Book Cover Illustrations

“Leonor at the Castle” – artwork for the Edgar Allan Poe classic by illustrator Duncan Long

In 2009 I created an illustrated version of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” which I’ve been giving away for free since then (it is available to read online or download in PDF format at Scribd).

In addition to the horror illustrations I created for this short book, I also designed a typeface — and hid a bunch of inane messages throughout the text (as far as I know, no one has ferreted these out, though they’re not hidden all that well, especially if you pull a few tricks with the PDF version of the book). It was a lot of fun to create and proved very popular with thousands of copies having been downloaded or read online. And the sort of “cerebral horror” I prefer over the blood and gore fests that too often pass as horror these days.

I’m not sure why the poem is so popular — possibly because Poe left it a little ambiguous, allowing for people to read a variety of things into the text (and, yes, I added my own little twist with my illustrations, about half of which appear in this post). As such it lends itself to the imagination and seems well suited to Halloween.

The poem has also led to several horror movies, perhaps the best know being Roger Corman’s version starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Hazel Court, and a young Jack Nicholson. The movie is “loosely based” on the Poe story (as with many Corman productions). And most likely filmed in a week or two if it was like most of the director’s horror films.

Anyway…

Here are a few of my other illustrations from my edition of Poe’s classic poem:

“Leonor” horror illustration by artist and illustrator Duncan Long

“The Narrator” Artwork for the Edgar Allan Poe classic illustrated by artist and illustrator Duncan Long

“The Raven on a Bust” – an illustration by book artist Duncan Long

“Raven Leonor” – artwork for the Poe classic by illustrator Duncan Long

You can view the complete collection of illustrations and read Poe’s poem here: The Raven.

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Duncan Long is a profession book illustrator and sometimes author. You can see more of his book illustrations at Duncan Long’s Online Art Portfolio.