Leo & Diane Dillon: A Gallery of Gods & Heroes
I was paging through a book called Classical Greece by C. M. Bowra, published by Time-Life in 1965, and amongst its gray photos of ruins, instructive but dull maps and timelines, I found a four-page spread with a couple dozen beautifully colored illustrations of the Olympian family of gods and mythological heroes. The tiny vignettes were as vivid as the stained-glass windows in a dark church, and their style - flat, abstract - seemed very familiar somehow.
The last illustration in the series confirmed my suspicion - Jason and his comrades aboard the "Argo," the vessel aloft turqouise crests tumbling over Poseidon's shoulders - and beneath the curve of a wave, a signature: Leo and Diane Dillon.
I had seen many of their picture books and was especially familiar with - and fond of - their covers and illustrations for the science-fiction field, in particular Harlan Ellison's original Dangerous Visions anthology. That book's psychedelic green and black dustjacket, and the dark, abstract woodcuts prefacing each of the stories inside, are not the kind of imagery you'd expect to see accompanying modern genre material - even works as subversive and strange as those gathered for that volume.
The Dillons' art is subtly malleable; they utilize several mediums (wood relief, fabric, traditional paint) and their style bears many influences (mosaics, folk art, art nouveau) but it remains, strangely, almost instantly identifiable as their own. This is even more remarkable and rare when you consider that their output is a collaboration between two individuals.
The scans here are approximately twice as big as the printed images; the flat colors are a little "dotty" as a result, but I think the extra detail in the linework is worth it. The originals are also fairly dark - especialy the figures - so I've brightened these just a touch - no more than 5%.
ARTEMIS
ZEUS
APHRODITE
APOLLO
ATHENA
HERA
ARES
POSEIDON
DEMETER
HEPHAESTUS
DIONYSUS
HERMES
OEDIPUS
IO
HERACLES
PERSEUS
DEUCALION & PYRRHA
CADMUS
BELLEROPHON
THESEUS
EUROPA
THE HEROES AT TROY
ATALANTA
JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS