Customer Reviews

Brushfire: Illuminations from the Inferno

5 star:		(9)
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3 star:		(2)
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First off, Barlowe is an amazingly talented artist, and anything he does is worth owning.
Second, this book is an excellent continuation of "Inferno". If you do not own "Inferno", this can be read alone. However, the two are part of the same vision of Hell.
Third, while this book has slightly less content than "Inferno", it's still excellent. The artwork is inspired and haunting. The demons have an organic feel that makes them look real. They also have the remnants of their angelic heritage. Whereas "Inferno" is Barlowe's travels through Hell, focusing on people, places, and "beings", this book focuses on beings in the hierarchy of Hell, from officers to demons to fallen souls.

As my first thought, the point of view of Brushfire was much different from that of Inferno. This time it is written as if Barlowe were actually in Hell while painting his various subjects. Although this can be interesting, the perspective sometimes leaves out alot of information about the demons major and minor, focusing more on what he was thinking and what was happening around him at the time he was painting.
Brushfire mananages to have very visually rewarding illustrations. Pictures of "posing subjects" tend to be more photographic, while pictures outdoors are usually more like the ones from Inferno. However, I feel it could have incorporated more of the titanic scale so ubiquitous in Inferno. This effect gives Barlowe's Hell a very supernatural feel, one that separates his vision from that of other's.
As a humorous ending note, there is a little "insider joke" in the book. One of the pictures is of Morphaiis, a demon that Barlowe befriends on his visit to Hell. What makes it funny is that the painting is of James Cowan, Barlowe's friend and book publisher (who just happens to work for Morpheus International.

Artist Wayne Barlowe is simply brilliant. With this book and its predecessor, INFERNO, Barlowe gives illustration to that most dreaded place still to linger in the minds and consciences of many a man and woman: Hell.

Barlowe's literally tortured landscape is one of the few truly original and imaginative renderings of the Demonic realm that I've seen or read in quite a while.

Barlowe's Inferno with its demonic overlords, ruling from citadels built with the crushed souls of condemned humanity over a dimension of pain and humiliation is repugnant yet fascinating.

But please do not let the title heading fool you. Of course Mr. Barlowe's work is brilliantly creepy (in this respect). In fact, with this book, there are more creatures in addition to his previous Inferno book which gives his hellish world more life but my disappointment lies with the fact that it is very short in comparison to his former work.

And that's not a bad thing, in the least. Some of the images simply took my breath away, more so than those in Inferno. Hannibal and his army of souls still has be picking up the book just to see it again. The text that accompanies the artwork is nice as well. It answers some questions that Inferno left us with and gives more of the lush inferno of hell while expanding it with the sketchily outlined events of a rebellion and war. While I believe this book could stand on it's own, it truly seems to shine as a companion to inferno. Indeed, inferno itself seems much more coherent after having read/viewed Brushfire.

Beautiful, Interesting and Haunting. Really makes you think about the bad side of judeo christian beliefs.

As the title of my review says, the artwork by Barlowe is amazing, but Brushfire fails to deliver in the presentation. At least his art isn't in black & white like some art books, but the generic textured background is thoughtless and amateur. The single most irritating aspect of this folio is that some of the art falls across the spine. Although I am somewhat disappointed, I'm happy to finally have some of Barlowe's work in my small library.

A wonderful first step into Barlowe's Inferno series. Gorgeous landscapes, magnificent portraits of patrons within this light narrative of hell's denizens. A recommended read for art students or film design majors that care to peek at some of the alternative modern art set within the pit.

I received the print book awhile back and it is beautiful and lingering and disturbing all in the same sentence (as others have mentioned). One of the ideas that stuck with me from 'Barlowe's Inferno' was the integration of orbs in the bodies of the damned. The 'soul puppeteers' in 'Brushfire' seem to be something of a different facet of this. Their purpose is more to corrupt and destroy the soul than to cause physical pain. But the hierarchy and dark purpose of Hell is so fully realized in these works, and it is so beautifully represented in an unforgiving manner - I am happy with this purchase beyond measure.

C.

This is perfect, it will help you understand who the author is mentioning in his book.