Edgar Allan Poe – Ultima Thule (Illustration for “Das Spukschloss” (The Haunted Palace) by Malte S. Sembten), 2012
Fassung 4
“March 22.- The darkness had materially increased, relieved only by the glare of the water thrown back from the white curtain before us. Many gigantic and pallidly white birds flew continuously now from beyond the veil, and their scream was the eternal Tekeli-li! as they retreated from our vision. Hereupon Nu-Nu stirred in the bottom of the boat; but upon touching him, we found his spirit departed. And now we rushed into the embraces of the cataract, where a chasm threw itself open to receive us. But there arose in our pathway a shrouded human figure, very far larger in its proportions than any dweller among men. And the hue of the skin of the figure was of the perfect whiteness of the snow.”
Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838)
——–
“Im Gegensatz zu den modernen Zeugen war Poe aus seinem Todeserlebnis nicht angstfrei und sinnerfüllt hervorgegangen. Dazu genügte ein Blick auf seine fotographischen Konterfeis der letzten Jahre, bis hin zu jener Daguerreotypie Edwin H. Manchesters vom 9. November 1848, die Sarah Helen Whitman das ›Ultima Thule‹-Portrait‹ taufte — ›als sei er eben noch dem äußersten Weltenrand des Schreckens entrissen worden‹, wie sie es beschrieb – und mit vier Zeilen seines Gedichtes ›Dreamland‹ aus dem Jahre 1844 versah:
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule —
From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime
Out of SPACE — out of TIME.”
Malte S. Sembten, “Das Spukschloss” (The Haunted Palace)
Detail
Die drawing is an illustration for a short story collection by Malte S. Sembten to be published in 2013. My starting pont was the “Ultima Thule” Portrait of Poe, his novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket and of course Malte’s short stories that includes references to both.
The image is a black ink drawing, drawn in negative, scanned and inverted with Photoshop, to get the white lines on black background. Because you don’t really get the picture while you are drawing, I scanned it several times to look at the interim results – fortunately, because only because of that the third version was preserved, which is maybe better than the finished one, though it is not quite what I intended, less light and “antarctic”.
-
- Fassung 1 (invertiert)
-
- Fassung 2 (invertiert)
-
- Fassung 3 (invertiert)
-
- Fassung 4 (fertige Zeichnung, nicht invertiert)
Illustration for the Short Story “Das Sandmädchen” (The Sandgirl) by Malte S. Sembten
Detail
The drawing is the first finished illustration for a story collection by Malte S. Sembten, to be published in 2013. There will be round about a dozen illustrations, one for each story.
I have worked with Malte now and then during the last 20 years, but this is the first time I have the pleasure to illustrate his stories.
Illustrations for Kinder des Judas (Children of Judas) by Markus Heitz, 2011
The human body is a wonderful construction, my daughter
The Umbra in the library
With these two drawings I entered a contest announced by neobooks (Droemer Knaur); they appeared on the publisher’s website. I didn’t win, but at least I was inspired to draw two pictures I really like.
Cover Illustrations for a New Edition of the Pulp Series Vampira, 1994/1995/2011
-
- Bd. 3
-
- Bd. 7
-
- Bd. 13
On may 3, 2011, Bastei started the the relaunched edition of the bi-weekly horror pulp series Vampira. Volume 3 and 7 display reprints of two of my cover images from 1994 and 1995. A brand new cover illustration will follow in october. More about Vampira and more images in the article about the original series from the 90s.
Covers: © Bastei Lübbe
Illustrations for a John Sinclair Anniversary Paperback Edition, Part 4 (Vol. 17–21), 1998/99
-
- Bd. 17/1, Der Würfel des Unheils
-
- Bd. 18/1, Die Mörder-Blumen
-
- Bd. 19/3, Flucht in die Schädelwelt
-
- Bd. 19/4, Im Land des Vampirs
-
- Bd. 20/1, Die fliegenden Särge
-
- Bd. 20/3, Das Elexier des Teufels
-
- Bd. 20/4, Die Nacht der flammenden Augen
-
- Bd. 20/5, Der Gigant von Atlantis
-
- Bd. 20/8, Die Teufelsuhr
-
- Bd. 21/1, Myxins Entführung
-
- Bd. 21/2, Wer mit Gedanken töten kann
-
- Bd. 21/3, Der Spiegel-Dämon
-
- Bd. 21/5, Medusas Rache
-
- Bd. 21/6, Der Zombie-Bus
-
- Bd. 21/8, Die Bestien aus dem Geister-Sumpf
Vol. 18/5, Mr. Mondos Monster
A selection of 16 out of 50 illustrations for the John Sinclair anniversary paperbacks vol. 17–21. The edition was was chronological reprint of the original horror pulp series by Jason Dark (Helmut Rellergerd). Each book included 8 novels, the interior illustrations replaced the original color covers but were created independantly from their predecessors.
Altogether I illustrated 21 volumes with 169 drawings; more images in part 1, 2 und 3.
Overview of all John Sinclair books at gruselromane.de.
Illustrations for Edition Metzengerstein and Festa, 1996–98
-
- Henry S. Whitehead, Der persische Ghoul
-
- Henry S. Whitehead, Der persische Ghoul
-
- Frank Festa (Hh.), Lovecrafts dunkle Idole
-
- Eddie Angerhuber, Die verborgene Kammer (nicht verwendet)
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
Illustrations for Der Hexer von Salem: Das Labyrinth von London (The Warlock of Salem: The Labyrinth of London) by Wolfgang Hohlbein, 1996
Chapter vignette
The novel is part of Wolfgang Hohlbeins Lovecraft-inspired book series Der Hexer von Salem (The Warlock of Salem). It was published in paperback by Bastei Lübbe in 1996 and included 15 full-page illustrations and a chapter vignette.
Cover Illustrations for the Pulp Series Vampira, 1992–98
-
- Bd. 7
-
- Bd. 9
-
- Bd. 20
-
- Bd. 27
-
- Bd. 38
-
- Bd. 38
-
- Bd. 39
-
- TH Bd. 9
-
- TH Bd. 17
-
- TH Bd. 1
-
- TH Bd. 18
-
- TH Bd. 37
-
- TH Bd. 39
-
- TH Bd. 47
-
- TH Bd. 54
-
- Skizze für Bd. 38
-
- Skizze für TH Bd. 17
-
- Skizze für TH Bd. 39
-
- Skizze für nicht realisiertes Titelbild
-
- dito
Gefangen in der Zeit (Trapped in Time)
Vampira is a horror pulp fiction series which was published by Bastei between 1994 and 1999. It reached 110 volumes, 50 in the typical German “Heftroman” format and 60 in in the more paperback-like “Taschenheft” format and with new numbering. Vampira was created by the author Manfred Weinland and the Bastei editor Manfred Schönenbröcher. A new edition started on May 3, 2011.
During the 90s I contributed 18 cover illustrations, all of them oil paintings on cardboard, approx. 40 x 50 cm. Almost all of them (except the covers for vol. 9 and 27 which dated prior to the series) were created after brief descriptions by the editor. As the series subtitle “Dangerous – Mysterious – Erotic” suggests, the motto “sex sells” was part of the basic idea, and the covers reflect that idea (not always, though, sometimes they were allowed to be more mysterious than erotic). The most important accessory of the heroine is a shape-shifting dress, whose literal “life of its own” justifies even the most absurd outfit …
Kind des Grals (Child of the Grail
The series’ title, “Vampira”, is not the heroine’s name but just a catchy word that summs up what this is all about (and maybe it’s a little hommage to Maila Nurmi). The title doesn’t even appear in the novels. The protagonist’s name is Lilith Eden, a not-too-subtle hint at the series’ mythological, actually biblical, background story that uses Old Testament motives as the fall of men and Noah’s ark as well as bits and pieces from other mythologies quite inventively.
The others authors of the pictured novels (besides Manfred Weinland) are Uwe Voehl (vol. 38), Carter Jackson (Taschenheft vol. 9) and Timothy Stahl (Taschenheft Vol 17, 18, 37, 54).
Overview of the whole Vampira series at gruselromane.de
Cover: © Bastei Lübbe
Landrus Sohn
