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STGM: The Conclusion of the World, and What Rose After
Strange Gods artist Valin Matthieu tells the story of The Conclusion of the World, and What Rose After, lavishly illustrated with his dark, surreal art.
48 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 12, 2021
I am a big fan of Valin Mattheis' art. I have two prints of his up in my writing area and one of his paintings adorns my own book, The Varvaros Ascensions. So, when I heard that he was producing a book from sketches he made during Inktober 2020, I dropped everything and bought a copy. I really do believe in buying books 1) directly from the author whenever possible, 2) directly from the publisher when that's not possible, 3) from a local bookstore when I can't buy it direct from the author or publisher, 4) from Ziesings.com (my favorite online bookstore - they also have a paper catalog - remember those?), 5) from Ebay or Abebooks, then, finally, 6) from the good sponsors/owners/whatever of Goodreads. In this case, I was able to go with choice #1, and that brings me a great deal of satisfaction.
The book is divided into four chapters: i: The Great Sorrow, ii: Black Earth Revival, iii: Harold Rose Up, and iv: The Three Pilgrims. The story is mythic in scale, and each chapter follows from the other, although from different perspectives. The whole is made cohesive by the strand of destruction, change, and maybe, possibly, hope among the darkness. A grim hope, but hope, nonetheless.
The art is saturated with color, even while the water-color backgrounds and spectres give a ghostly quality to the whole. It is a beautiful book and the emphasis is squarely on the art. There are, as you might guess, lots of skeletons and a morbid sense of humor running throughout, but the book is never so silly as to throw one out of the grim mindset. The "slim" story, again in a mythic mode, helps to maintain a mood of solemnity, even a touch of reverence.
As an added treat, there is a detailed commentary in the back explaining some of the more obfuscated iconography. This added a great deal of depth to the story, but I hope that, in future volumes, not too much is given away. This was just enough to be helpful, but not enough to strip away the mystery. And I hope that some mystery remains. Some things are best left unexplained.
There are also a few pages of sketches, art that was unused in their nascent form, at least (and some of it not used at all) in the main body of the book. This gives a little peek into Mattheis' creative process, a window into window through which the artist was constructing his representation of the view in his mind. I'm excited to continue exploring these vistas. As the afterword states "This is the conclusion of the world, and what rises after."
I am excited to see what rises after the after . . .
The book is divided into four chapters: i: The Great Sorrow, ii: Black Earth Revival, iii: Harold Rose Up, and iv: The Three Pilgrims. The story is mythic in scale, and each chapter follows from the other, although from different perspectives. The whole is made cohesive by the strand of destruction, change, and maybe, possibly, hope among the darkness. A grim hope, but hope, nonetheless.
The art is saturated with color, even while the water-color backgrounds and spectres give a ghostly quality to the whole. It is a beautiful book and the emphasis is squarely on the art. There are, as you might guess, lots of skeletons and a morbid sense of humor running throughout, but the book is never so silly as to throw one out of the grim mindset. The "slim" story, again in a mythic mode, helps to maintain a mood of solemnity, even a touch of reverence.
As an added treat, there is a detailed commentary in the back explaining some of the more obfuscated iconography. This added a great deal of depth to the story, but I hope that, in future volumes, not too much is given away. This was just enough to be helpful, but not enough to strip away the mystery. And I hope that some mystery remains. Some things are best left unexplained.
There are also a few pages of sketches, art that was unused in their nascent form, at least (and some of it not used at all) in the main body of the book. This gives a little peek into Mattheis' creative process, a window into window through which the artist was constructing his representation of the view in his mind. I'm excited to continue exploring these vistas. As the afterword states "This is the conclusion of the world, and what rises after."
I am excited to see what rises after the after . . .
January 17, 2021
Absurdly talented artist and great guy. I own the original painting on the first page of this book so had to be in on being one of the first to buy it. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.
March 11, 2021
A wonderful and strange book/artifact, out of space and time, like a incunabulum made in digital printers... My full review in the link below:
https://aldiniz.medium.com/sequential... (in English)
https://aldiniz.medium.com/iluminuras... (in Portuguese)
https://aldiniz.medium.com/sequential... (in English)
https://aldiniz.medium.com/iluminuras... (in Portuguese)
January 9, 2021
An amazing book from a promising author, the art is gorgeous and the writing is preposterously good. The book is only available through his website strange-gods as it doesn't have an ISBN nor a publisher yet but by supporting his small business I got a signed book with a sketch in it.
STGM follows the stories of a world entirely created by Valin Mattheis, who's paintings I discovered through Tumblr back in the days, I've been following him for 5 years to this day and still am amazed with the constant improving and renewal of his artwork and concept art.
The book has a grim and religious tone, it talks about sacrifices, heresy, gods, sacred orders, processions and Death. It's pure dark fantasy, with a touch of horror. Looking forward to what's next as I know he's working on more stories.
STGM follows the stories of a world entirely created by Valin Mattheis, who's paintings I discovered through Tumblr back in the days, I've been following him for 5 years to this day and still am amazed with the constant improving and renewal of his artwork and concept art.
The book has a grim and religious tone, it talks about sacrifices, heresy, gods, sacred orders, processions and Death. It's pure dark fantasy, with a touch of horror. Looking forward to what's next as I know he's working on more stories.
March 26, 2022
For me it’s all about the artwork, though the story is interesting.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews