Troy Frantz: Two Illustrations for "The Uncanny Story"
The Brooklyn-based artist Troy Frantz supplied my recently published tale, "The Uncanny Story," with two illustrations.
This upper image is an illustration of a Gawain Seminar taught by the protagonist early in the story, a tale of temptation to set the tone for what follows:
This lower image is an illustration showing the protagonist following Agashka - one of the several other characters in the story - on their way to see Emin Ence, with whom the protagonist will perhaps sign a contract:
Both illustrations are to be found on the website of the artist, Troy Frantz, at this link. The artist's main website address is here.
My tale, "The Uncanny Story,""can be found in the most recent of the anthology series edited by Carter Kaplan, namely, Emanations: 2 + 2 = 5, available on Amazon. (Carter Kaplan is also the guiding light for International Authors.)
But before reading "The Uncanny Story," you should read its 'prequel,' The Bottomless Bottle of Beer, also available on Amazon.
Labels: Art, Carter Kaplan, Stories
posted by Horace Jeffery Hodges @ 6:12 AM
14 comments
14 Comments:
Very impressive work. I was wondering, at first, whether Mr. Frantz was the same man who illustrated one of my favorite books, a slim volume that is a collection of Aesop's fables. On any two-page spread in that book, one page is devoted to the fable itself, and the other page has a lively and humorous line-art illustration related to the fable. I loved the art in that book, and these pictures are exactly like that art. The problem, though, is that I've had that book since, oh, the late 1990s, and Mr. Frantz looks too young to have been its illustrator, so I suspect the Aesop drawings were done by someone else—someone in the same "school" of line-art illustration.
All of that is a very oblique way of giving your illustrator a hearty thumbs-up for his efforts. I note with amusement that he did his best to make clear that you yourself are the protag of this story, and not some fictional professor whose life-details are similar to yours. Right down to the hat, the details go. I also like the beatific geste bouddhique you seem to be making as you talk to your students.
Thanks, Kevin. I'm sure Mr. Frantz will appreciate your remarks. I like his illustrations, too, and they get better every time I study them.
Jeffery Hodges
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Thank You Kevin! I would love to see those Aesop fables drawings! Can you provide a link?
Interesting observation on HJH making a "beatific geste bouddhique" to his students. I have been studying & practicing Buddhism for years. So something must of bubbled out of my subconscious state.
> "I note with amusement that he did his best to make clear that you yourself are the protag of this story, and not some fictional professor whose life-details are similar to yours."
When I first saw a picture of HJH - I was like - "Yay! Here we go! Central casting has delivered." I think HJH makes a good model! Would love to do more drawings of him.
Thanks Jeffery Hodges for writing a story that was fun to illustrate!
You're welcome, but I should have had my passport photo used since - as David Byrne states - "Passport photos are what people really look like."
Jeffery Hodges
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Mr. Frantz,
A bit of online research turned up the fact that the Aesop collection in question was put together and illustrated by David Levine, so that answers that question. And now that I'm looking at his work more closely, I can see there are major differences between Levine's style and yours—he's a caricaturist, as it turns out—but you both do share the common thread of well-rendered line art, including the use of thin lines for shading. (Compare your work here and Levine's work here, for example. I hope both of those links function as they should!)
In any event, whether I'm off my rocker or not in my comparison, I'm now a Frantz fan.
Wow!
Glad to have a new fan, Kevin. Are you on Facebook?
I am there - but I spell my first name as "Treaghy."
I now recognize David Levine - he did images of Mark Twain for some of the big publishers:
http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=&bih=&q=David+Levine+Mark+Twain&gbv=2&oq=David+Levine+Mark+Twain&gs_l=img.3...16878.28641.0.29333.23.14.0.9.9.0.309.1476.11j2j0j1.14.0....0...1ac.1.34.img..7.16.1501.ctvITdYx7s0
My inspirations for pen & ink have been Albrecht Durer, Moebius (among others) and remaining true to the form. Looking at Hellenistic or Michaelangelo sculptures have been a learning experience.
Jeffrey - send me your passport photo! Let's see what I do with it!
Oops!
I forgot M. C. Escher as an inspiration!!!
Let's improve that Levine link.
Jeffery Hodges
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Mr. Frantz,
I'm not on Facebook, but I am on Twitter: @bighominid.
"Treaghy," with that happily indecipherable jumble of unpronounced vowels and consonants, sounds Celtic/Gaelic. How'd you end up with a Druid's first name and a Prussian warrior's last name?
Great question, Kevin!
My Mom's maiden name is Troy. Her Grandfather, left County Cork (or Tipperary- both counties border each other,) Ireland, in the late 1800s, or early 1900s. He died in a railway accident in the US. The ancient Gaelic spelling of Troy is Treaghy. Eaghy is pronounced "oy." She wanted to keep Her family name in the family.
My Dad's side, Frantz, originated in Alsace Lorraine, when it was German. They came to the North America in the late 1600s.
So there you go!
A friend of mine back in the Ozarks was named "Troy Franks."
Jeffery Hodges
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Jeff,
And he sold Turkish hot dogs, I'd wager, including a combo lamb dog that he called "the Iliadic Special," with its companion dog, named simply "The Homer." Everyone before 1990 thought "The Homer" was a sly baseball reference, but people nowadays are convinced it's a reference to daffy ol' Mr. Simpson.
Treaghy,
Many thanks for the explanation. That's quite a story. We're all circumstantial nexuses, the products of past events—points at which infinite rivers of causality converge, congeal, and become us.
Ah, yes: one of my best French buddies lived in Alsace for many years with his wife and kids. He's since moved back to the French west coast and now runs a bed-and-breakfast not too far from Nantes. I think he wasn't happy that his kids were growing up speaking French with Alsatian accents.
GASP! How did you know?
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
I was also adopted.
So I don't really know which European ethnic groups I belong to. When I lived in a Polish neighborhood here in NYC, people would come up to me speaking Polish. Now I live in a Hispanic neighborhood, they come up to me speaking Spanish...
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