Biography of bromine

But since then, this famous artist managed to make a lot-for example, to write and release several books with his own illustrations or to work on the concept art to Diablo 3. Today we are talking with Brom about terrible fairy tales, about the drawn monsters and what he is afraid of. About the artist Gerald Brom who prefers to be called just Brom Born in the year in Albani, Georgia.

As a child, he traveled around the world with his father-Vanny. Brom did not attend art school, but drew from childhood and at twenty years old he became a professional artist. Four years later, Broma was noticed by TSR, which has been engaged in role -playing games, and since then its career has been inextricably linked with science fiction. Brom worked on collectible card games and comics - including for Dark Horse and DS Comics.

He created a concept art for the films “Sleepy Hollow”, “Skubi-Do”, “Van Helsing” and computer games-gamers should thank him for the design of games from the DOOM and Diablo series. Brom is not only an artist, but also a writer: he released four books with his own illustrations. Each of these books is a gloomy and exciting phantasmagoria, to match the paintings of Brom. At the Convention of Fantasy Artists, Brom was awarded the title of Grandmaster.

As the inscription reads on the artist’s official website, “at the moment, Brome lives in a cheese basement somewhere in the dank northwest. There, he feeds with poisonous spiders, pollowers and watches bad Asian films. In between eating Zhukov, Brom writes, draws and tries to achieve harmony with numerous demons who dance in his head. " In the year you published the book "Krampus, the owner of the Christmas." Can you tell a little about her?

Krampus is a Christmas demon, the legends of which are rooted in pagan times. My wife told me about him. At that time, I had no idea what kind of guy it was, but then I found out that he was used to put naughty kids in a bag, beat and throw it into the river, and if they are completely naughty, he prepares them and eats them, and I immediately fell in love with it. Then I began to delve into his story, found out that he was the predecessor of Santa Claus, and thought: what if this type crawls into the light and demands his holiday back?

So this book was born. Why did you make the main characters of the characters who are usually considered negative? It seems to me that there are no bad and good heroes in books. When you write a book, you think about the motivations of characters and understand that almost no hero considers himself evil. Since I wrote a book mainly on behalf of a “bad guy”, I well imagined what desires he had and who prevents him from fulfilling them.

Do you celebrate Christmas or Yol at home? We celebrate both holidays at once - with a small admixture of Halloween. The similarity is what I already said: I like to tell stories from the point of view of monsters, to understand their desires and aspirations. In the "Chitter of the Children", although this is the retelling of "Peter Pan", Peter himself appears as a charming madman.

But as soon as you get acquainted with him, you understand why he became what he became, and imbued with him sympathy. I think that there are more similarities between my books than differences, because I am everywhere attracted by the dark side of literature. You wrote that the “kidnapper of children” was born thanks to some alarming episodes in James Barry's book about Peter Pan - for example, to those where the boys, I do not think, commit murders.

Are there other children's books in which you can find similar alarming moments? There are more than it seems. The tales of the brothers Grimm and the like are not in vain called instructive - they were conceived to scare children. Take at least fairy tales about Jenny's green teeth, a water frame that will drag you to the bottom and eat you if you pass by her swamp.

This fairy tale was supposed to intimidate the guys so that they would not go near the rivers and swamps and drown. So fairy tales that can be retold an again, an infinite number. Jack, along with other forgotten and discarded toys, gather dust in a gloomy land.

But when the evil spirit of the plucer penetrates this world, Jack has to defend the same boy who once abandoned him. The main character is depicted here - Jack from the box. Do you plan to take any of these fairy tales in the near future and write a new book on its basis? May be. But this has already become a trend in cinema and literature - to take old tales and make them topical.

My inner muse wants something more individual. So now I am working on a new book project, where I will try to invent my own mythology from scratch. Is it somehow connected with your recently released artbook? No, nothing. These are completely different projects, but it can also happen that the picture or two from the artbook will be in the book. In your books, the main characters often fall into trouble when they are drawn into drug trafficking.Do you want to show your readers in this way that this is the wrong path that cannot bring to good?

Many people see in my books a variety of motives - related to politics, drugs, ecology and so on. But when writing a book, none of this interests me. I want to come up with a story. An exciting, interesting story. And I want to tell her honestly. Therefore, if any actions are logical for the characters, I insert them into the plot. You write books and draw covers to them yourself.

But it does not seem to you that if you place the portraits of the main characters on the covers, then it limits the reader's fantasy to some extent? I grew up on books with illustrations. Although I had my own vision of the heroes in my head, I liked to watch how someone else saw them. You can consider this a tricky trick or a unique ability - what I write and draw at the same time, create my characters twice, like a writer and as an artist.

This gives me a lot of pleasure, because in childhood I did the same. I hope this pleasure is transferred to readers. In all your works, supernatural plays a large role. Have you ever encountered inexplicable phenomena? I am very superstitious. I'm afraid everything in the world. I'm afraid of all religions - and that is why I believe each of them. We once lived in Elhorn, Visconsin, and there we rumored about the beast from Bray Road-either a werewolf or Yeti.

And I almost went crazy there. Every evening, when I took out the garbage, it seemed to me that this type was waiting for me in the bushes. But my own imagination can itself generate nightmares. He said it so everyday, as if describing just a setting of the festive table. ” At the Spectrum Convention, you led a seminar dedicated to Horror. What do you prefer in terrible stories: Saspens, violence or a mixture of both?

I think there are a lot of wonderful ways to escalate horror. I like the approach of Del Toro, when from the very beginning we are awakened by sympathy for the monster, but at the same time I love stories about mysterious creatures, which we gradually learn more and more. Stories in which the monsters really scare. How free were you in your work? Did Blizzard ask any framework?

It was an excellent experience. The illustrator’s life is sometimes painful, and in order not to lose interest in the profession, this must be broken. It’s good to work on your own projects, where you have full control over what is happening, but sometimes you have to work in the team. For the past eight years, I have been engaged in my two books, and after that spend a whole year in the studio side by side with other artists was a great pleasure for me.

Their imagination nourished me, and I was very glad of the opportunity to breathe life into the incredibly terrible monsters that they came up with. Before you started work, you were asked to play in the previous parts of Diablo? In general, can you call yourself a gamer? When I was younger, I spent a lot of time for games, and I am a big fan of everything that Blizzard is doing.

In this case, I was really asked to play. It was great to see how monsters interact on the screen. It helped me when I began to draw them. In addition, they gave me to get acquainted with the background of all these monsters. I studied tons of concept art and saw how they changed over time. All this inspired me very much. Perhaps this is Diablo. My wife even hid this game from me because she distracted me too much from work.

And finally - tell me, what advice would you give to beginner artists? Usually I advise them not to eat paint, but now everyone is working on a computer, so this advice is unlikely to come in handy.