Brushfire: Illuminations from the Inferno

by Wayne Barlowe

Revised Edition Few mortals could survive a trip to Hell and back. Despite recounting his own journey to the Underworld in his Inferno, artist Wayne Barlowe—American Book Award and Hugo nominee, character designer for Galaxy Quest, Hellboy, Avatar, and other films—was unable to fully exorcise the terrible sights from his mind. In Brushfire he continues the explorations first undertaken in Inferno, presenting unique studies of some of the most significant entities and places encountered during his sojourn in Hell. With brief written introductions and paintings in full color, Barlowe introduces readers to Hell’s terrible figures, with portraits of the demons Sargatanas, Baron Faraii, and the Decurion. He watches flies terrifyingly assemble into Prince Beelzebub, and resists the perverse sensuality of a pelvic-spiked succubus. He encounters the great general Hannibal Barca and the Daughters of Lucifer cult, and visits Mount Grigori, the flesh-and-bone monastery of Azazel, and the enormous stables of Yen Wang. Barlowe’s vivid, richly detailed renderings present the inhumanly contorted bodies, the dark and fiery Hellscape, and the disconcerting details of his own harrowing experience touring the land of the damned. “Many people think of Hell as a place for the dead,” writes Barlowe. “They are sorely wrong. Hell is very much alive.” In these exquisitely disquieting pages the essential truth of his statement grows ever more vibrant.

32 pages, Paperback

About the author

Wayne Douglas Barlowe