Illustrations for “The Alchemy of the Throat” and “The Dripping of Sundered Wineskins” by Brian Hodge, 1999
The book Von Heiligen und Mördern, a collection of two loosely connected novellettes by Brian Hodge, was edited by Frank Festa as part of his Edition Metzengerstein and published by Blitz. Initially they were published within Poppy Z. Brite’s anthologies Love in Vain 1 (1994) und 2 (1995). The first novelette, “The Alchemy of the Throat” (Die Alchemie der Stimme), was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award, the second,”The Dripping of Sundered Wineskins” (Von Heiligen und Mördern), for the World Fantasy Award.
I love both stories deeply, to work with them and to create these 13 drawings was pure joy.
The book cover was designed by Malte S. Sembten, based on two black-and-white, Celtic inspired initials that I painted with acrylic.
Cover: © Blitz
Illustrations for Edition Metzengerstein and Festa, 1996–98
Henry S. Whitehead was an American writer of horror and fantasy fiction and a friend of H.P. Lovecraft. His portrait (embellished with details from his stories “The Chadburne Episode”, “Scar Tissue” and “Bothon”) was a commission for the short fiction collection Der persische Ghoul. The book was edited by Marco Frenschkowsky, translated and designed by Malte S. Sembten. and published within Frank Festa’s Edition Metzengerstein in 1996.
The acrylic painting portraying H.P. Lovecraft was used as a interior illustration in Lovecrafts Dunke Idole, an anthology with Lovecrafts favorite authors, edited by Frank Festa in 2007.
The cover illustration for Die geheime Kammer by Eddie Angerhuber, also an acrylic painting, wasn’t used for the book. Regardless of whether you like the picture or not (I do like the privet hawk moth, but not the rest), I have to admit that it wouldn’t have matched the edition’s design.
A fourth commission for Edition Metzengerstein were the illustrations for Von Heiligen und Mördern by Brian Hodge.
Cover: © Festa