Halloween!

Well, everybody is doing posts about Halloween, so I guess I have no choice! Tim Burton and his characters are no doubt the big stars of today, and I must confess his terrifying-but-funny aesthetic is something I have always associated to Halloween's mood. Yes, some of his latest films are simply silly (I distinctly remember falling asleep for the first and last time of my life in the cinema during the projection of "Big Fish") but, probably like most of you, I grew up with "Nightmare before Christmas", "Edward Scissorhands" and "Sleepy Hollow" (although my favourite one is perhaps the excellent "Ed Wood". I just love the character). Burton's illustrations and poetry are however less known than his films, but I just love his drawings and the way his characters look totally lost in the world they're living in.

Thinking about Tim Burton's illustrations leads me to another of my favourite illustrators, Quentin Blake: his sketchlike, tremulous drawings are simply great, and it's such a pleasure to see them in Roald Dahl's books! Most children illustrations are edulcorated and cheesy and take for granted that children are just a bit stupid, but Blake's work is crude, messy to the point of looking dirty. His work on textures is amazing (as a kid I was specially fascinated by how he drew old people). This naïve-but-not-so-innocent spirit is how I see Halloween.
I have to leg it and get my pumpkin.