THE ART OF BLACK MAGIC (PART 1)

My first Peter Haining book was "The Ghouls", published in 1970. It was a marvel reading the original stories that would become some of my favorite monster movies. I noticed that more and more books were coming out by him and he was definitely on a roll.

Peter Alexander Haining (2 April 1940 – 19 November 2007) was a prolific British writer and anthologist with over 170 books to his name. His forte was horror and the occult and he produced many books covering these subjects.

"Witchcraft and Black Magic" was published by Hamlyn in 1971 and was an overview of the occult and diabolic, topics that were quite popular during the day. The book is visually striking as it includes many illustrations, all in color. While some were reproductions from medieval grimoires and other magical documents, most of the images were newly painted by artist Jan Parker, whose sense of the eerie and strange carried over into a number of paperback covers, as well (see samples). He is also known for his on-set sketches of Stanley Kubrick during the making of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (see below). Parker is still alive today and has evolved into a fine artist, his fantasy art years far behind him. Instead, he spends his days painting abstracts.

Artist Jan Parker.

An interview with Jan Parker can be found HERE.