Monstrous Monday

As promised, two monstrous images by the great Charles Keeping.

Above we have Grendel from Gods and Men, an Oxford University book on mythology published in 1981, and, below, Grendel's terrifying mother from Kevin Crossley-Holland's version of Beowulf, published a year later. Surprisingly different styles but both stunning, in my opinion.

Click on the pix for enlargements.

Weird Wednesday

Well. Has-this-ever-happened-to-you? You find yourself an interesting book full of striking illustrations by a celebrated artist, in this case Charles Keeping. It's an ex-library copy and well-thumbed but what the hell. So you take it home. You flick through the book, enjoying the many illustrations you've not previously seen. And then you come to the last illo in the book.

And you find some kid's drawn a big cock on it. In red felt tip pen. And he's added the word 'Wanker' just to finish it off. Bloody hell.

Oh well, it was only 50p. It's a book from 1973 called Weirdies, a collection of macabre tales (and a few H P Lovecraft poems) selected by one Helen Hoke as being suitable for young readers. Charles Keeping is in my opinion one of the very best book illustrators of the second half of the 20th century, and since I have presented him here defaced (or becocked), I think I'll put up another of his pictures on Monstrous Monday. Incidentally, the illustration with added nob was for Theodore Sturgeon's classic tale of the reanimated dead, 'It'.