Top 10 Pieces of Gorey Art

As we close in on the tenth anniversary of Bellairsia, we’re using our wuggly-umpish Twitter feed to share some memorable moments and creative commentary in the form of Top Ten lists.

We celebrated some of our favorite illustrations a few rounds ago but left off the work of Edward Gorey for a reason. Gorey’s artwork helped define the books by John Bellairs, with distinct and memorable dust jacket covers revealing the contents of a shadowy attic room, of statues lit only by lightning, or of strangely-shaped markers in a graveyard.

Since we’re celebrating Gorey’s best contributions to the series this month, we thought we’d enlist the input of Irwin Terry, the man behind the Goreyana blog, to help us along on the tour. Terry’s blog highlights his Edward Gorey collection – books, ephemera, and original artwork – and features a handful of pieces for the Bellairs series (dust jackets, frontispieces, and other illustrations).

With illustrations from 21 books covering a period of over a quarter century, there’s a lot of to chose from and we think Irwin’s done a great job covering all bases. In addition to his top ten favorite pieces, he’s twitterfied his reasons for his rankings, too.  Feel free to agree or disagree with his findings at our forum.

Happy New Year!

Editor’s note: we formatted our blandly-overworked Twitter feed years later. The tweets are gone but here is the original list:

• #10. Lamp from the Warlock's Tomb front half of DJ "I like the way the pillars create a sense of danger"
• #9. Vengeance of the Witch Finder b/w frontis "Scary and beautifully drawn."
• #8. Dark Secret of Weatherend wraparound DJ "flowing changing of seasons, full of menace and intrigue."
• #7. Doom of the Haunted Opera; rear half of DJ, says Irwin: "What could be more fun? Bats and headless people; great colors!"
• #6. Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt; front DJ "Beautiful color, image gives sense of being helpless."
• #5. Curse of the Blue Figurine; B&W frontis "Moody, dense, scary, wonderful, love the evil glowing eyes."
• #4. Specter From the Magician’s Museum; wraparound DJ "surealist art worthy of museum, yet illustrating the story beautifully."
• #3. Spell of the Sorcerer’s Skull; wraparound DJ "Moody, just the right amount of dread. Love the pumpkin."
• #2. Ghost in the Mirror; wraparound DJ "Fantastic full scene with amazing color and super scary graveyard"
• #1. Chessmen of Doom; b&w frontis "simply the best drawing of the series, IT" -- thanks Irwin!