was definitely your destination, but you're stuck in limbo with hell to pay before you could get there.
Feel that way with your gift-giving? Frantic now that you've wasted all year planning to shop early but didn't? Shame on you. But there's still time, you know. Here are some last minute ideas to light up the weird, scary, and fantastic-loving fan on your list.
Any fan of Weird Tales and Arkham House is familiar with Lee Brown Coye's monstrous abominations put to paper. His distorted, macabre drawings hint at the abnormal, the unsavory, and the unholy.
In Arts Unknown: The Life and Art of Lee Brown Coye, Luis Ortiz brings us into Coye's fantastic, anatomically-skewed world. This hard cover book is filled with illustrations and insights, giving us morbidly curious a long hard stare into the life and work of a man whose vision pushed well past conventional boundaries. An accomplished muralist and sculptor, Coye is fondly remembered for his vague, but suggestive black and white illustrations for Arkham House editions of Lovecraft's stories.
Ortiz describes the artist's influences, his parents, his upbringing, and his struggle to pay the bills while pursuing his artistic career. Coye's terrifying summertime experience at his grandfather's house, his strange encounter in the stick house in the woods that led to his motif of rough sticks in many of his drawings, and his morbid sense of humor are captured for posterity, along with his art. From the Great Depression, through a world war, and at five dollars an illustration for Weird Tales, Ortiz captures Lee Brown Coye's defiance of the mundane to become an American original.
Article comments
1 - Jorge Matos
The Coye book is a blast. The guy was one weird dude. The story about him taking a severed head to a bar is typical of the many antics he would pull. I think his art really puts some people off, and was way ahead of its time. It is obvious that Coye was not afraid to show visceral horrors in his art. The book talks about how he was working as a medical illustrator and kept body parts around his studio. (Thus explaining why he had a human head hanging around.) This book should get a lot more attention from the horror field, especially the Lovecraft crowd. It’s a full-length bio with lots of art and photographs, including one showing Coye shaking hands with Bela Lugosi. The guy had art in the original, great pulp Weird Tales and in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
2 - ILoz Zoc
"Buy one for my friend" must have shocked some of the bar goers, that's for sure. I'm surprised myself he hasn't received more exposure. Much of his work I'm sure was lost, as pulp illustration was usually thought to be disposable. Yet his elongated, twisted anatomy is so suited to bizarre stories, especially Lovecraft's, work stands out in the horror/fantasy field. His adventure in the stick house and with the "drums" at his grandfather's house makes him a natural fit for the horror/fantasy field. I wish a larger, coffee-table style book of his work would be published.
3 - Jorge Matos
The stick house in the woods encounter, as described in the book by Coye, is quite creepy and was the source for Karl Wagner’s story “Sticks”. I think the book also mentions how the story may have influenced the filmmakers of The Blair Witch Project. The website of the publisher, www.nonstop-press.com, has a notice for a forthcoming limited edition portfolio of Coye art listed. I emailed them to let me know when this comes out.
4 - ILoz Zoc
Super! I'm heading to the publisher's site now. Thanks!