When I was about 7 or 8, I saw the cover of Clive Barker’s “The Thief of Always” in my Scholastic Reading Club pamphlet and I knew I had to have it. However, my parents weren’t so keen on letting me read something like that, so they declined all my pleas. They’d heard of Clive Barker before, so the thought of letting their prepubescent child read something from “…the future of horror” was far more than they were willing to allow, no matter how enthusiastic I was to read an actual book and not play a video game.
So what did I do? I saved up the lunch money they gave me and starved for a week so that I could order it behind their backs. Yes, I realize the irony of me essentially stealing from my parents for a book called “The Thief of Always“, but I was young and stupid and I knew what I wanted. By the way, when I tell that story now, my father pats me on the back because he’s proud that I used the money for a book and not for a video game or something like that. Yes, I played a LOT of video games at that age.
Upon receiving the book, I devoured it, for lack of a better term. I honestly couldn’t put it down. The opening line alone had me hook, line, and sinker. Without even checking online, I’m going to write it here verbatim, because that’s how many times I’ve read it: “The great gray beast February had eaten Harvey Swick alive.”
What a wonderful line! What an engrossing and hypnotic series of words! Right away, I knew that I was in store for something special, something unique. Here was a book where even the months of the year had the ability to act as threats, where they could become personified into voracious creatures intent on ending the lives of children.
As I read through the book, eagerly soaking in every word, every detail, I remember turning a page and coming face-to-face with an illustration from author Clive Barker himself. At the time, I didn’t pay much attention to pictures in books. I was more interested in the rhythm and canter of language. But something about Barker’s almost scratchy black-and-white images were just as engrossing as the story itself. I would spend several minutes looking at each of Barker’s creations, tracing the lines with my eyes and relishing the uneasiness that they sent coursing through my body.
To this day, “The Thief of Always” remains one of my favorite novels and one that I read at least once a year. And every time I do, I look at those drawings and I appreciate them as much as I did the first time I laid my eyes upon them.
Having essentially just gushed over the book and the drawings, I feel it’s only appropriate to show you some of the art from the book so that you can get a taste of them for yourself. All images come courtesy of CliveBarker.info
