The Gashlycrumb Tinies: 12/31/06

Ian and I are both fans of macabre humor and especially of Edward Gorey. Surprised that we didn't own a copy of The Gashlycrumb Tinies, Ian bought a lovely copy for me for Christmas. I have already read it at least twice (possibly three times) and I'm seriously considering doing a series of 3D renders based on this book (one per letter). My goal isn't to reproduce the drawings or the children, just to explore the settings.

The book is short, only twenty-six pages long. Each page is a different child and a different death, usually by a stupid or self destructive method. It's in the vein of a Victorian cautionary tale except that the deaths described are so extreme to be gothic parody.

The pictures though don't actually show the deaths. The children are instead juxtaposed against an environment that at first glance looks ordinary, albeit a little off. Only little Zillah hints at death with her skull-headed doll. It is the verse at the bottom of each page that brings all the elements together to create a grizzly and delightfully surreal twenty-six line poem.

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