CANDLE LIGHT PRESS – @candlelightpres
ARTIST: Will Grant
Hardcover (2014)
28pp, Color $15.00 U.S.
Of course, this is a joke: If you had to kidnap a comic book artist and imprison him (or her) in your dungeon in order to force him to draw your original-vision, horror graphic novel, Will Grant would make an excellent collaborator-artist-prisoner. But Will Grant is no joke.
Seriously folks, I like Will Grant’s comic book work and his art. This exceptionally talented artist has been drawing comics for a number of years, but his best effort to date is Lost in the Wash with prolific author comic book writer, John Ira Thomas. Lost in the Wash, a horror graphic novel and ghost story, is one of Foreword Magazine’s BOTYA 2013 Finalists in Horror (Adult Fiction).
Back in 2009, Candle Light Press first published Manifestations: The Art of Will Grant, a short magazine/book hybrid (the “mook”) that offered a glimpse into the visuals and imagination of Will Grant. Now comes Mandallumins, a new hardcover art book featuring several color illustrations executed by Grant over the past six years.
Will Grant’s drawing style and graphic design methods and techniques have similarities to the work of a number of classic dark fantasy and horror comic book artists. I can think of such artists as Berni Wrightson, Sam Keith, S. Clay Wilson, and (Ghastly) Graham Ingels and also, illustrators like Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, H.R. Giger, and Rob’t Williams. However, Grant has his own unique voice, and his work is unsettling in a way that many American horror comic book artists can no longer pull off without depicting violence.
I described Manifestations: The Art of Will Grant as being like an inexpensive “Whitman’s Sampler.” Mandallumins is its own box of razor-blade impregnated chocolates. I only wish the box were bigger, but it is still a visual feast. Fans of Will Grant and also fans of art books focusing on horror illustrations will want Mandallumins.
A-
Mandallumins ($15) is available at the following link:
http://candlelightpress.tumblr.com/mandallumins.htm
www.candlelightpress.com
candlelightpress.tumblr.com
willgrant.net
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux
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