The Gorey Details

A friend recently asked me to draw a picture to be included in her book.  The original drawing was a bit light, so I added some crosshatching to make it a bit more detailed and darker.

Happily she liked the results, and so did I.

The drawing reminded me of something, but I could not put my finger on it.  I walked away to get the phone and when I came back it hit me...it reminded me of Edward Gorey.

Please do not think I am comparing my skills to the incredible skills of Mr. Gorey, but it was neat to see a bit of similarity in style.  His work fascinated me since I was a kid when my Aunt Annie got his book AMPHIGOREY for Christmas one year.  I was especially intrigued by the cartoons that were captioned in French thinking they must be especially terrible.  I read that he has been compared to Poe and Tim Burton, or a combination of the two. 

His work is dark, beautiful, and disturbing, and my parents worried that I liked him and the group KISS.  The Bug Book was written just for kids, but lacked his dark edge, so it was not my favorite. 

A favorite of mine was his alphabet book.  These books were traditionally a happy and cheerful way for children to learn their A,B,C's.  Gorey's version was dark and macabre and so far away from child-appropriate that it was glorious.  Here is a sample:

A is for Amy who fell down the stairs--
B is for Basil assaulted by bears--
C is for Clara who wasted away--
D is for Desmond thrown out of a sleigh...

Bloody and dismal pictures graced every page.

You get the idea.

The aforementioned Amphigorey contains fifteen of his works, and is worthy of any library.
 http://www.amazon.com/Amphigorey-Fifteen-Books-Edward-Gorey/dp/0399504338

So if you like dark, dismal, creepy, disturbing and wonderful--look for Edward Gorey.  I am so glad I thought of him today.    :)

A very nice blog that features Gorey's pictures up-close and creepy:
 http://beyondtheblackgate.blogspot.com/2011/07/lazy-blog-post-edward-gorey.html

Goreyography:
http://www.goreyography.com/default.html