The Art of Horror: An Illustrated History by Stephen Jones

by Stephen Jones

(Applause Books). Amazingly, there has never been a book quite like The Art of Horror a celebration of frightful images, compiled and presented by some of the genre's most respected names. While acknowledging the beginnings of horror-related art in legends and folk tales, the focus of the book is on how the genre has presented itself to the world since the creations of Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley first became part of the public consciousness in the 19th century. It's all from early engravings via dust jackets, book illustrations, pulp magazines, movie posters, comic books, and paintings to today's artists working entirely in the digital realm. Editor Stephen Jones and his stellar team of contributors have sourced visuals from archives and private collections (including their own) worldwide, ensuring an unprecedented selection that is accessible to those discovering the genre, while also including many images that will be rare and unfamiliar to even the most committed fan. From the shockingly lurid to the hauntingly beautiful including images of vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghosts, demons, serial killers, alien invaders, and more every aspect of the genre is represented in ten themed chapters. Quotes from artists/illustrators, and a selection from writers and filmmakers, are featured throughout.

Genres: Horror, Art, Nonfiction, History, Film, Horror Thriller, Criticism

Hardcover

First published October 13, 2015

About the author

Stephen Jones is an eighteen-time winner of the British Fantasy Award.

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Art of Horror: An Illustrated History is a great coffee table book. It is filled with incredible images and an astounding collection of horror movie posters. Each chapter centers around different monsters/characters ranging from traditional vampires, to dragons, to ghosts and aliens. Simply put, it's very thorough on its collection of horror monsters.

I loved flipping through this collection. From an artistic standpoint, the images were magnificent. I also loved seeing how many films were created based on certain characters. Many I had never heard of. A horror buff would love this book. Even non horror fans may enjoy flipping through this book. It's different, but contains a lot.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, what reader doesn't enjoy a nostalgic romp through an illustrated history of horror art?

An enjoyable, fun book on art in horror.

Highly recommended to those that love horror and comics and horror art.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Art of Horror is a must have for the horror/science fiction enthusiast. It’s especially nice to flip through during the Halloween season.

[Barrita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un excelente libro, aunque un poco sesgado en cuanto a los periodos que cubre y la selección es obviamente muy occidental.

La división es por "tipos" o categorías comunes de horror, como fantasmas, zombies, aliens, asesinos, etc aunque me habría gustado ver formas de horror poco convencionales o difíciles de categorizar.

[Barry Hammond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Editor Stephen Jones takes the reader on a lush visual tour of art devoted to the evocation of horror throughout history. Richly illustrated with full color plates, plenty of drawings, and packed with interesting facts, this rates as one of the top volumes of its kind. - BH.

[j_ay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection of some Horror themed art, although for a "history" book there is far, far (far far far) too much modern "art", most of not all which dominates in size the classic stuff. And the quality of it is really bad. Much digital nonsense.. with insipid quotes from the "artists". Entirely a waste of space.
The text writing is mediocre at best.
So, a nice flip-through book but not an important one.

[Horror DNA · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first heard about the book The Art of Horror: An Illustrated History, I wasn't sure what to expect. The book could contain a million different things. Movies, comics, posters, paintings. It turns out to have all of those and more.

First and foremost, it's a gorgeous volume measuring a big ten by eleven inches. It features heavy gloss pages designed with stunning images and well-researched topics for each chapter. But it's certainly the art that you'll buy it for, and it's well worth it. As a long-time fan I've seen a LOT of horror, but this book is packed full of images and artists I've never heard of.

You can read R.J.'s full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.

[Wyrd Witch · Rating 4 out of 5]

A written review about a book entirely devoted to the illustrative talents of artists throughout history feels impossible. There simply is no way to capture a person’s emotions and reactions to the painted image in words. Still, I have to at least try to convey the quality of this book for fellow horror fans. Prized illustrated histories and showcases are a wonderful and sought-after item in many horror fanatics’ collections, but they probably remain absent from horror book reviewers’ articles for the previously-stated reason. Still, I plan on doing my best with this gorgeous book.

Read the rest of the review here.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could basically copy-paste my review of the Art of Pulp Horror: An Illustrated guide, but instead, I'll just share the link to it: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

For those who just want a quick version: The book is little more than a fluff piece, afraid to challenge the reader intellectually or morally. While it's got cool art, that's all there is to it: It looks cool. Not the worst coffee table book ever written, but you won't need it for more than display.

[John Roland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic visual survey of horror art going back to the 19th century, through the Weird Tales era, and straight through to today. Full color reproductions of book/magazine covers, fine art and movie posters, including lots of work from new artists creating original work and/or riffing on old creatures.

[Josef Ploski · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a horror movie fan or an art fan I can not recommend this book highly enough. It tells the story of the genre and all the players. I thought I new horror films but there are so many films I had never heard of that I want to explore and seek out. 5/5

[Alex Mayfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cool look into the history of horror using unique imagery. Genre fans will find it to be a nice book for the coffee table.

[Arin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed there was not more newer horror. A lot of the art was from pre 1950.

[Richard Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun, with rare and generous illustrations.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome art and great to get the horror history

[M.P. Conn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great art posters and info on the art of horror. A must have for horror lovers.

[Bill Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is such a great book that I feel a little bad offering criticisms, but I would have liked it much better if just a few things had been different. On the positive side, hundreds of rare images are included with learned commentary to set them in context in the relatively brief timeline of horrific illustration. There is a good balance between classic "roots" and more modern illustration and the range of subject matter is okay. On the critical side, the essays are overlong and very uneven. Some of them discuss at length art that is not included in the book and a number of them are obsessive in detail about the topic at hand without saying much about the visual side of the business. This odd imbalance in an art book would be more forgivable if all those words didn't take the place of art that could have been displayed to much better effect had it been reproduced a little bigger. There is a consistent, almost perverse inverse relationship between the original size of some of the images (4-sheets, 6-sheets) and their postage stamp-sized representations here. Other quibbles include the organization of themes more or less by monster-types, which seems like a limited way to approach a larger topic, and a relative scarcity of imagery that is not literal or overly representational. More abstraction would have been nice; much of the contemporary work is too comic booky or video gamey for my tastes, though nicely rendered. Apart from the minor critiques, the overall scope of material presented here for a reasonably low price is pretty cool and the book probably belongs on the shelf or coffee table of most horror hounds.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Besides the illustrations, which are crisply reproduced and mainly in colour, this book has a lively and informative text.