The Darkening Garden: A Short Lexicon of Horror, by John Clute, was Payseur & Schmidt's second big release, right after Mecca|Mettle. It is an incredibly in-depth and intelligent exploration of the fundamental motifs of modern horror literature layed out with Clute's always-entertaining verbal dexterity.

I acted as art director and designer for this project. Since the work was non-fiction and scholarly, I wanted to make sure that the end product would be as hip and desirable to all audiences, and not just get stuck in with all those other mostly-boring scholarly genre works. Especially because Clute is such an entertaining and really, important, writer.

I decided that it would be exciting to cajole and persuade 30 different illustrators to create images for each of the motifs discussed in the volume. I came up with the initial list, which was for the most part artists within either the rock poster, alternative comics, or "low-brow" art communities (only one true genre illustrator - Jason Van Hollander - contributed to the project). I sent out the ask to each of the illustrators and it was first come, first served. The illustrators picked whichever motif they wanted. There were only a handful of artists that declined, and I found more than enough talented illustrators to fill in. Each illustrator received the text for the specific motif that was chosen, and a final illustration size - that was it. What they came up with was entirely their own choice.

I decided on a small hardcover format, with an arresting image from Jason Van Hollander stamped in grey ink on the cover and the artist names stamped on the back. Instead of a dust jacket, the book featured a screen-printed sash with art by Adam Grano. 500 copies were printed, signed and numbered by the author.

Learn more about The Darkening Garden (and purchase a copy!) at the Payseur & Schmidt website.