There must be something magical in the water in Des Moines, Iowa.
Not only has that town produced one of teen Gothic Flamingo's favourite bands in Slipknot, it has also gifted us with one of my favourite illustrators - the artistic genius that is Stephen Gammell.
In a career spanning more than 40 years, Gammell has illustrated over 50 titles, including Leo Possessed by Dilys Owen, Halloween Poems selected by Myra Cohn Livingston and The Ghost of Tillie Jean Cassaway by Ellen Harvey. While I love all of his works, my favourites are the gloriously macabre images he created for the Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark series.
Gammell's illustrations were the stuff of nightmares for many children in the 1980s and 90s. For a set of spooky tales aimed at ages 9 and up, it is surprising that the publishers would select such terrifyingly ghoulish illustrations. Evidently, the 30 years of backlash and bans from schools and parents had an effect - in 2010, the books were re-released sans Gammell's images, replaced with sanitised versions by Brett Helquist.
Yet Gammell's artwork is the reason the original 1981 edition became an instant and enduring classic. Replacing his pieces has been considered blasphemy to the series, and it is sad to think that the only way to see these wonderful works now is to strike it very lucky in a second-hand bookstore. The three original books are therefore highly prized collector's items nowadays, and I am grateful to list myself amongst the collectors.
Surreal, haunting, mesmerising, masterpieces of horror imagery - I could go on, but I will let the illustrations speak for themselves.
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| "Oh, Susannah!" |
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| Rings On Her Fingers |
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| The Church |
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| Bess |
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| Maybe You Will Remember |
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| The Black Dog |
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| The Dead Hand |
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| The Ghost With The Bloody Fingers |
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| "What Do You Come For?" |
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The Haunted House
Thank you Des Moines - I think I need to visit one day and try out your creativity-charged water for myself.
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I would have been older than the target audience for 'Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark' when it first came out, so I missed it all, and only bought one of the books on Amazon, a couple of years ago, with the Brett Helquist illustrations. I had seen the Stephen Gammell illustrations though. I've spoken to people who grew up on the Gammell illustrations and they're all passionate about them.
ReplyDeleteThey certainly do inspire passion, in both directions - people who loved the thrill of these illustrations as children, or who discovered them as an adult like I did, are huge fans; people who were upset by them still can't look at them without remembering the nightmares of their primary school years.
DeleteOh....his illustrations are absolutely amazing!
ReplyDeleteThank you for introducing me to his work....I have so many new books to find now :)
(I'm still a fan of Slipknot too)
I hope you're having a perfect weekend :)
They are brilliant aren't they?!
DeleteMy absolute pleasure, I'm thrilled to have been the one to introduce you to such a great artist! I hope you are able to track down these books, even the cover pages have been wonderfully illustrated.
You have excellent taste in music as well as art - hope you're having a perfect weekend too! :)
I find it rather ludicrous that parents felt these images weren't suitable for their children, and yet the sexist garbage they see on TV and in popular magazines these days seems to be just fine. :P
ReplyDeleteI wonder if I could get lucky and find a copy of the original books on eBay ... sounds like a mission to me! Thanks for sharing his work. :)
I really hope you can track them down, as I was just saying to Winter Moon even the cover pages have wonderful illustrations! It makes me very happy to see them on my shelf and look through them whenever I feel like a little fix :)
DeleteMy absolute pleasure - I'm so pleased to feel like I have contributed to an increase in Gammell fan numbers!
I'm going to admit I haven't heard of this artist until now. Great post! Reminds me of the freaky pencil drawings of Danish artist John Kenn.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Ali, I'm really pleased to have been able to introduce you! I can see why these illustrations remind you of John Kenn's work - both artists are able to bring nightmarish visions to life. Hooray for dark art!
DeleteThis is good artwork indeed. I especially like the entry entitled, "The Church." That's my kind of imagery. Slipknot is from Des Moines? I never knew that.
ReplyDeleteIt's brilliant isn't it? I share your love for "The Church" - it's one of my favourites too. I have a lot to be grateful to Des Moines for :)
DeleteI have never heard of Stephen Gammell before... I have discovered a new thing today, yay! :)
ReplyDeleteI love the nightmarish imagery of "what do you come from"... it makes you imagine the creepy face lurking behind the wall... brrrr.
You have just inspired me to write a post, thank you :)
That makes me so happy Persephone, I'm thrilled to be adding to the Gammell fan club!
DeleteI love "What do you come for?" too, for the same reason - it's all the more nightmarish precisely because you have to imagine the creepy face, and I love that.
I look forward to reading your post :)
The illustrations are scary!! They're surreal, dreamlike, and so stark. Very powerful. Cool!
ReplyDeleteI think you described them perfectly Lexa - all reasons why I love these pieces so much!
DeleteAmazing! Those drawings are scary, but so beautiful too! Love them!
ReplyDeleteThey are amazing aren't they Magic Love Crow?! I'm so glad you love them too, it makes me very happy to add to the Gammell fan club! :)
DeleteGammell is one of my favorite artists, it's great as an image can be so powerful. It is a beautiful horror.
ReplyDeleteA while ago I wrote a bit of it in my blog.
This in Spanish. But I'll tell you the story.
As a child he read a book with a very peculiar images. Years later I realized that I had in my hands a book that would be of great value. Unfortunately I lost it years ago and I search the title "Scary stories to tell in the dark". Still can not find it.
My post here: http / / www.merlina of halloweentown.blogspot.com/2013/07/art.html
Love reading you! ;)
Thank you so much Merlina! Gammell's images are definitely beautiful horrors - it's nice to meet another huge fan of his! Thank you for sharing the link to your post about his work too, I will go and read that right now.
DeleteOooo boy, these are incredible! Why have these illustrations gone under my radar?!?
ReplyDeleteI truly think that parents are doing an injustice to kids when they sanitize their world to the point of ridiculousness. They'll happily tell their children sanitized versions of Grimm's, hand them "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," and "Alice" without seriously considering the spooky and disturbing imagery that those stories invoke. Parents will ban these images but give kids super graphic and gory first shooter video games. I don't get it. Kids need all parts of their imagination fed -- even the scary parts -- because it helps them develop into adults fully capable of dealing with both, the soft, light, and fluffy, and the darker, scarier, sides of life.
But then again, this is the kid of stuff that I study so I'm already biased.
I'm so glad you like them Professor, and I'm thrilled to have introduced you to Gammell's brilliant work!
DeleteI completely agree with you too, I think there is a lot to be said for a well-rounded childhood filled with imagination and wonder about both the lighter and darker aspects of fantasy.
I can see why this is the kind of stuff you've chosen to study, it's fascinating.
Wonderful and seriously haunting pictures.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more Ms Misantropia, I think you summed up Gammell's work perfectly.
DeleteSome really great illustrations. Creepy.
ReplyDeleteThey are great aren't they Vanessa? Creepy and brilliant.
DeleteI was one of those kids who would read all of the "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" Books in the library at lunchtime in elementary school, and Stephen Gammell's illustrations DEFINITELY gave me nightmares-- especially the cat-woman illustration, for some reason (apparently everyone has that one Stephen Gammell illustration that really got to them as a kid). And yet, I would keep reading. The illustrations would deeply disturb me and but somehow I couldn't look away. Stephen Gammell's art stands out among anything else I've seen in the realm of macabre art, I don't know if it's because they made such an impression on me as a kid or if they are actually imbued with something magical and disturbing that nothing else seems to capture.
ReplyDeleteI think it could be both, Tasteful Goth - I can imagine that seeing his illustrations as a child would definitely have made a lasting impression, but I think you are absolutely right when you describe his work as being imbued with something magical and disturbing. Having only fallen under the spell of his magnificently macabre work as an adult, I can certainly attest to that. Still, it must have been really something to read these books as a child - how do you find that cat-woman piece now?
DeleteLovely to meet you, Tasteful Goth. Thank you for stopping by.