Octopulps

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Pulps and octopuses! Octopuses and pulps! Not sure how this has evaded my attention until now but better late than never, especially when the contents are this er, pulpy. Francesca Myman, self-proclaimed Mistress of the Tentacled Oblivion (there’s a title to conjure with), has accumulated a stunning collection of octopoidal pulp madness. More goggle-eyed cephalopods than you can wave a blunt harpoon at. Hunks and babes alike, all must submit to the suckered demands of the tentacled menace!

Previously on { feuilleton }
Zeppelin vs. Pterodactyls
Coming soon: Sea Monsters and Cannibals!
Druillet meets Hodgson
It’s a pulp, pulp, pulp world
Davy Jones

Gods’ Man by Lynd Ward

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I’ve never tried woodcut engaving—the closest was scraperboard and some linocuts when I was a teenager—but I’ve always admired the form and Lynd Ward (1905–1985) was one of its masters. Ward’s wordless “novels” were inspired by the similar work of Frans Masereel and you can see pages from two of these, Gods’ Man (1930) and Madman’s Drum (1930) at The Visual Telling of Stories. Ward’s work is frequently referred to as an inspiration by later illustrators, and comic artists especially have responded to these pictorial narratives. Woodcut illustration had a resurgence of popularity before and after the Second World War; most of MC Escher‘s early work is woodcut engraving, for instance. There are still a few contemporary practitioners, Clifford Harper being one of the most visible in the UK.

Bud Plant’s Lynd Ward page
A Lynd Ward site with examples from other books

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Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
The etching and engraving archive
The illustrators archive