For the love of monsters

This link leads to an interview with author China Miéville in The Believer Magazine.

Funnily, the interview is held (sic) by Lou Anders, who has to be the same Lou Anders who edited the short story collection I recommend in this post. Coincidences, huh? Here is my favourite quote from the interview:

“I love this stuff. And when I write my novels, I’m not writing them to make political points. I’m writing them because I passionately love monsters and the weird and horror stories and strange situations and surrealism, and what I want to do is communicate that. But, because I come at this with a political perspective, the world that I’m creating is embedded with many of the concerns that I have. But I never let them get in the way of the monsters.”

He is gloriously, perfectly right and how could anyone not agree with this?

Probably one of the (many) reasons I like the writings of China Miéville is that he seems fascinated with a lot of things that relate to my own personal obsessions. In Perdido Street Station there is a sprawling, twitching city, birdlike monsters and dreams. In The Scar there is sea monsters, deep sea emptiness and gore. All these things among masses of other monsters, fascinations, surrealistic juxtapositions, strange phenomena and a language that almost drowns the synaesthetic parts of me in floods of colours. It makes me very happy.

Why do I do this?

For the love of monsters.

Details about the drawing:

Size: Bloody small
Equipment: Pentel Aquash with Noodler’s black ink wash, Pentel Brush Pen, Noodler’s black ink in Parker 51.
Computer alteration: None that I can remember.
Paper: Seawhite of Brighton
Inspiration: Deep sea creatures, the book The Scar by China Miéville.
Notes: I especially like how the Noodler’s black pigment has separated in the creatures face, creating a mottled effect. And of course the teeth.
Upcoming: the goriest, most disgusting drawing EVER made with an ink called Sunshine Yellow. You will just have to wait and see… It is a bigger project, so it will probably take a while. Other posts coming in the meantime.