(++++) MARVELS AND MONSTERS

Mythic World: Color Timeless Legends. By Kerby Rosanes. Plume. $15.

     Kerby Rosanes’ fascinatingly intricate drawings seem perfectly suited to the illustration of myths of all types, in light of those tales’ surface simplicity with underlying complexity, and all the psychological underpinnings that led Carl Jung, among others, to speak of a “collective unconscious.” Mythic World is one of Rosanes’ wonderfully conceived adult coloring books, to be sure, but there is more to it than the chance to color exceptionally detailed and fascinatingly rendered characters out of legends from all over the world. The book really makes those legends come alive – even for those who may not feel like adding color to Rosanes’ art and would just as soon enjoy it in black-and-white.

     Rosanes hopscotches the world for the subjects of his illustrations, and provides at the back of the book a brief explanation of what is shown on every page (with one unfortunate omission: the explanations refer to page numbers, but the book has none). What is remarkable here is the mixture of better-known and less-known myths, and the way Rosanes offers new perspectives even on the most-familiar ones. The story of Atlas bearing the world on his shoulders, for example, is as well-known as can be, but Rosanes’ illustration is very unusual. He shows Atlas’ legs emerging from what appears to be a mountain of which they and he are a part; and the Titan is standing amid broken columns, apparently the ruins of a great Greek temple; and instead of the traditional globe atop his shoulders, Rosanes’ Atlas carries an open-work sphere out of which animals of all sorts, real-world and imaginary, are emerging. For colorists, this creates a whole set of challenges in differentiating the portions of the drawing; but even those not inclined to color the art will find a great deal to study, absorb and marvel at here.

     Similarly striking is Rosanes’ portrait of Thor, his legs emerging from the rocks on either side of a river, his hammer Mjöllnir raised aloft as if to strike again to widen the valley he has just created with a mighty blow.

     Most of the pages in Mythic World focus on creatures, gods and other beings far less familiar than Atlas and Thor. And again, Rosanes’ depictions of them excel in their detail and impress in their illustrative prowess. One of the wild monkey spirits of Japan, the sarugami, is depicted looming over the famous Matsumoto Castle as a samurai swordsman stands in front of the building in what appears to be a hopeless challenge. For another Japanese legend, Rosanes shows a gigantic, vaguely turtle-like kappa, its head holding the traditional pool of water associated with these water spirits, and with a complete island and landscape growing from its back – it is a Rosanes trademark to show creatures merging with and/or creating the natural environment in which they are believed to live.

     The expressiveness that Rosanes brings to these mythic beings is a constant source of amazement. The Russian witch Baba Yaga, who lives in the famous hut on fowl’s legs, emerges from or into a woodland scene, bearing a skull and leering a grin filled with too many teeth. The Scandinavian tree spirit known as the askafroa blends into the ash tree she inhabits and looks out on the world with an intense, menacing expression. The bloodthirsty, nine-tailed fox spirit of Korea, the kumiho, seems gently to caress the skull she holds, which she has presumably taken from one of the graveyards that she prowls in search of human hearts. One of the Japanese whale spirits called bake-kujira is seen with a realistic-looking whale head but an entirely skeletal body, swimming and leaping while accompanied by bizarre, toothy, birdlike fish and fishlike birds.

     Mythic World is an unending series of wonders, page after page, whether Rosanes is depicting the griffin or moirai (fates) of Greek mythology, the trolls of Iceland or the landvættir that protect the nation, the giant scorpion men (aqrabuamelu) of Babylon, or the life-creating rainbow serpent of Australian Aboriginal mythology. Many readers will find that it is more than enough simply to return to this book again and again to read and re-read the brief summations of legends and absorb the skill with which Rosanes illustrates them. Others will prefer to accept the book’s official purpose by bringing color to all the places and creatures that Rosanes so adeptly renders in black-and-white. Color would certainly add a new element to Mythic World, and the detail of the drawings means colorists can spend many, many hours adding hues to the book’s pages. But anyone simply wanting to marvel at the skill with which Rosanes breathes new life into old mythic tales can do that by simply sitting with the book for a while and absorbing the details so skillfully rendered on all its pages.