Yeah, that's bad.
But besides my mind singing that every time I think of this name, I went to Borders a few weeks back while in the mood to spend money, and I had picked up a couple of manga. They'd been out for a while, but I hadn't felt compelled to get them. I was mostly picking them up that day because of the urge to go home with something.
Well, I was in a bit of a bad mood for some other reason, so I was walking through the store and talking with my sister. As we turn to head back towards the table where our writer's group meets, I saw the fairy tale section. Jack Zipes and a dozen editions of Grimm's Fairy Tales. And on the top shelf, with a slightly bent corner, all by its lonesome: Dulac's Fairy Tale Illustrations.
Now, I told you that story to tell you this one. [Not really, that's a line from a Ron White special.] At the week-long McKinley booksale, I came across a collection of the Golden Age children's books illustrations, which included Dulac. Information and most of the authors had at least one reprint of their work. So when I saw the Dulac collection, I recognized the work and very quickly made the decision to put back one of the manga and grab it instead.
One of the neat things is, shortly after buying that, wherein an illustration from The Snow Queen includes a carrot-like creature with three goblins (one with a distinctly owlish face), the friend that supplies me in loaned Fables graphic novels, handed me the newest Jack of Fables. Who should be on the cover but Jack Frost, with three goblins and a carroty-looking creature.
I really need to reread The Snow Queen. I want to see what those guys are all about. Honestly, I don't think I've ever read the original/earliest written version.
Is it wrong to be so squeeful about this? 'Cause I am. XD
6 comments:
It's definitely not wrong to feel squeeful! I totally would too. The illustrations are awesome and I love The Snow Queen. It seems like that story has so much more to it that isn't said.
This is very cool. The book of illustrations I would squee for is the original artwork from the Chronicles of Narnia books. They were so spiky and beautiful. I've still got my original books, but I don't take them out of their box because age is making them fall apart. It would be great to be able to appreciate the art again without fear of destroying what it's printed on. :)
You two are enablers to my squeeful book obsession. ;P
JJ, that's one of the reasons I picked up the entire Oz series (14 books, $2 per, spent most of the money in my poor college student wallet at the time) and two copies of Alice in Wonderland. I love seeing the original artwork. (Narnia and Tolkien would be great, too. I miss the older versions of LOTR my library used to have, with runes around the edges.)
And Jennifer, there's one illustration for The Snow Queen, simple in terms of color range, but so striking. I should send it to you.
Last spring, I acquired a pile of books with illustrations from that golden era of children's books. Dulac among them. I use them as art reference for when I want an Art Nouveau or Art Deco sort of vibe. Besides, they are beautiful to look at on top of being inspirational!
Also, I hope you don't mind my mentioning it here, but I thought you might like to participate. I'm running a flash fiction contest on my blog with cool prizes. Details are here: http://tinyurl.com/327guma
Writtenwyrrd, that's why I love Froud as well, and illustrated encyclopedias of monsters and imaginary places (not to mention "normal" art books). Flipping through makes me want to write and draw and craft all at the same time, sometimes. :)
And I don't mind at all. I'll probably do an actual post about it tomorrow. (Get the word out there despite my small, but loyal audience.)
Cool. I do hope you participate. So far, the entries are not pouring in. Going to be a bunch of late arrivals, and I might have to extend the deadline so I don't have to keep looking longingly at Nunzilla and secretly planning to keep her. (I already have the book and a Buddy Christ.)
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