Author: Roman Dirge
Hardcover: 112 pages
Publisher: Titan Books
Release Date: September 20, 2011
Our Score: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Roman Dirge is known best for his creation of “Lenore”, the cute little dead girl. I have never been a big fan of his work overall. This book features some really weird shit, but that is expected for sure. Some might say that this book is visually stunning, I beg to differ. There are some interesting shots but overall, I was not interested in turning to the next page. I would say that this book is only really for hardcore fans of Roman Dirge, anyone else should steer clear.
The first section of the book focuses on sketches of Dirge’s work that has never been seen before. They are the least gross thing in the book. The second section is called artwork and it includes and nothing is safe in this section. It features bizarre depictions of animals and of course mostly little girls or woman in various states…mostly dead. The next section was the saving grace for me with this book, it is called “Scarytales”. I think this section is great and includes creepy deceptions of classics like Snow White to Alice in Wonderland. I wish this section was longer or if the whole book was based on it. The next section is called “Monster” and just features various gross creations but nothing amazing. So not to end on a downer, there is a section called “Funny Bone” which takes a lighter side of his art. Still gross but includes dialogue and add some humor.
The introduction to the book from Roman himself sets the pace for the whole book. Basically it is him expressing his love for taxidermy and thanks Titans Books for allowing him to be be weird. I have nothing wrong with weird, just to add. I love Tim Burton’s work and similar artists like Neil Gaiman. All in all, I really couldn’t wait to finish looking at this book, though like I said I would have loved to see a larger scale version of the “Scarytales” section though.