Fear Factor
Dan Clore
9-16-2004
Fear Factor
By Steve Craig
mailto:curr...@seacoastonline.com
The art of Robert H. Knox is, at once, disturbing in its
theme and difficult to decipher in its detail. Unknown
images and eerie entities, usually reflected across a stark
backdrop of semi-realism, create nightmarish images.
In other words, it's exactly what the 48-year-old resident
of Brentwood is aiming to achieve.
Knox's art populates a world unknown to many, but devoured
by the devoted legions of the written works of horror and
fantasy from the first half of the 20th century. Known
broadly as Dark Fantasy, it was the part of the pulp-fiction
genus that helped spawn the literary species commonly called
science fiction.
First coming to attention in the seminal tabloid called
Weird Tales, the works of the best-known practitioners of
the craft -- Americans H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and
Clark Ashton Smith -- still have a devoted audience. Knox
gives the readers a picture of the demons, demi-gods and the
humans wrestling with them and their subconscious.
A self-taught artist, Knox has consistently sold his work to
dark fantasy publishers since the early 1980s. Besides
finding an audience, he's also discovered that denizens of
this genre aren't nearly as gruesome as the stories they absorb.
"Most of these people are disgustingly normal," says Knox, a
1974 graduate of Exeter High School. He says it with a
laugh, but there's a bit of a smirk, too. "I'm a little bit
more edgy than the normal Lovecraftian fan," Knox says.
Knox's work is most closely associated with Lovecraft, a
writer who lived from 1890 to 1937, spending most of his
life in Providence, R.I. At the Noreascon4 World Science
Fiction Fair held in Boston over the Labor Day weekend,
several of the roughly 20 pieces Knox showed in the artists'
exhibit came from themes of Lovecraft tales.
Knox describes his own work as combining "really basic
shapes with neurotically detailed subjects." Usually they
are done in black-and-white or in acrylic paint tinted with
Payne's Gray, a bluish gray he's partial to. That's because
black-and-white is easier to reproduce in low-quality stock
"chapbooks" that have typically been the format for dark
fantasy publishers.
A relatively new publisher of the work of Lovecraft and
others is Hippocampus Press, out of New York City. Run by
Derrick Hussey, Hippocampus is trying to take a more
scholarly approach to the fiction, sneered at by critics if
acknowledged at all, by adding annotations, footnotes and
trying to bring together complete collections. These are
trade paperback publications. Knox's work will soon be
reunited in Hippocampus' planned 2005 release of a book of
Lovecraft poetry titled "The Annotated Fungi from Yuggoth."
It is a collection of 36 inter-connected poems about
Yuggoth, a fictional planet based loosely on Pluto (which
had been recently discovered at the time the poems were
written).
Knox has been commissioned to illustrate six of the 36
poems, with the rest being done by other artists who, like
himself, "are well-known in this field." Among the poems
that will be accompanied by Knox's work are "Nyarlathotep,"
"Azathoth," and "Antarktos." Lovecraft was noted for
creating multisyllabic creations. Usually they were
purposely vague in their physical depiction. For instance,
Azathoth is described as a "blind idiot god which bubbles
and blasphemes at the center of infinity."
"And that's about as clear as he usually gets," Knox says.
The challenge for Knox is to create an image that represents
the visceral fear factor with out being too precise.
For example, one of Knox's color paintings is called
"Psycho-Cthulhu," which depicts one of Lovecraft's most
famous and frequently appearing creature beings. Cthulhu, an
organic monstrous plant thing resting dormant in the bowels
of the South Pacific, is worshipped by a strange cult. When
awakened, its horror is said to be "indescribable," Knox says.
"The painting is not easily describable and that is in fact
the point," Knox says. "You don't want to pin it down too much."
Slightly balding, with gray infiltrating his beard, Knox
speaks in a slow, gravelly voice as he shows off some of his
work, representing his hundreds of published pieces as well
as some unpublished works just waiting for their proper debut.
Most of the stories he's commissioned to support, he's
previously read. He'll then reread the piece. Within 5-to-8
hours he'll create his illustration.
"I have been doing it for many years. I am pretty quick and
I have the technique down," he says.
Knox is well aware that most people shy away from the
subject matter. Some are even more vehement in their opposition.
He's defended his art countless times.
"Hell, I even have to defend it to other artists a lot of
the time," he says. "Of course, I've gotten even more
extreme reactions. Some people have called it satanic.
That's not the way it is at all. That's just silly."
The artwork has never been Knox's primary source of income.
Currently he works nights at Seacoast Newspapers in the mail
room. During his life he's done masonry, worked in shoe
shops and held art-related jobs doing embroidery and
screen-printing. He does not delude himself into believing
that he will someday hit the mother lode of paperback book
covers or movie work -- though he would love to do either as
long as his style isn't crimped.
"Why should I spend so much time working to have a style
that is recognizable? I'm not about to bend my will to
someone else's view of what is saleable," he says.
More than the money -- and he does sell occasional works and
publishes regularly -- his art provides a personal outlet
for a fan's passion that had its genesis in late-night
black-and-white horror movies during his youth.
"I've tried to do landscapes and more mundane subjects,"
Knox says. "But, you know what? My heart just wasn't in it.
. . . When your heart isn't in it, it's going to show up on
the canvas."
Specialty Houses
Interested in exploring the dark fantasy world of H.P.
Lovecraft? Or maybe you'd prefer trying to wrangle your way
through the Lode English-laced psychodramas of Clark Ashton
Smith, a California poet/writer/hermit who died in 1961,
whom the better-known Lovecraft considered an equal?
Well, unless you are already well connected, you are not
going to find any original copies of Weird Tales, the
literary magazine that gave these writers their primary
outlet. (Weird Tales also served as an early publishing
locale for young writers like Ray Bradbury and Tennessee
Williams). Made from cheap stock, they've long since
disintegrated or been put under wraps by collectors.
Here are three primary "dark fantasy" houses currently or
recently publishing works.
Arkham House
http://www.arkhamhouse.com/
According to local artist Robert Knox, this is the
granddaddy of the genre. Others call it staid, or as
half-dead as most of the characters in the books it
published. First production in 1939, Arkham House takes its
name from the Lovecraft name for a town based on Salem,
Mass. "It puts out nice hard-cover editions of Lovecraft and
Clark Ashton Smith," Knox says.
Necronomicon Press
http://www.necropress.com/
This house published in the chapbook tradition and had its
heyday in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s, according to Knox, who
sold many of his works to Necronomicon. Started in 1976, it
is snapping a lengthy period of inactivity with plans for
two Lovecraft books, one a biography due in October. It
stocks older titles.
Hippocampus Press
http://www.hippocampuspress.com/
Relatively speaking the newcomer on the block, it
specializes in taking the oft-produced works of Lovecraft,
Smith, et al., and giving them a scholarly look and feel
with new illustrations.
For an independent review of dark fantasy,
http://www.eldritchdark.com is worth a look.
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/exeter/09142004/currents/37544.htm
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
http://www.wildsidepress.com/index2.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587154838/thedanclorenecro
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9879/
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
"It's a political statement -- or, rather, an
*anti*-political statement. The symbol for *anarchy*!"
-- Batman, explaining the circle-A graffiti, in
_Detective Comics_ #608
King Rundzap
my tastes) is very cool. The painting accompanying that article looks
incredible. I searched for a few minutes, but Knox does not appear to
have a website.
--King Rundzap
Dan Clore <cl...@columbia-center.org> wrote in message news:<4149CCA0...@columbia-center.org>...