RSS Parrot

Weird ekphrasis and the Dunwich horrors

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/05/19/weird-ekphrasis-and-the-dunwich-horrors/

Published: May 19, 2025 15:30

The Seal of Yog-Sothoth, or Old Whateley’s conception of the same. A detail from the delightful kitchen autopsy scene which you’ll find below. My thanks to Tentaclii for bringing the following to my attention in the most recent HPLinks post. The Actual…

Weekend links 778

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/05/17/weekend-links-778/

Published: May 17, 2025 18:00

Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons (c. 1470–75) by Martin Schongauer. • “Physique was a response to restrictions and laws that kept photographers on a short leash, and what made it lively was they were constantly pulling at that leash.” Vince Aletti…

Gahan Wilson’s Diner

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/05/14/gahan-wilsons-diner/

Published: May 14, 2025 15:30

Gahan Wilson’s macabre humour has provided stories for film and television on a number of occasions but this very short entry is the only one I’ve seen so far. Gahan Wilson’s Diner seems closest to Wilson’s work as a cartoonist, being an attempt to…

Harry Clarke’s illustrated Swinburne

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/05/12/harry-clarkes-illustrated-swinburne/

Published: May 12, 2025 15:30

Aholibah (1928). You won’t find Harry Clarke’s illustration for Swinburne’s Aholibah in Selected Poems of Algernon Charles Swinburne even though it was intended for the book, and was the illustration that Clarke deemed his favourite of the series. The…

Weekend links 777

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/05/10/weekend-links-777/

Published: May 10, 2025 18:00

The Seven Wonders of the World (1886). 1: Lighthouse on the Island of Pharos, Alexandria; 2: Statue of the Olympian Jupiter; 3: The Colossus at Rhodes; 4: The Temple of Diana at Ephesus; 5: The Mausoleum of Artemisia; 6: The Pyramids of Egypt; 7: The Walls…

Omnibus: A Portrait of Raymond Chandler

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/05/07/omnibus-a-portrait-of-raymond-chandler/

Published: May 7, 2025 15:30

The full title of this BBC documentary is Down These Mean Streets a Man Must Go: A Portrait of Raymond Chandler. The film was broadcast in 1969, ten years after Chandler’s death, and has been on iPlayer recently to judge by the logo in the corner, but it’s…

The art of Dick Ellescas

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/05/05/the-art-of-dick-ellescas/

Published: May 5, 2025 15:30

The Boy Friend (1971). I chanced upon the album cover art of Dick Ellescas a few weeks ago when I was searching for something on Discogs. Classical music labels are extraordinarily lazy when it comes to packaging their recordings, as a result of which the…

Weekend links 776

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/05/03/weekend-links-776/

Published: May 3, 2025 18:00

Illustration by Adolf Hoffmeister for a Czech edition of The First Men in the Moon by HG Wells. • It’s good to hear that Czech animator Jiri Barta is back at work on his long-gestating feature film based on the Golem legend. The new iteration looks like a…

Documents Décoratifs by Alphonse Mucha

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/04/30/documents-decoratifs-by-alphonse-mucha/

Published: April 30, 2025 15:30

I’ve had a copy of the Dover edition of these plates for some time, but it’s good to find a digital copy at last, especially now I can see that Dover bleached all the subtle background tones to a solid white. The artwork looks much better in its original…

Art on film: Crimes of Passion

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/04/28/art-on-film-crimes-of-passion/

Published: April 28, 2025 15:30

Continuing an occasional series about artworks in feature films. I’ve been spending the past couple of weeks working my way through the Ken Russell filmography, rewatching familiar documentaries and feature films while acquainting myself with the portions…