Breathing new life into classic stories, Beehive Books has been teaming up with renowned artists to create custom illustrations for new releases of classic literature ranging from The Island of Doctor Moreau to Crime and Punishment. Beehive Books has launched a Kickstarter for the three latest releases in their Illuminated Editions line, and to celebrate, we've been provided with an exclusive image of one of Kent Williams' illustrations for the new edition of Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan & Shadowings.
We have official details and the exclusive image below, as well as other images from the new Illuminated Editions (including The Great Gatsby and A Voyage to Arcturus). To learn more, visit the Illuminated Editions Kickstarter page!
Press Release: (February 1, 2021—Philadelphia, PA) Award-winning painter Kent Williams, legendary Frank cartoonist Jim Woodring, and the renowned Italian illustrators known as the Balbusso Twins are collaborating with Beehive Books to create lush, new illustrated editions of literary classics and forgotten gems. Having previously released six award winning volumes with acclaimed artists Rebekka Dunlap, Brecht Evens, Dave McKean, Paul Pope, Yuko Shimizu, and Bill Sienkiewicz, Beehive Books is returning to Kickstarter with a new campaign to crowdfund three new volumes of Illuminated Editions, the company’s distinctive line of book art editions of literary classics.
Beehive Books’s Illuminated Editions features some of the finest talents in contemporary art, singular design sensibilities, the highest production values, and a special emphasis on comics and graphic art. Each Illuminated Edition also features original essays from luminaries of literature, art and film, including Academy Award-winning filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Cunningham
The three new titles run the gamut: one beloved classic Roaring Twenties tale of extravagance and excess, one chilling compendium of spectral Japanese folktales, and one unjustly obscure work of mind bending visionary science fiction.
The new books in the Illuminated Editions line are:
THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald, illustrated by the Balbusso Twins
Featuring an introduction by Nathan Robinson.
The Italian illustrators known as the Balbusso Twins are taking on F. Scott Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY, bringing out the richness and satire and sorrow that suffuses this saga of wealth and corruption and decadence and love. Their modern illustration style highlights the incredible relevance of Fitzgerald's story, which has only seemed to increase over time. Their illustrations bring us into Gatsby's world ― but they also bring Gatsby into ours.
KWAIDAN & SHADOWINGS by Lafcadio Hearn, illustrated by Kent Williams
Featuring an introduction by filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, a foreword by writer Kyoko Yoshida, and an essay by Bon Koizumi.
The great painter and multimedia artist Kent Williams is depicting the supernatural Japanese stories of Lafcadio Hearn, originally published in his books KWAIDAN and SHADOWINGS. These books are full of ghost stories, nightmares and strange tales ― of possessed forests, of monks tormented by demons and ghosts, of corpse brides, man-eating goblins, and undead samurai.
A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS by David Lindsay, illustrated by Jim Woodring
Featuring an introduction by Alan Moore.
Visionary cartoonist Jim Woodring has chosen to illustrate an unclassifiable 1920 novel by the legendary British writer David Lindsay. A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS is a baffling amalgam of mysticism, science fiction, sexual politics, and outrageous fantasy, and stands as one of the greatest works of sustained, untrammeled imagination ever achieved. Woodring’s drawings capture the writhing currents of interacting forces that lie beneath the wonderfully arcane prose.
Founded in 2017, Illuminated Editions is Beehive’s imprint dedicated to producing an ongoing series of classic literary masterworks, full to the brim with stunning illustration by the greatest visual storytellers in the world, presented in heirloom slipcased editions designed to be read and reread, experienced, and treasured.
“ We devote our publishing efforts to the quixotic, the bizarre, the radical and and the uncanny,” said Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Josh O’Neill. “We dig existential rabbit holes and build paper worlds. We strive to make things that have no other natural outlet -- books and artworks that without the shared passion of our contributors and readership might not otherwise exist. We envision our press as a greenhouse in which strange, rare plants can thrive.”
The Illuminated Editions books come in three print editions: a slipcase hardcover, a signed and numbered edition, and a sketched and lettered edition. All nine titles in this series are available through the latest campaign and each title also comes as a DRM-free digital PDF, which is included along with every print edition.
The standard Illuminated Editions is an oversize 9x12" hardcover, bound in sewn signatures, and housed in an elaborately embossed and debossed die-cut slipcase, silk-screened or foil-stamped with artwork.
The interior is printed on creamy, acid-free heavy-weight 140gsm uncoated paper with a fine tooth, and each edition includes a minimum of ten full page illustrations, along with numerous spot drawings, illuminated letters, and special design pieces. The entire package is designed by Maëlle Doliveux with a restrained graphic boldness, and an unparalleled eye for beauty, clarity and readability. These editions have been honored with a number of awards and prizes, winning multiple Communication Arts Design Competitions, several Bronze and Silver Cubes from the Art Director’s Club, and three nominations for the Locus Awards.
The previous titles in the Illuminated Editions line are:
PETER PAN by J.M. Barrie, illustrated by Brecht Evens
THE WILLOWS AND OTHER NIGHTMARES by Algernon Blackwood, illustrated by Paul Pope
THE BLAZING WORLD by Margaret Cavendish, illustrated by Rebekka Dunlap
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Fyodor Dostoevsky, illustrated by Dave McKean
THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU by H.G. Wells, illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz
THE FAIRY TALES OF OSCAR WILDE, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu
Beehive Books’s Illuminated Editions’ crowdfunding campaign is live now and concludes on February 25th.
To support the campaign, visit Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/
projects/beehivebooks/ illuminated-editions?ref= ce71m2 For updates, follow Beehive Books on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Exclusive Image from Kent Williams' Illustrations:
(1st illustration by Kent Williams; 2nd illustration by Jim Woodring; 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th illustrations by the Balbusso Twins):
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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