John Coulthart

While prowling about the internet in search of a suitable cover artist for the Dark Lantern Tales book series, I was frustrated that nearly every example of work I could find looked professional, well crafted, and so very much alike that a web page full of them would just turn into wallpaper.

No disrespect intended to the artists, but I wanted to have images that stood out from the crowd. I also wanted to work with a designer and artist who had some understanding of the artwork from the era in which the Dark Lantern Tales stories were originally published. 

Reading some blogs and looking over Steampunk novel covers, I kept seeing references to the British artist, John Coulthart. I located his web site and was immediately struck by the conceptual depth of his work, and by his skills. Further, Coulthart clearly is an advanced student of the wood and steel engravings of the nineteenth century. Wandering the galleries of his web site will reveal both breathtaking and disturbing visions; fantasy, horror, Steampunk, psychedelia, and especially his realization of HP Lovecraft’s visions.

I had nothing to lose by asking, so I sent him a note and described the direction of my publishing and my need for appropriate cover art. To my delight, he was interested in the project and has illustrated covers for each of the three series I am publishing. The brilliant cover for Old Marvel is more of his work. I also recommend John Coulthart’s feuilleton page, for further reading.

"The late Victorian visual world is the closest thing we have to a shared visual unconscious for the modern era."
— John Coulthart,

John Coulthart designed the cover art for all three Dark Lantern Tales book series — Joe Phenix, Gilded Age Detective Stories, and Steam-Age Crime Stories — as well as the standalone Old Marvel in the Holmes Collections. His blog and design archive doubled as foundational background reading for the whole project — the visual world the 1880s detective stories were originally printed into.

At a glance

Practice: Design, illustration, book covers

Based in: Manchester, UK

For DLT: Cover art on three series + Old Marvel

Blog: · running since ca. 2006

Website: johncoulthart.com

Influences: Beardsley · Symbolism · Art Nouveau