Painting Frozen Hell

We are pleased to announce when the store will be open!

‘Frozen Hell’ by John W. Campbell ; the books will be available for pre-order from: 5 pm BST on Saturday 12th August at https://www.arete-editions.com

The web site is now open where you can peruse each edition.

This is a painting Greg did for a new part of FROZEN HELL that was only talked about in ‘Who Goes There’ but in the found novel of the story it is part of the narrative opening chapters:

“The thunder of the vast plume of steam bellowing through the growing pit was whipped away by the wind as the men threw themselves flat on the ice. A sky-shaking roar thrust fifty-foot blocks of ice into the air, freeing an incandescent, growing lake of molten, blazing metal.”

…

“The wavering curtains of the aurora overhead jerked suddenly, spiraled in a mad vortex of shimmering light, and beat down a savage stalk to the incandescent fury. From the mountain, from the ice, vast angry tongues of lightning crashed against the molten pool. Lesser lightnings darted from the tractor, from the steel treads to the ice.”…

This is a spectacular, colourful, image! It explodes when you open up the four-page plate. Greg’s composition didn’t actually change too much, but his finding of the colours and brightness was really found in the oil paint.

Checking that we have 30 sketches from Greg ready for window mounting and included in the portfolio of the Roman Edition of FROZEN HELL, we have enough! Some are more elaborate and some are larger, all amazing! They will go out at random…

Here’s a little clip of Rich Tong checking the Roman Edition, you can get a sense of the size of the book! The scale of the immersive experience of the oversized book gives you an idea of the huge colour plates waiting inside.

We present to you the Roman Edition of FROZEN HELL! So excited to reveal this extraordinary book, two years in the making, huge in scale, the fold flat plates, a couple are four-page foldouts, that open to nearly a metre in length! Almost the same size as the original paintings and the largest possible print size for the paper we are using. We really wanted to have a feeling of the books that were made for Fine artists a hundred years ago but using contemporary illustrators. Each book comes with a window mounted drawing that Greg used to create the artwork.

ROMAN EDITION

The Roman edition is limited to 30 copies for sale and is half-bradel bound in white Harmatan ‘Katsina’ goatskin leather with multiple cut-outs to the front board.

The ice cave structure on the front board of this huge edition is created with multiple layers of thin binder’s board hand cut and laminated together. The leather is then painstakingly moulded and formed by hand until the layers reveal themselves. Once the leather is set, the inside of the ice cave is carefully foil blocked in two colours. Both the front and back boards for this edition are around 10mm thick which creates a considerable and weighty book.

All of the plates are tabbed or sewn in, allowing the double, treble and quad plates to open out without a stitched gutter.

The endpapers for this edition are an original, hand marbled design by Freya Scott of Paperwilds.

The book comes housed in a half-bradel bound solander box, also covered with Harmatan ‘Katsina’ goatskin leather. The front board is split to create a crevasse in which the buried flying saucer lies. The saucer is foil blocked in three colours and the edges of the crevasse are hand cut from board before the leather is applied and then carefully moulded around the jagged edges. On the spine is a silk paper label, foil blocked in two colours. The solander box trays are double thickness and are covered in white Colorado cloth and lined with white suede and white leather. The large tray contains a foil blocked silhouette of the ‘thing’. Inside the small tray, under the book, is a cloth bound portfolio with a three-sided pocket containing an original, mounted sketch by Greg Manchess.

Binding is by Richard Tong and Sam Cartwright at Lyra’s Books/Ludlow Bookbinders.

You can see videos of how this edition is created HERE: https://arete-editions-blog.com/frozen-hell-roman-edition/

Printed letterpress in two colours by Phil Abel and Robert Hetherington on a

Heidelberg cylinder press at Hand & Eye Editions.

Set in metal monotype Baskerville 12pt.

Cast by Nick Gill at Effra Press.

The paper is Magnani Pescia 160 gsm

Trimmed page size –260mm x 390mm / 10.25in x 15.35in.

Page count – 166

Number of illustrations – 16 colour plates, 2 four-page foldouts, 4 double page spreads and 1 three-page foldout plate.

13 black and white relief printed illustrations.

Signed by the artist Greg Manchess.

Limitation – 40 copies of which 30 are for sale and 10 Hors de Commerce

Price: £2950

ESTIMATED PUBLICATION Spring 2024

Following on from the and last clip in a previous post, where Rich Tong cuts the card to create the sculptured cover of the book FROZEN HELL, here he is molding the goatskin leather into the shapes and foil blocking the running man. I find this both mesmerising and in awe at the skill as he sculpts the cover!

See the full film here: https://arete-editions-blog.com/frozen-hell-roman-edition/

Photos of the numbered edition! This has been a long time coming, a two-year project that was way more complex than we thought, the interior with plates sewn in and tabbed in the sections, the scale of the Roman edition! The availability of materials, closing down of paper makers, all have contributed to the delays. We’re really pleased with the results, even if I say myself, it has turned out to be an extraordinary book!

Here’s a bibliophile’s description of the Numbered Edition:

The numbered edition is limited to 300 copies for sale and is fully bound in baby blue lambskin nappa which is soft and smooth to the touch. The leather is blocked in four passes, in white and black pigment foil creating a snowstorm design across the front and back boards, with the title on the spine.

The cover is a square spine structure with a wide groove between spine and boards, allowing the covers to open more freely.

All of the plates are tabbed or sewn in, allowing the double, treble and quad plates to open out without a stitched gutter.

The book is housed in a sturdy, white suede lined slipcase and is covered in a light blue/grey Windsor cloth with the ‘thing’ silhouette foil blocked to the front.

Binding is by Richard Tong and Sam Cartwright at Lyra’s Books/Ludlow Bookbinders.

Printed letterpress in two colours by Phil Abel and Robert Hetherington on a Heidelberg cylinder press at Hand & Eye Editions.

Set in metal monotype Baskerville 12pt.

Cast by Nick Gill at Effra Press.

The paper is Liber Charta 170gsm

Trimmed page size –200mm x 300mm / 7.9 in x 11.8 in

Page count – 166

Number of illustrations – 16 colour plates, 2 four-page foldouts, 4 double page spreads and 1 three-page foldout plate.

13 black and white relief printed illustrations.

Signed by the artist Greg Manchess

Limitation – 320 copies of which 300 are for sale and 20 Hors de Commerce

Price: £585

You can view a video of the making of the numbered edition here.