Modern Masters Of Horror

 

Interview With Vincent Chong

 

 

_________

 

Editor’s Note:

 

What a delight and honor it is to have Vincent Chong here on the Ghastly Door. Vincent is one of the hottest new artists in horror. His work is all over the place, gracing cover after cover. It’s easy to understand why, Mr. Chong’s work has a modern freshness that grabs attention. His images are crystal-clear, colorful, and absolutely weird to the core.

 

Mr. Chong’s disturbing images are masterpieces of industrial devastation, apocalyptic visions for the computer age, carnage for the cube farmers. They draw us into nightmares that are sophisticated and urban, and yet so atmospheric, so horribly INVOLVED. 

 

We like doors here, for obvious reasons. Doors are entrances to other places, gateways. And every good gate requires a keeper. Vincent Chong is such a man, a gatekeeper and a guide, accept his invitation and make the journey inside his vision.

 

It can be such a hollow place to scream.

 

Will Jacques, February 2011

 

_________

 

 

 

Interview With Vincent Chong, Article by Jason Whittle:

 

In recent years Vincent  Chong has become the foremost cover artist in speculative fiction. Voted Best Artist by the British Fantasy Society on no less than four consecutive occasions, he has now also been selected as a Guest of Honour at the 2011 World Horror Convention in Ausin, Texas. In short, this is the man every writer wants to produce their covers, and given that he’s obviously so very busy, it is a real privilege that he’s joined us here.

As stated in the introduction, your career is now going from strength to strength. Are you able to identify the secret of your success?

 

This is something I’ve asked myself before but can’t answer…  All I’ve ever set out to do is create artwork that I like and I’m my own biggest critic so I’m always thinking that my work could be better, or I’ll look at other people’s work and think that it’s much better than mine.  So I’ve always felt very fortunate that people seem to see something in my art that for some reason appeals to them and that they connect with.

 

 

 

Is your work always enjoyable? How do you cope when your creative juices are starting to run dry and a client needs their cover yesterday?

 

Obviously there are some projects that I enjoy more than others, but there’s never been anything that I’ve hated working on.  I don’t want to end up doing the same things over and over again and I like to challenge myself and push what I do, so I do accept a range of projects; sometimes things that I’ve not done before or are out of my comfort zone.  So there have been some projects that I’ve found more challenging to do and maybe haven’t come to me quite as easily, but I find that there’s always something I can take away from each project. 

 

 

There have been times when I’ve been stuck and I’ve been sat at my desk for hours struggling to come up with a decent idea for a project and it doesn’t help if I’ve got a pressing deadline for it.  It can get stressful but so far I’ve found that in the end inspiration does always come at some point and an idea will suddenly pop into my head.  Usually I find that the best thing to do in those situations is to take a break from it for a while and come back to it later with fresh eyes.  Inspiration seems to have the habit of striking when you’re not forcing it so sometimes when you’re trying too hard to come up with an idea it just doesn’t happen and you have to take a step back and relax, and it’s only then that you’re able to look at the problem from a different perspective and find the solution.  To help at these times I might also look at other artist’s work to trigger off some inspiration.

 

 

 

I’m delighted that your artwork adorns the cover of Dark Minds anthology, in which my first published story appears. What can you tell us about the image you produced for that one?

 

When the original editor approached me about the cover he was thinking of possibly using one of my existing images for it; either the image I did for the cover of Different Skins or Cage of Night.  However, after discussing it I agreed to create a new image instead for the cover.  As he had liked those two images I decided to do something along those lines so I proposed doing an image that focused on a face like the Different Skins cover and used the blue colour scheme and misty effects in the Cage of Night piece.  With the skull showing through the face and the fixed stare of the eye, I wanted an image that was chilling and instantly said ‘horror’ to anyone looking at the cover.

 

 

 

Gary McMahon also features in that anthology. How good is he to work with, and how important is that relationship between artist and author?

 

Gary’s been fantastic to work with.  I’ve done a number of projects with him including the covers for his forthcoming trilogy from Solaris Books, which I just finished recently, and I wouldn’t hesitate to work with him again in the future.  His writing contains some strong imagery and is very evocative so there’s a lot for me to work with and he’s great at suggesting possible ideas but is equally open to giving me the creative freedom to come up with my own ideas for a cover. 

 

 

Luckily I’ve not had any bad experiences when working with authors and a lot of the time they’re happy to let me come up with my own ideas and trust my judgement.  I’m always very respectful of the author’s work that I’m illustrating though, which I think is important.  If I’m working directly with the author I’m always open to suggestions and if they havea particular idea they feel strongly about I’ll try to go with that if it’s appropriate and see if there are any other things I can add to it that would enhance the idea.  Obviously if they suggest something that I don’t think will work visually I’ll say something and explain why I don’t think it would work and suggest an alternative, but at the end of the day my aim is to create an image that the author likes and complements the story.  While it’s important for me to interpret the material in my own way and put my own creative stamp on it, I see it as my job to capture the essence or the feel of the story in my image so when I’m illustrating someone else’s work it’s important that what I do is appropriate for it and I’m not just indulging a personal whim to do something, which is why I’ll always listen to the author if they have any suggestions.

 

 

 

I’ve mentioned your cover art a few times, but there’s more to you than that; with Altered Visions you got to do the whole book.  What can you tell us about that?

 

I’ve always loved seeing the work of my favourite artists collected, so it’s been a dream of mine to have my very own art book, but I didn’t think I’d be able to do one till later in my career.  So the opportunity to do Altered Visionswas something that came out of the blue in an unexpected way.  David Howe, the publisher at Telos had commissioned me to do the cover art for Simon Clark’s Humpty’s Bones.  One day I got a call from him saying that he was thinking of doing a limited traycased edition of the book and had an idea to package it with a book of my artwork as a special bonus supplement.  He was only planning to go ahead with this special edition and art book if they received enough interest in pre-orders and unfortunately they didn’t receive the volume of pre-orders they were hoping for.  However, David decided that he still wanted to go ahead and publish an art book by me as a limited publication to be launched at the World Horror Convention (earlier this year).  David gaveme creativefreedom over it so I was able to select the images that I felt gave an overview of my work up to this point and I designed and laid out the whole book myself.  I’d never done that before so it was a challenge, but one that I really enjoyed.  Due to budget and time constraints we had to make it quite a small book but it offers a snapshot of my career so far and we were very pleased with the result.  I’d like to do more art books in the future; next time I’d loveto do a large coffee table book with a more comprehensive selection of the work I’ve done over the years and include some other material such as sketches, photos, experiments etc.

 

 

You can see some sample pages of Altered Visions online at http://issuu.com/vincentchongart/docs/altered_visions_previewand copies can still be ordered direct from Telos publishing at www.telos.co.uk.

 

 

 

Your artwork is instantly recognizable now; how do keep that Vincent Chong hallmark look whilst at the same time keeping every new piece fresh and distinguishable from your previous work?

 

I’m inspired and influenced by various artists’ work and I constantly have my eyes open to anything that I might be able to feed into my own work in some way, but all this material is filtered through my own sensibilities and as I approach creating art in a certain way using particular techniques and have evolved the way I work over the years, I can’t help but create artwork that has a certain look to it that is now recognized as my style.  It’s not a matter of copying what others are doing but bringing in elements of what I like and infusing it into my work in my own way.  The things that inspire me keep on changing and I’m always bringing in new influences so it all helps to keep my approach to my art fresh and even though I’ve developed my own recognizable style I think if you look back to my earlier work and compare it to the work I’m doing now you’ll be able to see a gradual evolution which is on-going.

 

 

 

The webmaster of this site produces all his artwork in monochrome with an ink pen and nothing else. Obviously, in your line of work you have to embrace technology more; what is your own preferred medium?

 

I produce all my final artwork digitally in Photoshopbut in the process of creating a piece I combine various mixed media from photography to traditional painting, drawing and sculpture.  I don’t like to create an image completely from scratch digitally so I’ll always involve different media but I do like putting the final images together digitally as it gives me a lot of scope to experiment – I can try out a lot of variations and play around with the different elements in the image.  It also speeds up the process; if I make a mistake or don’t like something I’ve done it’s easier for me to go back and fix it and if a client later wants something tweaking it makes that a lot easier to do too.

 

 

 

 

As you continue to become a bigger name, more opportunities will doubtless present themselves. What do you have in the pipeline now, and what are your plans for the future?

 

I’ve been designing the cover for the next Mammoth Book of Best New Horror (22) which will be out next year, and I’m starting work on the cover art for the third book in Tim Waggoner’s Matt Richter series which is published by Angry Robot.  I’m also doing various cover and interior artwork for Subterranean Press and Cemetery Dance projects.

 

 

For the immediate future I’d like to continue doing more book cover work but further down the line I’d love to branch out into other areas more outside of the publishing industry, to give me a greater diversity in the types of projects I do.  In the past I’ve done various bits of work for websites, CD covers, online games and such, so while I mainly concentrate on book illustrations now I think there’s plenty of scope for my art and design work to be applied to other areas too.  This past year I’ve talked to a few people about collaborating on projects which are a bit different to what I’m doing at the moment, but these will be long term projects and it’s early days so I can’t reveal any details as yet and don’t know if anything will come of them….  I’d also like to maybe experiment with working in other mediums too beyond just illustration; perhaps doing some photography work or getting involved with film-making if the opportunity ever arose.  I think there’s a lot of other creative areas that I’d enjoy working in so for me it’s just a matter of seeing how things naturally develop and not putting any limitations on myself.

 

 

 

 

Vincent, thank you so much for joining us. Any final thoughts for our readers?

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this interview.  If anyone would like to see more of my work or find out more about what I do, you can stop by at my website: www.vincentchong-art.co.uk or you can visit my blog vincentchongart.wordpress.com where you can find previews of my latest work, sketches, behind-the-scenes info on how I work, what inspires and interests me and a lot more.

 

 

_________

 

Gary McMahon Interview

 

We are very privileged that Gary has managed to find the time to join us at what must be a very busy time for him. His latest novel Pretty Little Dead Things has just been released in the UK, with the American release to come in December, and is the talk of all the horror forums at the moment.

Pretty Little Dead Things is the culmination of years of build-up, with a similar subject matter to your novella Even the Dead Die and a long-developed main character in Thomas Usher. What can you tell us about this novel, and your hopes for what it may achieve?

Well, the novel is a departure from the short stories featuring the character of Thomas Usher – it’s kind of an equal blend of crime and horror. My main influences when writing Pretty Little Dead Things were David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet and William Peter Blatty’s Legion (which was, of course, the sequel to The Exorcist), and if you’re familiar with these works you’ll realize that it’s a pretty intense mix. Thomas Usher is an ordinary man who happens to have the ability to see the dead. Ghosts are drawn to him. They come to him for help. He just has to find out why they need that help, and then try to do something about it. The plot involves a Bradford gangster, murdered strippers, a missing young girl and a supernatural adversary called the Pilgrim. There’s mystery, horror, violence, love, despair, and more than a hint of the fantastic. I hope that readers of the horror crime and urban fantasy genres will enjoy the novel. If the books do well (there’s also a sequel due out in 2011 called Dead Bad Things) I have lots of ideas for further books in the series…

Of course, our readers don’t have to take your word for it; the first 50 pages are available for free at Angry Robot.com.   How important do you think it is to offer free tasters or short stories in this way?

I think it’s a great way of offering potential readers a small taster of the book, especially in these days of constant availability. It’s important to get your work out there, to stand out from the pack, and any way you can achieve that has to be good marketing. The marketplace is crowded with books – some good, some bad, some mediocre – so if you want to have any hope of career longevity, you need to be read. Try-before-you buy is a good way of at least tempting fence-sitting readers through the door.

Thomas’s daughter is called Allyson, an unusual spelling which I take to be a nod to Allyson Bird, and one of the places mentioned is Bestwick, which I take to be a nod to Simon Bestwick. Are these little in-jokes a way of punctuating the sense of bleakness occasionally, or a way of recommending other authors to your readers? Or am I barking up the wrong tree altogether?

I was wondering if anyone would notice that… Yes, I used the names as little nods to a couple of writer friends. I also used Paul Finch’s name in my novel Hungry Hearts and I used my good friend the writer/editor/publisher Gary Fry as a minor character in that same book. It’s fun, just a bit of a lark to make a few people smile.

Another forthcoming release is the Dark Minds anthology, particularly exciting for me as it contains my first ever published work. You provide the lead story with The Ghost of Rain; what can you tell us about this story?

The Ghost of Rain covers similar themes to my first novel, Rain Dogs. I realized there were still some things left to be said and the short story seemed the perfect vehicle to underline a few points, to finish them off. It isn’t in any way related to the novel, other than it features a strange rain that acts as a kind of doorway to both another state of existence and a place inside the main character that was formerly out of reach. I hope it’s a haunting piece, a story that touches the heart as well as the pulse points.

The Dark Minds anthology also sees some Vincent Chong art on the cover of your work once again. How good is he to work with, and how important is that relationship between author and artist?

Vincent is an amazing artist. I have what I call the Wall of Chong at home, where I’ve hung framed prints of several of his covers (mostly ones designed for my books). Vinny and I have a great working relationship – we trust each other. He always involves me in the covers he does for my books, and I appreciate that more than I can say. His work astounds me. It’s as simple as that.

You seem to use the weather and seasons in much of your work, with a harsh autumnal setting really adding to the atmospherics. How conscious is this, and do you find the autumn and winter months to be your most creative time?

My most creative time is during the day, when I’m unable to write because I’m at work. But, yes, the weather and the seasons play an important part in my fiction. Mood. Tone. Setting. These can all be achieved by using the elements as a backdrop to emotional trauma. I have a notion to write a ghost story that takes place during the summer months, a kind of sun-drenched phantom. Also, I’d love to write a snowbound novel: it’s my favourite setting in films and books, an isolated snowy landscape.

 As a zombie aficionado I was particularly interested in Hungry Hearts. This starts out seeming to be a straightforward survivalist horror (which I’m not saying is a bad thing, because my debut novel is exactly that!) but mutates into a tragic romance between the living and the undead.  When you were given the opportunity to write a zombie novel, was it always your intention to twist the sub-genre in this way?

When I was commissioned by Jon Oliver to write a zombie novel I was always going to have to mould it around my personal themes and concerns. It’s what I do, how I write. It was also why he brought me onboard, so I could do “zombies, McMahon style” (as he put it). The novel is basically about marital infidelity: beneath a pulpy zombie-mashing façade, the story expresses my own fears and concerns regarding marital breakdown. I honestly think the book contains some of the best writing I’ve ever done. It was also my first big step into the mass market, so I’ll always be proud of what I achieved with that novel.

Apart from the quality of your work, the other impressive thing is the sheer output. How hard is time management when you have to combine your writing with working 9 to 5 and raising a family? Surely the day job has to go soon?

Time management is almost impossible. I go to the day job. I come home to eat and spend an hour or so with my wife and son. Then, when my son has gone to bed, I go up to my study and write until my eyes hurt. Then I go to bed. My wife also has a very demanding day job with early-morning starts, so she goes to bed early every evening – this means that my writing doesn’t interfere with our relationship, because I basically work when she’s sleeping. The time we do all get to spend together is precious, and I try not to write too much at weekends. If I could afford to give up the day job, I’d do it without a backward glance. Until then, it has to continue this way until I’m either making a lot more money from the writing or I go insane from the pressure. It’s a nice problem to have, of course, but it can be very stressful at times keeping all the balls in the air.

Whether or not you’re writing full-time, what will be your next project, and what do you have planned in the longer term?

I’m currently writing three books for Solaris. The series is called The Concrete Grove (the first novel also shares that title), and it’s basically a bunch of books all set in the same location and with a few shared characters who weave in and out of the stories. The novels are all set on a possessed council housing estate known locally as the Concrete Grove that’s also a doorway to another place…a place of strange creatures and supernatural energies. These books are a mix of horror and fantasy, and when I pitched the idea to the editor I described it as being part Arthur Machen, part Shane Meadows, and part Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Wood. After that, I have several more ideas for new novels, one of which I aim to use to get an agent. I think I’ve done pretty well on my own so far, but professional representation would take off a bit of the pressure so I could concentrate 100% on the writing.

Gary, thank you so much for joining us. Any final thoughts for our readers?

Final thoughts? Yeah, here’s one: Please go out and buy my books!

 

_________