Friday 21 July 2017

I'm just trolling

See this?

Look at them, Mother Troll said. Look at my sons! You won't find more beautiful trolls on this side of the moon! (1915)
That could basically be *the* illustration for a story I just wrote: Yan, Tan, Tethera, Methera.

It's by John Bauer, a Swedish artist best known for his illustrations for an annual fairy-tale series called Among Gnomes and Trolls.



He was the absolute master of visualizing trolls, and he liked best to contrast their huge, lumpen, ugly forms with tiny delicate humans - often children or princesses - in a spectacular show of vulnerability and barely-concealed menace.


I like to think I just went that one step further. That one step too far, if you like 😉


Because this is a story in which I don't hold back...


I'll let you know whether it meets editorial approval!



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