This is the story is about of a series of my artist books entitled Dante Dog.
In some way it began when I was working on “Paradiso” for my new edition of The Divine Comedy, published by Facsimile Finder in San Marino in 2021. For “Inferno” and “Purgatorio” I looked to many sources: from the famous like Michelangelo and Doré, to the less well-known such as Nattini and Grifo. In “Paradiso,” I continued to crib from those artists, but I thought I’d sneak in some of my favorite comic book artists too.
I used many classic sources for my Dante and Beatrice: Wallace “Wally” Wood, Alex Toth, Hugo Pratt, Hal Foster, Will Eisner, Bernie Krigstein, Osamu Tezuka, and the Italian artists who drew Dylan Dog like Luigi Siniscalchi and Montanari & Grassani.
Here are some, with how I turned them into Dante, Beatrice, and others.
As often happens when I’m finished with one of my projects, either by publication or exhibition, the ideas keep trickling out. It’s like the they aren’t finished with me yet and whisper, “oh, wait, here’s another one.”
Long Time Gone: Leaves in the Mist is a perfect example. After finishing chapter three “In a Mist,” I still had all kinds of material that didn’t make it in to the twenty-four pages that I only had five weeks to make for an exhibit at MassMoCA.
So Fiamma and I made another book.
But back to Dante and Dylan Dog.
When I was finished making art for La Divina Commedia - The New Manuscript I kept playing with the idea of drawing Dante based on Dylan Dog. I wound up making six volumes. The books repeated a batch of source images, and I put each through changes in drawing materials, papers, sizes, and formats.
In a period of heightened productivity, I made a series of five books between January 30 and February 6, 2020. At the time I was watching the Trump impeachment trial in the Senate, concluding with his acquittal on the 6th.
[Gold-stamping the cover of Dante Dog: Volume IV at home in Brooklyn while Senator Tammy Duckworth speaks to the Senate.]
The colophons tell the story:
Later, I’d make another series of books called Long Time Gone: Election Day specifically about watching American democracy teeter on the brink.
https://www.georgecochrane.net/election-day
Now back to Dante Dog.
The first volume began with loose drawings that I had to bind with a Japanese binding.
Below, my chosen “stock pose” Dante Dog drawings from Dante Dog: Volume V with source drawings by Siniscalchi, and Montanari & Grassani. Drawings are in sanguine pencil and India ink on Arches paper.
[When the Music’s Over - unbound pages of Dante Dog: Volume II awaiting needle and thread.]
Looking back at these, I now recognize how helpless and angry I felt watching American democracy betrayed by those sworn to protect it. Dante Dog’s expressions of skepticism, wounded desperation, freak-out, and judgement got at something for me, inspiring me to seek solace in making these books, if only to mark the gravity of the historical moment.
But who could I turn to in this darkest hour?
Dante, master of righteous indignation and poetic justice!
And America requiring an exorcism of the Ghoul Operations Party (GOP)?
Who else but the supernatural investigator, Dylan Dog!
Put them together, and may Dylan Dog bring the kind of eternal judgement found only in art.
Bwahahahaha!
You can see all the Dante Dog books over on my website.
https://www.georgecochrane.net/dante-dog-volume-1
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like what you are reading on my Substack, I’d be grateful if you helped spread the word.
Dante Dog dice, “Grazie!”