Have a Gorey Hallowe’en!

What would Hallowe’en be without a post dedicated to the macabre and strange?

Well, you don’t get much more macabre and strange – and strangely charming – than the work of Edward Gorey. His work can be found in plenty of places: over 100 books, the Gorey-inspired opening credits of the long running Mystery series on PBS, a Tony-winning award production of Dracula, and illustrations in books by H.G. Wells, Samuel Beckett, and T.S. Eliot to name but three. You can also see much of Gorey’s style in the movies of Tim Burton, especially The Nightmare Before Christmas. Gorey’s work even inspired a collaborative album just a few years ago. He passed away in 2000 after a long and self-imposed solitary life.

My favorite of Gorey’s works is The Gashlycrumb Tinies, an illustrated alphabet story of 26 children who met their fates in gruesome ways. It is certainly not a book you’d easily get published by any major company these days and I can only imagine the outrage that you’d hear from the nannyish quarters of our society. For all its gloom and darkness, though, it does have a certain innocence that’s evident in the writing and the art. Witness the fate of poor Xerxes after the jump (and check out some of the neat “reimaging work” that is going on as well).

Poor Xerxes. That’ll teach him to leave peanut butter lying about.

Do yourself a favor and look more into Gorey’s strange solitary world. If you’re intereted in more, his works have been collected into four “Amphigorey” collections. any one of them would make a wonderful addition to your collection or even a nice little stocking stuffer for a friend or cherished blogger (hint hint!).

Happy Hallowe’en!

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Category: Stuff I Like