Edward Gorey must have been a fascinating person. By looking at his disturbing narrative illustrations, one would easily assume he was a twisted, deranged character; however, according to people who knew him, he was actually a wonderful man, an absolute opposite to the characters and settings he consistently conjured.

You see, Gorey’s graphic stories evoke the most ominous and terrific feelings, even though they could easily be mistaken for children’s books. The themes he addresses in his body of work are dark and gruesome, even as they are seemingly natural. Within this apparent paradox, we find the brilliance of a remarkable and influential 20th century illustrator.

For a good example of what I’m talking about, I’ll show you a famous alphabetized poem he produced, titled “The Gashlycrumb Tinies”. You can check it out both as a series of 26 drawings here, or through the following video:

The Gashlycrumb Tinies from Labyrinth13 on Vimeo.

Oh, I almost forgot… when people asked Gorey how come such a nice guy would always produce such disturbing stories he was known to reply something like “That’s because I’m mostly interested in the real world”. Go figure!

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