Casey Sorrow is an American cartoonist, illustrator, and printmaker.
Casey Sorrow is an American cartoonist, illustrator, and printmaker.
Sorrow's early comic collaboration with Eric Millikin, Fetus-X , was run for a short time in Michigan State University's The State News in 2000. After the Catholic League protested the comic and then MSU president M. Peter McPherson declared he wanted it banned, the comic strip was removed for being too controversial. [1] [2] During the controversy over the comic, many people protested on both sides of the issue.
Those who were against the comic protested on religious grounds. One said, "As a born-again Christian, I just wanted to notify the writers of “Fetus-X” that the comic strip [is] very offensive. ... I pray that one day you will come to know the power of the cross." [3] Another warned, "Do you remember what happened when they said, 'not even God can sink the Titanic?' There are certain things you just don’t joke about. ... keep your blasphemy to yourself." [4]
Those in favor of the comic said that "I would not hesitate to liken 'Fetus-X' to the Black Sabbath of comic strips ... It is the courage, imagination and talent of both the band and the strip that will set them apart from the other flavors of the week and earn them both places in artistic history." [5] And: "It's frustrating to see the ultimate goal of political correctness gain precedence over the basic principle that Casey Sorrow and Eric Millikin have the artistic right to their own opinions." [6]
The comic was also published in other student newspapers like the University Reporter . [7]
In 2012, Sorrow illustrated the first printed edition [8] of James Joyce's The Cats of Copenhagen , where Sorrow's pen and ink hand-drawings were made into clichés typographiques and printed on a rare American-built Vandercook SP 33 proofing press for the first edition. [9] [10] [11] [12] In October 2012, Simon & Schuster published the first U.S. edition through Scribner. As of 2014, Sorrow's illustrations have been featured in 8 different international language editions, including an Italian version published by Psichogios Publications, [13] a Greek version be Giunti Editore, [14] a Danish version by Gyldendal, [15] and a Chinese version by Chein Hsing Publishing. [16] American fashion magazine Vogue described The Cats of Copenhagen as "charmingly illustrated" and a perfect gift for anarchists. [17]
In 2013, Sorrow's illustrations were again featured in first printing of a James Joyce book, Finn's Hotel published by Ithys Press. [18] [19] Sorrow's illustrations are also featured in the international editions in Spanish by Editorial Losada, [20] [21] [22] Italian by Gallucci, [23] [24] Greek by Psichogios Publications, [25] Portuguese by Compahnia das Letras, [26] [27] [28] and German by Suhrkamp Verlag. [29] The illustrations for Finn's Hotel have been described as fun [30] and relevant with a child's naivety. [31]
In January 2014, Sorrow successfully funded a Kickstarter [32] for an OSR-style RPG bestiary of monsters, "Bestiary of Fantastic Creatures Volume 1: Bizarre Monsters", written and illustrated by Sorrow. [33] The book is described by Sorrow's publishing house, Bull Cock Press, as "a small collection of uniquely illustrated creatures produced to be compatible with the format of traditional table-top role-playing games playable with paper and pencil". [34] It was released to the general public in June 2014, in both a physical and PDF format. [35] Reviews describe the bestiary as "awesomely illustrated" with creatures that "feel fun, and look epic", [36] "an old school monster manual from the times when monsters still were imaginative and the art was personal and cool", [37] and a little volume of strange monsters that not only is "Fiend Folio-good, it's Fiend Factory good". [38]
In 2019 Sorrow opened Odd Nodd Art Supply with partner Whitney Sorrow [39] , an art supply store located in the REO Town district of Lansing, Michigan. [40] In October of 2020, Odd Nodd was relocated to Old Town, Lansing, Michigan after being "able to persevere in spite of the coronavirus pandemic thanks to support from its dedicated clientele" [41] describing the COVID-19 pandemic experience as “the worst thing I could possibly imagine for the first year of business.” [42]
Sorrow's illustrations have appeared in publications like The New York Times . [43]
Sorrow is also known as the creator of December 14's unofficial holiday, Monkey Day. [44] [45] [46]
Sorrow attended art school at Michigan State University, where his artwork often focused on screen prints of flaming skulls. [47]
A bestiary is a compendium of beasts. Originating in the ancient world, bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals and even rocks. The natural history and illustration of each beast was usually accompanied by a moral lesson. This reflected the belief that the world itself was the Word of God and that every living thing had its own special meaning. For example, the pelican, which was believed to tear open its breast to bring its young to life with its own blood, was a living representation of Jesus. Thus the bestiary is also a reference to the symbolic language of animals in Western Christian art and literature.
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, illithids are monstrous humanoid aberrations with psionic powers. In a typical Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting, they live in the moist caverns and cities of the enormous Underdark. Illithids believe themselves to be the dominant species of the multiverse and use other intelligent creatures as thralls, slaves, and chattel. Illithids are well known for making thralls out of other intelligent creatures, as well as feasting on their brains.
The manticore or mantichore is a legendary creature from ancient Persian mythology, similar to the Egyptian sphinx that proliferated in Western European medieval art as well. It has the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion or a tail covered in venomous spines similar to porcupine quills. There are some accounts that the spines can be launched like arrows. It eats its victims whole, using its three rows of teeth, and leaves no bones behind.
The Monster Manual is the primary bestiary sourcebook for monsters in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, first published in 1977 by TSR. The Monster Manual was the first hardcover D&D book and includes monsters derived from mythology and folklore, as well as creatures created specifically for D&D. Creature descriptions include game-specific statistics, a brief description of its habits and habitats, and typically an image of the creature. Along with the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide, the Monster Manual is one of the three "core rulebooks" in most editions of the D&D game. As such, new editions of the Monster Manual have been released for each edition of D&D. Due to the level of detail and illustration included in the 1977 release, the book was cited as a pivotal example of a new style of wargame books. Future editions would draw on various sources and act as a compendium of published monsters.
Since at least the 18th century, grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus is often used to describe weird shapes and distorted forms such as Halloween masks. In art, performance, and literature, however, grotesque may also refer to something that simultaneously invokes an audience feeling of uncomfortable bizarreness as well as sympathetic pity.
Fetus-X was a weekly romantic horror comic written and drawn by Eric Millikin and Casey Sorrow. Millikin is an American artist and former human anatomy lab embalmer and dissectionist. Sorrow is an internationally known American illustrator and printmaker.
Guy Davis is an American creature designer, concept artist, illustrator and storyboard artist who has worked on film, television, comic book and video game projects. He is known for his collaborations with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, including the television series The Strain (2014–17) and the films Pacific Rim (2013), Crimson Peak (2015) and The Shape of Water (2017). Beforehand, Davis was the regular artist for the Hellboy spinoff comic B.P.R.D. (2003–2010), as well as the artist behind his own creator-owned comic The Marquis (2009).
An owlbear is a fictional creature originally created for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. An owlbear is depicted as a cross between a bear and an owl, which "hugs" like a bear and attacks with its beak. Inspired by a plastic toy made in Hong Kong, Gary Gygax created the owlbear and introduced the creature to the game in the 1975 Greyhawk supplement; the creature has since appeared in every subsequent edition of the game. Owlbears, or similar beasts, also appear in several other fantasy role-playing games, video games and other media.
Arthur Adams is an American comic book artist and writer. He first broke into the American comic book industry with the 1985 Marvel Comics miniseries Longshot. His subsequent interior comics work includes a number of Marvel's major books, including The Uncanny X-Men, Excalibur, X-Factor, Fantastic Four, Hulk, and Ultimate Comics: X, as well as books by various other publishers, such as Action Comics, Vampirella, The Rocketeer, and The Authority. Adams has also illustrated books featuring characters for which he has a personal love, such as Godzilla, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Gumby, the latter of which garnered him a 1988 Eisner Award for Best Single Issue.
Frazer Irving is a British comic book artist known for the series Necronauts, published by the British magazine 2000 AD. After breaking into the American market he has worked on a number of superhero titles, including a series of collaborations with Grant Morrison.
The salamander is an amphibian of the order Urodela which, as with many real creatures, often has been ascribed fantastic and sometimes occult qualities by pre-modern authors not possessed by the real organism. The legendary salamander is often depicted as a typical salamander in shape with a lizard-like form, but is usually ascribed an affinity with fire, sometimes specifically elemental fire.
Monkey Day is an unofficial international holiday celebrated on December 14. The holiday was created and popularized in 2000 by controversial artists Casey Sorrow and Eric Millikin when they were art students at Michigan State University. Monkey Day celebrates monkeys and "all things simian", including other non-human primates such as apes, tarsiers, and lemurs. Monkey Day is celebrated worldwide and often also known as World Monkey Day and International Monkey Day.
The original Dungeons & Dragons boxed set by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson was published by Tactical Studies Rules in 1974. It included the original edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Its product designation was TSR 2002.
Eric Millikin is an American artist and activist based in Detroit, Michigan, and Richmond, Virginia. He is known for his pioneering work in artificial intelligence art, augmented and virtual reality art, conceptual art, Internet art, performance art, poetry, post-Internet art, video art, and webcomics. His work is often controversial, with political, romantic, occult, horror and black comedy themes.
A legendary creature is a type of fantasy entity, typically a hybrid, that has not been proven and that is described in folklore, but may be featured in historical accounts before modernity.
The Cats of Copenhagen is a posthumously-published short story written by Irish author James Joyce and illustrated by American artist Casey Sorrow. Written in 1936 for his grandson Stephen James Joyce, it was not published until 2012, when Joyce's work entered the public domain in certain jurisdictions.
"Hug Wolf" is the eighth episode of the fourth season of the American animated television series Adventure Time. The episode was written and storyboarded by Somvilay Xayaphone and Bert Youn, from a story by Patrick McHale, Kent Osborne, and Pendleton Ward. It originally aired on Cartoon Network on May 14, 2012.
Finn's Hotel is a posthumously-published collection of ten short narrative pieces written by Irish author James Joyce. Written in 1923, the works were not published until 2013 by Ithys Press, who claimed the work to be a precursor to Joyce's Finnegans Wake.
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the term monster refers to a variety of creatures, some adapted from folklore and legends and others invented specifically for the game. Included are traditional monsters such as dragons, supernatural creatures such as ghosts, and mundane or fantastic animals. A defining feature of the game is that monsters are typically obstacles that players must overcome to progress through the game. Beginning with the first edition in 1974, a catalog of game monsters (bestiary) was included along with other game manuals, first called Monsters & Treasure and now called the Monster Manual. As an essential part of Dungeons & Dragons, many of its monsters have become iconic and recognizable even outside D&D, becoming influential in video games, fiction, and popular culture.
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