Here's an extended look at Beehive Books' Edition of The Island of Dr. Moreau, as part of their Illuminated Editions series.
Started in 2016 by Maëlle Doliveux and Josh O'Neill Beehive Books is a small publisher catering to a selective crowd of art enthusiasts, and rely primarily on crowdfunding for their publishing. They've been enormously successful already.
Take a look at their mission statement on their site. It's a little much, but you can easily understand why they have been so supported in their venture. The passion claws your eyes out.
If, like so many, you just can't bother clicking a link, click on this picture instead:
Apparently they conduct their business (or do they actually live?) in the clock tower of what used to be a church somewhere in Pennsylvania, which is... just awesome.
Anyway, my copy came in this cardboard box made specifically for this particular novel, which is just incredible.
It's a massive book that quite dwarfs my table.
The sturdy slipcase is embossed with vaguely reflective foil, which as I write it down sounds awful, but in reality the effect isn't intrusive and indeed quite beautiful to look at.
The cover's artwork is stunningly beautiful and completely delivers on evoking the eerie mood of the story itself.
Designed by Maëlle Doliveux, art by Bill Sienkiewicz.
Introduction by Guillermo Del Toro.
The book really features some incredible artwork. There are also some 10 pieces of full colour art in total and all are impressively moody. Though I didn't really imagine the beasts to be looking like how Sienkiewicz depicts them, they do look extremely brutal so... awesome.
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This is my favourite chapter.
By the way here's my review of the novel from last year.
As an aside: Here's some extra artwork, (as if this post didn't have enough pictures already), and which is not included in the Beehive Books' edition (obviously), but which is instead from Eric Powell's The Goon, and which will show just how strange this chapter is. Powell's adaptation is such an unsettling take on the creatures and I just completely love this issue to bits. I can not help but hear the Sayer of the Law madly screaming the Law to the rest of the beasts.
The very image of insanity.
The specific issue that these pieces are from is from when the Goon has some time to kill at a train station, as he is waiting for the two mob assassins that are coming for him. It's an incredibly dark moment, in a series that has come to be filled with them. Powell draws a nice parallel with his own work, by delivering a direct quote from the novel's ending, to show the Goon's alienation from the rest of humanity as he stands over the brutalized remains of the men that were coming to kill him. It's beautiful and savage.
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Adorable hounds.
Also included: A note by the artist, on the artist (who I was surprised to find I had actually seen something of already; in the Sandman comics), an appreciation of the artist by Guillermo Del Toro, some words on H.G. Wells, Special Thanks to various backers and people who gave their support to the fledgling publisher (some of which were thanked in their online names, though thankfully none of them cringe-worthy), and of course a list of the rest of the Illuminated books... which are out... now?
Now, apparently The Willows and The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde are already available from the Beehive Books site itself, but as I pre-ordered them from the Book Depository instead (for the discounts and free shipping as I'm not bloody made of money) I will have to still wait a while for my copies to arrive. For The Fairy Tales practically a year. Bugger.
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