WEIRDLAND TV (Posts tagged art)

Chulsoo and Younghee by South Korean photographer, Suk Kuhn Oh.

Chulsoo and Younghee are the main characters from a series of popular South Korean children’s books. A bit like Jack and Jill perhaps. The monstrous doll from SQUID GAME (“Red Light, Green Light”) was based on Younghee I believe.

And now that I mention THAT: that was one of the more effective examples of the “cute doll that kills” cliché actually. If you haven’t watched SQUID GAME yet, you might want to familiarize yourself with it. I think it’s the only show that I’ve ever binge-watched (that’s high praise I suppose). Tense, visceral. Aesthetically intriguing. Unpredictable. Tragic.

photography south korea art squid game

Inuit art. All sculptures are by Karoo Ashevak (1940-1974), except the last two (artists unknown).

inuit inuk native art sculptures karoo ashevak sculpting figures spirits spiritual

One of those “Today I Learned” things. The creature Molasar, from 1983 fantasy horror THE KEEP, was designed by French comic book artist, Enki Bilal. (Another HEAVY METAL magazine heavyweight—there is a big tome to be written on the influence of French comic art on Hollywood—Métal hurlant in particular.)

I first learned of the name Enki Bilal in a Dutch book on comic book history. I was 7 or 8. Each name was new to me, each one a world to be explored. Bilal came after Barks—and whenever I looked up Barks, which I did a lot, I came across Bilal, who was featured with one of his illustrations from his 1982 portfolio, DIE MAUER (The Wall) (last image). As a wee kid, I thought the art was weird and off-putting, but intriguing, and I didn’t forget it. A similar concept of people trapped in walls appears in THE KEEP by the way; and Bilal’s influence on the film reaches a bit further even, as he also designed its poster (image 4).

I should also mention that Tangerine Dream did a wonderfully sinister and atmospheric score for THE KEEP: an evocative 80s soundscape.

enki bilal comic art art movies films the keep 1980s 80s horror fantasy vintage

Scenes of sheer horror from FANTASTIC FOUR #277 (art by John Byrne) and MEPHISTO VS THE FANTASTIC FOUR (art by John Buscema). That last page especially—yikes.

marvel fantastic four comics comic art art comic books vintage comic panels horror

Drawings from AUTOUR DE L’ AMOUR (1925) by Eugène Reunier (Carl Breuer Courth).

art erotic drawings clowns 1920s 20s

“Two Women in a Bed Disturbed by a Cat” by French artist, Jean Alphonse Roehn (1799-1834).

art painting 19th century women bed cat

Concept paintings by Mary Blair for Disney’s PETER PAN.

“I forget people after I kill them,” Peter Pan says in PETER & WENDY. Was that in the Disney version?

One of the great “lost movies”: in the 1960s, there was talk of making a live action Peter Pan movie with Audrey Hepburn as Peter Pan, Peter Sellers as Captain Hook, and Hayley Mills as Wendy. The world was robbed of something wonderful there…