Check this out, from possibly my favourite illustrator ever, the masterful Gustave Dore:

The caption is (what else?) The Gnarled Monster. In retrospect, like so much of the art I’ve found in the Monster Archives since the monsters kidnapped me, you can clearly see that Dore intended this piece metaphorically.

The geezer in the pointy hat quite obviously represents the author or other creative artist. He is depicted here approaching the subject of monsters, as represented by the rooty-tentacled, giant-sheep-skull fellow (or “Geoff” as we captives have more accurately come to know him).

You can see in the knight’s stance that he is laughably overconfident – cheeky, even. The poor sap has no knowledge whatever of the inevitable grim consequence of treating monsters badly in his stories. But, in the bottom right hand corner, there it is: his future fate as an author imprisoned, trapped by monsters, shut in a dark cave and kept away from natural light until his eyes take on the milky white glow of some ghastly undersea creature.

Before this January I just thought this was a cool illustration. I type this post from the bottom of my hole, a sadder and wiser man. ;p

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