Help me find a (not so) remembered image of a black bird..

June 3, 2009 1:31 AM

Can you help me find a vaguely remembered image of a raven, crow, or other black bird? I recall that the style was brush- or pen-and-ink-ey, maybe with some Steadman-esque ink drops about. The bird's wings were unfurled (mid-flight/attack) and it may or may not have had a single (red?) eye seen from the profile. It might have been an illustration in a book. It was a dark, haunting image and it's stuck on the tip of my tongue mind as a possible tattoo idea. Ring a bell?
posted by maniactown to media & arts (18 comments total)

Your description reminded me of this cover of Ian Bank's book "The Crow Road".
posted by rongorongo at 2:11 AM on June 3

FWIW, the most terrifying bird images close to your description that I can recall are in the "The Vulture" of the illustrated Kafka, Give it up. Can't seem to find any online scans of the climactic page.
posted by fatllama at 2:41 AM on June 3

Could it have been Leonard Baskin? (further examples)
posted by fire&wings at 3:16 AM on June 3

Maybe Nikki McClure. Her work isn't really dark, but it would certainly make a great tattoo.
posted by barnone at 4:26 AM on June 3

Damien: Omen II
posted by Joe Beese at 5:20 AM on June 3

Maybe Matthew, the Raven from the Sandman comic book/graphic novel.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:24 AM on June 3

Have you seen the Ralph Steadman-illustrated Animal Farm? There is a raven character who might have been illustrated the way you described.
posted by illenion at 5:52 AM on June 3

Have you read this? Haven't got it to hand but I do remember a very similar illustration inside.
posted by Dr.Pill at 6:21 AM on June 3

I've got this as one of my userpics at LJ. It's what your description reminded me of.

(I wish I could tell you more about it, but the icon came from this dude, so you might ask him where he got it from.)
posted by sperose at 6:57 AM on June 3

I feel I know exactly what you're talking about, but the only thing that comes to mind is this video.
posted by hermitosis at 6:58 AM on June 3

Do you ever watch Six Feet Under? They use a lot of rather haunting black bird imagery.
posted by telegraph at 7:03 AM on June 3

I think I've seen the exact same illustration and I'm wondering if it came from one of the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books. Here's a google image search result - I don't have time to go through all of them right now but maybe it's here? Or check the library?
posted by mygothlaundry at 7:12 AM on June 3

Maybe from the novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell?
posted by dhruva at 9:09 AM on June 3

barnone: "Maybe Nikki McClure. Her work isn't really dark, but it would certainly make a great tattoo."

I looove Nikki McClure and asked her about commissioning tattoo art once. She replied that it squicks her out to think of folks getting tattoos of her work. Of course nothing is stopping you from getting one done from existing art anyway, but the fact that she wouldn't like it is stopping *me* from doing it ... unfortunately, because her stuff would be really great as tattoos. Instead I just put it all over my walls.
posted by librarina at 9:19 AM on June 3

Huh, your description also reminded me of Matthew from Sandman.
posted by moonshine at 12:52 PM on June 3

Might it be the Leonard Baskin cover of Ted Hughes' Crow?
posted by Iridic at 1:42 PM on June 3

Great answers, but so far nothing quite right. The Omen II poster is sort of close, but in the image I'm thinking of the wings more more flattened out, with individual articulation of the feathers. It's definitely not Baskin, Nikki McClure, or from the Sandman comics. It might be from Scary Stories, Steadman's Animal Farm or the linked Poe anthology, but I'll need to take a trip to the library to browse through those. I don't think I've ever seen the illustrated Kafka work before, but it looks pretty interesting so I'll check it out, too.

Thanks for the help; it's incredibly frustrating to have the image just out of reach.
posted by maniactown at 2:24 PM on June 3

I'm probably way off, but Edward Gorey uses a few ravens in his illustrated stories.
posted by dreamphone at 1:45 AM on June 4