The Raven
(Find me at 50 Watts Books.)
Much thanks to Laura of Pop Design and Animalarium for turning me on to this project, and to Galerie Martel for allowing me to share images here (definitely visit them to see more).
9/13/2011 update: Fantagraphics released a trade edition! (Amazon link). There description:
A collision of two masters becomes a threesome: Lou Reed, Edgar Allan Poe, and Lorenzo Mattotti.
In 2001 legendary rock and roller Lou Reed immersed himself in the world of one of his spiritual forefathers, Edgar Allan Poe, to produce one of his most challenging and original works: POEtry, a cycle of songs directed by the legendary theater director Robert Wilson, in which Reed’s poetically streetwise sensibility merged with Poe’s dark chronicles of terror and despair — combining Poe’s prose and work set to music, Reed songs inspired by Poe, and even two classic Reed tunes whose insertion into this context gave them a new resonance.
This suite of songs was released on 2003 on CD as The Raven (Reed’s most recent solo studio album to date).
This spectacular volume adds a third dark, unique vision to the mix: The brilliant Italian cartoonist and illustrator Lorenzo Mattotti (RAW Magazine, The New Yorker), whose vivid, abstracted and enigmatic paintings perfectly complement Reed and Poe’s haunting words. Full-color illustrations throughout.