On The Buses Lookin-in Magazine Art :: My Comic Art

Monster Club Genealogy Chart Preliminary Art

Artist: John Bolton (All)

6 Comments - 2,915 Views - 4 Likes

Monster Club Genealogy Chart Preliminary Art Comic Art

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Additional Images:

Warewolf

Vampire

Original Monster Club Quad Poster

Original (1981) Monster Club Genealogy Chart Aussie Daybill

John Bolton's Monster Club Script

The ultra-rare 1980 Monster Club Promo Magazine ( run of 1000)

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Artwork Details

Title:	Monster Club Genealogy Chart Preliminary Art
Artist:	John Bolton (All)
Media Type:	Mixed Media
Art Type:	Other
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	2,915
Likes on CAF:	4 5
Comments:	6
Added to Site:	11/18/2020
Comic Art Archive:

Description

Featured is the original preliminary art for the 1981 cult Amicus-style horror classic. The Monster Club. The pages were sketched by artist John Bolton after visiting the the film set and discussing with makers ideas. He then used these drawing as reference to finalise the Monster Genealogy Chart back at his studio. And in The film the Monster Genealogy Chart is visible in the scene where we see Vampire Erasmus talk to writer Chetwynd-Hayes at a table in the Monster Club bar area, who after pleasantries explains the various strains & backstories of the Monsters that featured on the poster.

(See the actual photo of John Bolton working on the art in question. It was kindly provided to me by John's wife Liliana.)

History of how I obtained these. They were sourced from John's wife/business manager Liliana Bolton over a six month period directly from the John Bolton studio. They were rediscovered by her in his archive after I purchased my first piece of Bolton art.

Each page featured measures 17x14cm and show subtle differences to the final images used of the chart. An example is the Hum-Ghoul called Luna (played by actress Lesley Dunlop) in the preliminary art her mouth shape is different to the final chart image in which we see her smile. And other monsters drafted show slight changes too, with some identical to the final genealogy chart Monster images. I find it fascinating to see their development.

And out of the 14 images drafted only two never made the final cut. I've isolated them at the top of the photo. And since I sourced the pages, all have subsequently been inscribed in pencil by the great man himself John Bolton. Both John & Liliana Bolton are the most kind & generous people I've had the pleasure to deal with.

Update: Info about the newly added images:

My original 1981 30x40 British Monster Club Quad poster. It's currently in storage (located in my large storage clip frame) pending final framing.

An original John Bolton owned Monster Club script that was given to him by makers of the film. It was generously gifted to me both Liliana & John Bolton after she found it in his archive and kindly sent it to me with a lovely note.

Also, featured is my Australian day bill film poster that featured John Bolton's preliminary art monsters. And for some reason only 9 out of the 12 Monsters feature, but this likely down to the standardised size of their day bill posters, being around 14x30 ins.

And finally. My ultra-rare Monster Club promo magazine. It was released by the late American writer & producer Milton Subotski for the 1980 Cannes Film Festival to promote the premise of the Monster Club film to possible investors. The magazine itself only had a print run of 1000 issues and is as rare as hen's teeth. And in 2018 due to a call by fans made a reprint of the magazine which was signed & numbered by the great Dez Skinn limited to only 100 copies in the world, which I also have in my possession.

PS. Thought I'd add two additional prelim art images, Werewolf & Vampire, to show them up close. The combined images above featuring all the monsters I find are a little pixelated and hard to see their true detail.

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About the Owner

	Richard Davies
Joined:	February 2019
Last Login:	September 2025
Country:	UNITED KINGDOM
On CAF:	Artworks Commented On Liked Art Site Activity on CAF

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Comments on this Artwork

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Malcolm Bourne
Member Since 2005

1 - Posted on 11/18/2020

that guy with the pipe is truly frightening!

Richard Davies
Member Since 2019

Posted on 11/18/2020

Malcolm Bourne wrote:

that guy with the pipe is truly frightening!

Yeah, the photo of Mr Bolton in deep thought is very evocative. It takes a vivid imagination to create such wonderful monsters, :)

Adam O.
Member Since 2018

1 - Posted on 3/7/2021

What a treasure! I'm a sucker for most horror anthologies, but this is one of my favourites. Amazing. I wonder where the finished piece now resides.

Richard Davies
Member Since 2019

Posted on 2/7/2022

Adam O. wrote:

What a treasure! I'm a sucker for most horror anthologies, but this is one of my favourites. Amazing. I wonder where the finished piece now resides.

Thanks again Adam for the comment left. As first mentioned in my initial reply to your comment before I updated my message today to included further information, and for the benefit of new viewers to this page, was told by John's wife & business manger Liliana that the finished peice was sold to a very lucky collector in America. And since my first reply to you, now own eight John Bolton Monster Club pages on board that first appeared first in the very rare 1980 Monster Club promo magazine (uploaded on my page for all to see) that was produced to promote the film at the Cannes film festival to would-be investors, which later appeared in the classic 1983 Hammer Halls of Horror magazine which info you are no doubt already familiar with.

Also since then, have also sourced since the actual Monster Genealogy Chart preliminary art done for the 1981 Monster Club film. And I even have John Bolton's personally owned Monster Club film script given to him by the makers of the movie that was gifted to me, including his multi-signed slipcase book limited to 26 copies in the world called: 'Gaslight, Ghosts and Ghouls. A Centenary Celebration R. Chetwynd-Hayes' that was given to him by the publishers which is now out of print.

Abraham Martinez
Member Since 2014

1 - Posted on 10/19/2022

This is awesome, I love this movie. I was watching it today and decided to look up who did the art for the movie and came across this.

Richard Davies
Member Since 2019

Posted on 10/19/2022

Abraham Martinez wrote:

This is awesome, I love this movie. I was watching it today and decided to look up who did the art for the movie and came across this.

Thanks for the comment friend. Yeah, I love the film too. Big fan of horror compendiums me, especially Amicus. So lucky to own the art. 😎

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