Okay, here's something different of a muse for C.A.B.'s Halloween Hoo Ha 2012. Sometimes things just stick with you… things that may never get answered...
When I was just a shade past a toddler in the late 60's, on my first foray to a public library, I pulled a children's book from the shelf that I shan't forget. I am not quite sure, but it might have been "I knew an Old Lady that Swallowed a Fly"… I can only guess because I really could not read yet and the illustrations are vague in my memory. What I do remember was that the entire book was a creepy black silhouette technique of gothic, victorian-like shadowy figures on bright blood red… before I could finish the book my mother took me home. The next time I was in the library I frantically searched for the book… I didn't have the language skills to explain what I was looking for, and the children's section was a hopeless jumble of tossed-about books. To a child, a sea of books that wasn't the one I wanted so desperately wanted to see again. And I never did. Not even with the help of the internet did I ever locate that damned wonderful book.
Now for some reason that gothic-victorianesque style has stuck with me and I always think back to that creepy book around Halloween. Perhaps it was this same phantom book that influenced a young Charles Addams, Edward Gorey, and Tim ("quit hatin' yer parents and comb yer fuckin' hair you're an adult now") Burton. Who knows. But here is my homage to that memory, I tried to capture the feel of what I remember… twisted C.A.B. style, of course.
See it HERE!
When I was just a shade past a toddler in the late 60's, on my first foray to a public library, I pulled a children's book from the shelf that I shan't forget. I am not quite sure, but it might have been "I knew an Old Lady that Swallowed a Fly"… I can only guess because I really could not read yet and the illustrations are vague in my memory. What I do remember was that the entire book was a creepy black silhouette technique of gothic, victorian-like shadowy figures on bright blood red… before I could finish the book my mother took me home. The next time I was in the library I frantically searched for the book… I didn't have the language skills to explain what I was looking for, and the children's section was a hopeless jumble of tossed-about books. To a child, a sea of books that wasn't the one I wanted so desperately wanted to see again. And I never did. Not even with the help of the internet did I ever locate that damned wonderful book.
Now for some reason that gothic-victorianesque style has stuck with me and I always think back to that creepy book around Halloween. Perhaps it was this same phantom book that influenced a young Charles Addams, Edward Gorey, and Tim ("quit hatin' yer parents and comb yer fuckin' hair you're an adult now") Burton. Who knows. But here is my homage to that memory, I tried to capture the feel of what I remember… twisted C.A.B. style, of course.
See it HERE!
