John Higgins - The Crimson Corsair

Today on the blog, I'm thrilled to be able to show you these beautiful Blakean pages from The Crimson Corsair, by John Higgins - who co-created Dark Satanic Mills with Marcus and Julian Sedgwick and Marc Olivent.

John has this to say about his artwork: "The Curse of the Crimson Corsair is a pirate story that I co created and wrote for DC comics for which William Blake was also a huge influence. These pages were taken from a chapter called “Wide Were His Dragon Wings”. Since I first discovered Blake at Art College, my art style, even though it has been changed by market demands, has a direct route back to this giant of illustrated prose. "

"Wide Were His Dragon Wings" is influenced by Blake's iconic "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun", shown below. The powerful lines and compelling scenery of John's work echo the immediacy of Blake's dragon paintings - Blake's artwork continues to be extremely relevant to this dark and atmospheric style of graphic novel illustration.

Want to know more about Blake's influence on graphic novels? Marcus and Julian Sedgwick will be joining us in the shop on Tuesday 27th January at 7pm. Tickets cost £5 and can be booked by calling 01865 333623.

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