{work} – Page 106 – { feuilleton }

Liberty 2006

“For a while there I was criticized as being the vice president for torture. We don’t torture. That’s not what we’re involved in.” Vice President Dick Cheney, October 24th, 2006.

“In the “war on terror”, the US administration has resorted to secret detention, enforced disappearance, prolonged incommunicado detention, indefinite detention without charge, arbitrary detention, and torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.” Amnesty International.

Today is the 120th anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty, that famous gift of the French to “the home of freedom”. One can only wonder what President Grover Cleveland would have made of the current White House incumbent when George Bush signed the Military Commissions Act into law recently, giving himself and future presidents the power to “indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions.” (Anthony D. Romero, American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director).

Now that the United States has taken yet another step towards becoming the kind of country it used to profess to despise, I thought it was time that the Statue of Liberty received a makeover, something more suited to the Neo-Stalinist nation that Bush and co have been busy creating. The challenge for America in the near future, if the Democrats manage to take back the White House in 2008, will be to reverse the course the country has been set upon since 2001. At the moment I’m too cynical to believe that there’ll be any immediate reversal of these policies. Parties in opposition always complain loudly about the ravaging of constitutions then find the new laws they were complaining about have all sorts of conveniences for them once they gain power. Have the Democrats the courage to face down more “terrorist sympathiser” bullshit? Time will tell.

In the same series: Blood Money 1, Blood Money 2, War®.

Update: seems like I missed George’s latest wheeze, signing a new law relaxing the restrictions on the President declaring martial law. We’re constantly told these days it’s hysterical to mention creeping fascism (and I usually agree with George Orwell that the “f” word trips off the lips too easily). Any bets on when the time will be right?

New things for October

Two new pieces of work appear this month. The cover for the Emissaries CD by Melechesh was something I did earlier this year but the album release was delayed. Melechesh are Sumerian Thrashing Black Metal maestros and their website is here.

And finally this month, Jon Farmer’s book, Sieg Heil Iconographers, arrives from the printers. At 608 pages this is by far the largest book I’ve designed to date. Featuring illustrations and photos on nearly every page, it was a lot of work, so I’m very pleased that Anthony Rowe have done their customary excellent print job. The book is softcover and I was worried that the binding might be too tight to allow for easy reading but it falls open very easily. Savoy will have this on sale later this month, details at their site.

Reverbstorm

My discipline here has rather collapsed since returning from Paris. Lots of things that required sorting out and the distraction of a new computer is the excuse. Time for a new announcement, however. Now that The Haunter of the Dark is back in print, work has begun at the Savoy HQ on the eventual reprinting of my comics magnum opus, Reverbstorm. This was the 8-part Lord Horror series I was producing for Savoy with David Britton that sprang directly out of my Lovecraft comics work and is, in some small way, a continuation of it (hence the inclusion of some pages in the final part of HOTD).

Reverbstorm was an attempt by Dave and I to produce a graphic novel (wretched term, but if the boot fits…) that was truly adult, at a time—the early Nineties—when much there was much discussion of “adult comics” but little worthy of the name being produced. Reverbstorm is adult in terms of its often aggressive and challenging content; so are many mainstream comics now. But it’s also adult in terms of style and technique, being laden with quotation and literary and artistic allusion that requires an understanding of some of the key works of the Modernist movement to fully appreciate. Being a Lord Horror work, there’s also plenty of reference to the fascist philosophy that Dave’s character (based on William Joyce, Lord Haw-Haw) subscribes to. Mix all this with a great deal of violence and you have a very dark work indeed, one that most readers and reviewers of the time were happy to ignore.

Well Reverbstorm is returning to the world in a definitive form. All the artwork is being scanned and cleaned (and in some cases, amended slightly); the eighth and final part will see its first publication in this new edition and there’ll be some previously unseen or unpublished material also. The series as a whole contains 270 pages of some of my best ever black and white artwork (and some great additional work from Kris Guidio) so I’m very pleased that this volume is set to appear in a form that will do justice to the years we spent creating it. Publication will probably be in autumn 2007 but watch this space for further details.

For more on the Reverbstorm series, read my short essay about its genesis here.

The Haunter of the Dark

Today sees the publication of my collection of Lovecraft adaptations and illustrations, The Haunter of the Dark and other Grotesque Visions (Creation Oneiros) in the US, although I’ve no idea what’s out there right now. Confusion reigns on the online front with Amazon.com saying the book isn’t out yet while Barnes & Noble says it’s a new title that’s out of stock. Presumably things will settle down in the next week or two, in the meantime you can order copies, of course. UK release has been put back a few more weeks but the book should be available in October: Amazon.co.uk.

Sample pages and previous book news can be seen here.

“At its far edge, horror shades into beauty, and it is far beyond
that edge that Coulthart takes us, into terrible magnificence.”
Alan Moore, in the book’s introduction

“A terrific book, haunting and beautiful.
That writer from Providence would have been proud…”
Neil Gaiman

New things for September

top: The Highbury Working, The Lucid View.
bottom: Manchester District Music Archive design, The Major Arcana.

As mentioned last month, I’ve updated and expanded all my CafePress shops which means you can now (should you wish) buy T-shirts, posters, mousepads and other goods from selected artwork. Look for links on the relevant artwork pages. In addition, I’ve added four new shops featuring the pieces shown above; some of the Major Arcana designs are also available individually.

Lastly, CafePress have expanded their range of calendars to include vertical format which means I’ve been able to make three different calendars this year. Calendars proved popular when I did one a couple of years ago but the horizontal format wasn’t very amenable to most of my artwork.

There’ll be more CafePress updates later this month, if time allows.