Savoy Books: The Crystal and the Amulet

		The Crystal and the Amulet James Cawthorn 1986 b/w graphic adaptation 313mm x 235mm Soft covers First publication 108pp ISBN 0 86130 070 X

James Cawthorn has a natural link with Mervyn Peake: both are masters of the Grotesque. Cawthorn's commitment, though, is to sui generis works of Sword & Sorcery and the maverick Fantasy of William Hope Hodgson and Robert E Howard. His stripped-down style is often seen as 'primitive' by critics, who display a lack of understanding of what energy and commitment it takes to reach the levels of intensity he often achieves. No other British artist has achieved such solidity and presence of atmosphere in a genre overburdened with lightweight decoration and saccharine imaginings. His characters have a flesh-and-blood reality and they move through tangible and believable landscapes and architecture. Readers of his Fantasy: The 100 Best Books (Xanadu Books, 1988, written wholly by Cawthorn despite being credited to Cawthorn and Moorcock), will find that his erudition and sophistication are self-evident and considerable.

Introduction by Burne Hogarth. The middle book of Savoy's planned trilogy of Dorian Hawkmoon adaptations which commenced with The Jewel in the Skull (1978). The Sword and the Runestaff is forthcoming.

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See also: James Cawthorn's pictures

"Jim Cawthorn and I have been inseparable for over twenty-five years, sometimes to the point where I can't remember which came first—the drawing or the story. It is his drawings of my characters which remain for me the most accurate, both in detail and in atmosphere. His interpretations in strip form will always be, for me, the best."

MICHAEL MOORCOCK

"There is a quality here that is most compelling and fascinating. Cawthorn has gone far beyond any of the existing fantasy interpretations of the cartoon heroics one finds in most book material today. He has reached a point of the unpredictable in his characterisations, his mood, his strange atmosphere and gross, brutal intensity... There is something of a crude power here—which disavows the matinee idol posturing in cliché assumptions of most vapid styles of Marvel Comics... Cawthorn has an authentic talent."

BURNE HOGARTH
Introduction to The Crystal and the Amulet

"Cawthorn has succeeded in giving substance to the stone, metal and flesh of this world... When the art starts to move, as in the battle scenes, the effect is stunning."

THE COMICS JOURNAL

"Heavy, dense lines, pages dark as woodcuts, the drawings unstiffen as one tunes in to their apt operatic grandeur. It's perfect for Moorcock's solemn nobles and diabolic villains, the epic moodiness lightened by sparkles of a surrealism whose main exponent is Max Ernst. I've often overlooked the previous volume...but this is about to be put right."

GIOVANNI DADOMO, Time Out

"Jim Cawthorn is the greatest living artist of epic fantasy. He brings to life in all their panoramic scope the visions of Michael Moorcock. No one can equal him in the portrayal of Moorcock's characters... The Crystal and the Amulet is not merely a graphic novel, it is a work of art."

BILL HARRY, Idols