Gustave Doré (1832 – 1883) was a French artist, illustrator and sculptor who worked primarily with wood engraving.
He was a phenomenal talent producing incredibly detailed engravings of the slums of Victorian London, illustrations for Poe’s The Raven, Dante’s Divine Comedy, and Milton’s Paradise Lost among many other works.
I don’t know when I first saw Doré’s David and Goliath from his illustrated English Bible of 1866, but it can’t have been more than a couple of years ago. It’s an image that has lodged very firmly in my brain. It’s an astounding, awe inspiring illustration. It is epic. It is just about the most Heavy Metal thing I have ever seen.
I may have already mentioned *ahem* once or twice recently that we have a new book out today: Damsels: Giant Killer – a stand alone, 32 page one-shot (previews here). Doré’s 147 year old engraving was a big inspiration for the one-shot; we knew that if we could capture just a fraction of the atmosphere of that image, then we’d have something that would deliver on a gigantic scale. I’m very happy to say, I think we (Leah, Dietrich Smith, Alex Guimaraes, Chrissie Zullo, Rob Steen and myself) have pulled it off.