Thursday, May 18, 2006

BASIL GOGOS: THE KING OF MONSTER ARTISTS!!!
Just picked up the fantabulous book "Famous Monster Movie Art of Basil Gogos" which lovingly reproduces many classic painting by the greatest monster artist who ever lived: Basil Gogos! Ever since his first painting for the cover of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine #9 in 1960 (depicting Vincent Price from the then-new film "House of Usher"), Basil Gogos has reigned as the greatest monster portaitist of all time. His paintings show a magnificent use of color as well as showing the nobility of these monsters we all love. Any issue of Famous Monsters with a Basil Gogos cover usually sold a lot more. Of course, there's a reason for that: Gogos' paintings jump out at you from a mile away. There's no mistaking a Basil Gogos cover and they didn't even suffer when hemmed in by all that cover copy; in fact, FM publisher James Warren once told Gogos that his were the only paintings that would not suffer when plastered with words. The great painter has had sort of a career renaissance since the 90's when magazine like Monsterscene commissioned his first monster paintings in a decade; starting with this splendid portrait of Lon Chaney in the lost film "London After Midnight". Then rockers like The Misfits and Rob Zombie commissioned Gogos to do their cd covers; Rob Zombie's first solo cd "Hellbilly Deluxe" featured a stunning Basil Gogos portrait. As a public service, I'm displaying some more magnificent Gogos portraits including one of the king of all horror hosts: Zacherley! The wonderful book features fine quality paper with beautiful reproductions in full color (many full page). The great artist is still producing wonderful artwork which he is offering for sale on his own website. There has never been a painter who better captured our beloved monsters on canvas.

1 comment:

Pax Romano said...

Wow, those covers bring back wonderful memories of my misspent youth.