Mark Wheatley Brings to Life the Works of
Howard, Burroughs and Lovecraft
The early part of the 20th century was a wild time in fiction, when publishers would try just about anything to see if it sold. Nowhere was there a more formidable challenge than in the pages of the pulps, which often chewed up and spat out would-be writers faster than new ones could step forward. Out of his fiery crucible came three giants: Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and H. P. Lovecraft.
Resurrected from crumbling pages of old pulp magazines, Songs of Giants cuts straight to the heart of the look, feel and language of the pulps as it highlights the often-forgotten poetry of these unforgotten masters. For his part, Wheatley expertly captures the essence of the beauty, horror, and adventure of Howard, Burroughs and Lovecraft’s words. He brings their poems to life with a fine line illustration style that is clearly inspired by the early, classic, golden age illustrators. The book also features an introduction by Nebula Award-winning author Jack McDevitt, creator of the Academy and Alex Benedict series.
Songs Of Giants is a limited edition, 8 ½” x 11” 72-page deluxe hardcover printed on super heavy stock, The accompanying Kickstarter rewards range from screen savers and wallpapers to an exclusive signature plate, audio books, and one-of-a-kind original art. Reward levels start at just $15 for a digital version of the book and only $25 for the printed version.
“I’ve spent more than a year crafting this art. And while I’ve been working, I’ve had a major pulp art show of my illustration originals. Based on the public reaction to that show, I’m thrilled to finally share Songs of Giants art with the public. The few people who have seen the work so far have convinced me that this is possibly my best work, ever. Because of that, it was difficult to keep the project quiet, so now I’m truly happy that the news is out,” said Mark Wheatley.
Working on his originals at a very large size in a traditional brush, pen and ink approach, Wheatley spent hours savoring the poems in order to bring them to life in this new way. Characters, dangers, and whole worlds became embodied in his illustrations, in turn reflecting the full flavor and power of the works that inspired them.
“Our initial goal of $5,500 is intentionally set very low. This money will cover the cost of printing the book. From our past experience on Kickstarter, having successfully raised money for the Doctor Cthulittle book and fulfilled the rewards, we believe that hitting this goal is very possible and quite likely. If we do not hit our stretch goals, we will still have enough to print the book and we are in a position to ship the rewards with our budget. Of course, the stretch goals offer a good many perks that we would like to be able to share with our backers,” Wheatley said.
For those who chose the reward levels that include the audio book, the masterful voice actor Mark Redfield is on full display with many of the poems from Songs Of Giants. His readings of Howard, Burroughs and Lovecraft are augmented by the outstanding original musical score and sound design by Jennifer Rouse. It provides a truly stirring dramatic experience!
The Kickstarter project for Songs Of Giants will launch on Monday, March 11 and is scheduled to conclude on April 20th. If successfully funded, the books and other rewards are expected to ship in June 2019. The Kickstarter project is listed under ComicMix, LLC, Wheatley’s frequent publishing collaborators.
This is the direct link:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/comicmix/songs-of-giants-the-poetry-of-pulp-illustrated
For more information visit the Songs of Giants website: http://www.songsofgiants.com/
8.5 x 11 inches, 72 pages plus signing plate
Full color front and back end pages.
Thick paper and boards.
About Mark Wheatley
Mark Wheatley, Overstreet Hall of Fame inductee, has been awarded the Eisner, Inkpot, Mucker, Gem, Speakeasy and nominations for the Harvey and the Ignatz. His work has appeared in Spectrum, the Library of Congress, The Norman Rockwell Museum, and other museums. He has designed for Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas, ABC’s Beauty and the Beast, and Square Roots, as well as Super Clyde, The Millers and 2 Broke Girls on CBS. His most recent print projects include Doctor Cthulittle, Tarzan and the Dark Heart of Time, Swords Against the Moon Men, The Philip Jose Farmer Centennial Collection, Mine! and Wild Stars. Past creations include Breathtaker, Return of The Human, Ez Street, Lone Justice, Mars, Black Hood, Prince Nightmare, Hammer of The Gods, Blood of The Innocent, Frankenstein Mobster, and Skultar as well as Tarzan, Baron Munchausen, Jonny Quest, Dr. Strange, The Flash, Captain Action, Argus, The Spider, Stargate Atlantis, Torchwood, and Doctor Who.
About Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) is the creator of Conan the Barbarian, Kull the Conqueror, and Solomon Kane, as well as a large and diverse cast of other memorable characters. In his short life, he managed to capture the imagination of a large number of pulp readers. Many of his works were not published until after his death. While Conan was popular during his lifetime, it was not until thirty years after his passing that Conan began to penetrate the mainstream as a staple of books, comics, films, television and games. He is credited as being the founder of sword and sorcery as a distinct fantasy genre.
About Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) is best known as the creator of Tarzan of the Apes and the John Carter of Mars. He was a prolific author who turned out quite a few ongoing series that included stories of adventure, science fiction, horror, and westerns. His works have inspired generations of authors, artists, actors, filmmakers and game designers.
About H.P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) achieved a limited fame during his lifetime, writing richly inventive tales of horror for the pulp magazines. After his death his work continued to attract attention, partially due to his encouragement of other authors to set their own stories in the universe of monsters and gods that he had created. The Cthulhu Mythos has grown with each passing year and sent readers searching out his original works. As a result, his stories continue to be adapted for radio, television, film, graphic novels and games. In this way he has become one of the most influential authors of horror and weird fiction of our era.
About Mark Redfield
Mark Redfield is an American actor and filmmaker. His feature film credits include Come Hell Or High Water (Justin Gatewood), Dark And Stormy Night (Farper Twyly), The Death Of Poe (Edgar Allan Poe), Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Jekyll/Hyde), and Cold Harbor (Roger). His television credits include Armed Robbery Orgasm (as Ron, Channel Four, London), and In The Grip Of Evil (as Father Hughes, Discovery Channel), among many others. During his career he has acted in, or directed, over seventy plays professionally. He is currently in production with an epic audio play biography of Edgar Allan Poe, Alone: The Life Of Poe. The biography, with full cast of actors, music and sound effects, will be available soon both as a deluxe CD set and on iTunes.
About Jennifer Rouse
Jennifer Rouse is a sound designer, video editor, web designer and actress. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Towson University. She studied acting at Stella Adler's School Of Acting, and music performance, voice, and music theory at BCCC and The Peabody Institute. She wrote the film scores for The Death Of Poe as well as The Avenging Conscience. Jennifer's acting credits include the role of Helen Gatewood in the western drama Come Hell Or High Water, Mrs. Moran in The Death Of Poe, the role of Ice Cream Girl in Chainsaw Sally. Rouse has also appeared in Kevin MacDonald's State Of Play, Ridley Scott's Body of Lies, Touchstone Pictures’ Step Up and Step Up 2: The Streets, and the John Waters film A Dirty Shame. Her television credits include Whiting's Secretary on season 5 of HBO's The Wire.
Contact:
Mark Wheatley
Insight Studios Group
insight@insightstudiosgroup.com
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