My new book "1348" (after the most disastrous year of the plague) is out and available from Le Dernier Cri for only 15 Euro. Lots of graphic medieval cruelty and weirdness in full colour and a 5-colour cover jacket in old school silkscreen in the typical cool Le Dernier Cri style. I am a happy, happy camper now that this has been realised! It is the very first book which I coloured digitally and it feels like a milestone. Check http://lederniercri.org/shop/index.htm to order.
Some sample pages. The fountain of youth...
The chess garden, where everything is fine...
... and this one was inspired by the song
Jerusalem by The Parzival Order, a martial industrial band from Denmark that I happen to like. Can be found on YT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pznw0ST1Saw
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6 comments:
Awesome! Congrats, Marcel!
Fantastic work, Marcel!
So glad this is finally available.
I want to ask about the elephant/snake in the chess garden. I might be reading too much meaning into this but does this creature represent anything? Like mastery over evil (snake=satan)?
I am also dying to hear some back story about the nun who scared off the serpent by disrobing. I laughed out loud.
Anyway, I found this text about elephants in medieval legend to be an interesting read and thought I'd share.
http://bestiary.ca/etexts/druce1919-2/druce%20-%20elephant%20in%20medieval%20legend%20and%20art.pdf
Thanks! Also for the link, which is excellent.
One can never read too much into medieval imagery... I thought of elephants as creatures that are built like castles, but their trunks are basicly snakes with out eyes. The snake in the garden of Eden could have been an elephant hiding behind the tree and Adam and Eve, as they were basicly simpletons before tasting the forbidden fruit, not noticing anything. So, an ambiguous creature that may be a sort of snake in its 'larvae stage' that however can be trained.
About nudity scaring away snakes (and wolves): the pure soul is often depicted as naked. Think of Hieronymous Bosch, Giovanni di Paolo and so on. Its purity scares off evil beasts.
Marcel, Thank you for the response and the insight into things mediæval. My very first thought about the "elephant trunk/snake" was that the creature was Flintstones-ish (snake as water hose) but, then I started thinking about symbolism of triumph over evil, mastery over animals, etc. But, I am basically ignorant of the world, and didn't even know what time of year bears farted.
Maybe a botanica (liber botanicum)as a companion piece to the Bestiarium would be helpful.
Ha ha, I haven't thought of the Flintstones since childhood. But yes, there is something there. Then, I guess humans have made use of animals the Flintstone way, all through the ages.
And now that you mention it, a medieval book about plants might actually be a very good idea. A bit more of a challenge though... With animals, obvious weirdness comes easier. We'll see...
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