As a child, a series of three books were published entitled "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" written by Alvin Schwartz. The stories ranged from light and sophmoric, to mildly humorous, to down-right descriptively gruesome. Now the one thing that was constant and has remained to haunt me though the years was the unapologetic, scarring illustrations of Stephen Gammel.
Thumbing through the book, his style is so painfully clear and effective. Every character or scene whether intended to be frightening or neutral all share the same look. Each image is sketched as though they're covered with dirty hair, slime or stringy blood. Due to the black and white medium our minds are left to wander even more.
Along with the grittiness, many of his images are gross distortions of what we might expect in reality. An over sized head, an elongated face, a smile resembling broken glass - all of it is rendered so well that the suspension of believe is shortened and the audience believes they could see the horrors on the page in real life. A particular piece that scared the heebie-jeebies out of me was his illustration of the "White Wolf". While the story merely pertained to a ravenous wolf the picture elevates the creature to an entirely nightmarish quality. Its crooked eyes, eye sockets and teeth that looks like their made from broken glass, deformed nose create what not only loosely resembles a wolf but there's a hauntingly crazed human quality to it.
Why does this appeal to me? While I admittedly have a similar dark-side to some of my work that may occasionally emerge, Stephen Gammell taught me a number of things. One being the power of suggestion, while it may not be entirely abstract, his methods are easily applicable. Secondly, his rendering techniques and use of dark and light shapes add to the depth and tangibility of his images. In essence whenever I try to create a 'scary' or 'disturbing' image, more often than not, Stephen Gammell's is the look I aim for.
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