HISTORY, HAUNTINGS AND PEOPLE YOU SHOULD NOT TRUST

Brad McDevitt Stock Art – Historical Collection 1 takes history in the old pulp sense: warriors, shamans, gangsters, cultists, corpses and supernatural manifestations, with considerably less interest in parliamentary reform than in what has just emerged from the ritual circle.

The collection contains 25 distinct TIFF illustrations. No repeated colour versions, greyscale duplicates or alternative crops are apparent in the supplied contact sheet. Twenty-five files means twenty-five different pieces of artwork, which is pleasingly straightforward after some of the more variant-heavy collections.

Its range is broad. Ancient Egypt rubs shoulders with sinister Americana, folkloric horror, gothic mystery, historical fantasy and period crime. That makes it less suited to recreating one meticulously documented afternoon and rather better for publishers who produce adventures, sourcebooks, fiction and ’zines across several flavours of the past.

Use the pieces together or raid the collection over time. The Egyptian warrior does not have to meet the dapper gangster.

Though the gangster would probably try to sell him something.

THE CONTENTS

The supplied illustrations are:

• Egyptian Warrior

• Forest Discovery

• Gargoyle

• Moon Worshipper

• Innsmouth

• Amerindian Modern Shaman

• Sorcerous Circle

• Bloody Shakespeare Bust

• Seductive Blonde

• Tough Guy 1

• Tough Guy 2

• Tough Guy 3

• Haunted Japan

• Prophet

• Rogue Relaxing

• Warehouse Death

• Talismanic Shaman

• Fiery Phantasm

• Interrupted Cultists

• Dapper Gangster

• Lavinda

• Amazon

• Dire Wolf

• Dead Villager

• Frozen Peasant

The names above retain the substance of the original filenames while removing internal catalogue numbers and production suffixes.

They are useful labels, not fixed character biographies. A file called Prophet may become a priest, beggar, madman or inconveniently accurate old fellow in your own project. The artwork belongs in your setting once you have licensed it; the filename need not follow.

WARRIORS, ROGUES AND TOUGH CUSTOMERS

The Egyptian Warrior, Amazon, Rogue Relaxing and three Tough Guy portraits provide a useful collection of capable, dangerous or merely difficult people.

The Egyptian Warrior belongs naturally in ancient-world gaming, archaeological adventure, sword-and-sandal fantasy and tales involving tombs that have remained sealed for sound practical reasons. He could be a living soldier, ancestral vision, tomb guardian or illustration from a recovered chronicle.

The Amazon can serve as a warrior, champion, tribal fighter, mercenary or legendary figure. The filename places her within the broad tradition of formidable women from the edges of the known world, but her exact culture and period remain yours to supply.

Rogue Relaxing gives you something character art often neglects: a figure between acts of violence. He might be a thief, scout, outlaw, smuggler or adventurer enjoying the brief interval before somebody discovers what he has stolen.

The three Tough Guys are separate portraits rather than variants. They can become guards, criminals, mercenaries, sailors, veterans or supporting characters whose friendliness should be assessed only after checking the exits.

One can guard the door.

One can own the tavern.

One can insist he has never seen the first two before in his life.

A Games Master can get a surprising amount of mileage out of three unfriendly faces.

SHAMANS, PROPHETS AND THINGS DONE IN CIRCLES

The collection includes an Amerindian Modern Shaman, Talismanic Shaman, Prophet, Moon Worshipper and Sorcerous Circle.

The first filename is the artist’s original label. It identifies a broad Indigenous-American-inspired shamanic figure rather than a precisely documented nation, tradition or historical person. Publishers using the image in a specific cultural setting should provide their own properly researched context rather than assuming the filename has done that work for them.

The Talismanic Shaman offers another occult practitioner, this time with a more fantastical or ritual emphasis. Either shaman could be a healer, spirit-worker, adviser, antagonist or person forced to mediate between ordinary humanity and powers with little patience for it.

The Prophet can carry religion, revelation, warning or madness. Perhaps he is respected. Perhaps he is mocked. Perhaps people begin taking him seriously only after the first prediction arrives covered in blood.

Moon Worshipper could accompany a solitary devotee, nocturnal rite, forgotten faith or cult that measures time by a celestial body rather than the local calendar.

The Sorcerous Circle gives you a scene rather than a portrait. It may represent summoning, protection, divination, initiation or the aftermath of somebody discovering that a circle only works when completed correctly.

Together, these pieces are well suited to historical fantasy and occult horror. They provide practitioners, believers and ritual activity without forcing them into one invented magical system.

INTERRUPTED CULTISTS

Interrupted Cultists deserves particular attention because it begins with action already under way.

Somebody has found the cult during its ceremony. That immediately raises several useful questions:

Who interrupted them?

What were they doing?

Was the ritual being started or stopped?

Does barging into the room improve the situation?

Players tend to assume that robed people chanting around a symbol are the villains. Often they are. Occasionally they are the last thing preventing the actual villain from waking up.

The illustration can introduce a scenario, carry a chapter opening or provide the moment when an investigation turns into a fight. It also pairs readily with the Sorcerous Circle, Fiery Phantasm, Moon Worshipper or Prophet.

One cult scene and four possible explanations is better value than another generic man standing with a sword.

A GHOSTLY TOUR OF THE WORLD

The Gargoyle, Fiery Phantasm, Haunted Japan, Innsmouth and Dire Wolf take the collection firmly into supernatural territory.

The Gargoyle may be sculpture, guardian, demon or living creature. Put it on a cathedral, manor, tomb or museum roof. Let the characters notice that its position has changed. Deny everything.

The Fiery Phantasm can represent an apparition, elemental spirit, burning ghost or magical manifestation. It has enough visual force for a chapter opener, monster entry or major encounter rather than being confined to a decorative corner.

Haunted Japan offers period or folkloric horror with Japanese visual context. It can support a ghost story, supernatural visitation, cursed household or historical-fantasy scene. The filename is broad, so the precise era, creature and cultural meaning should come from the project using it rather than from guesswork.

The Innsmouth illustration belongs naturally to maritime horror, isolated communities and the tradition of ancient bloodlines deteriorating in damp coastal settlements. Use it directly for that sort of material or detach it from the name and make it your own fishing village, harbour or suspiciously moist congregation.

The Dire Wolf can remain an enormous natural predator or become a supernatural beast, shapeshifter, heraldic monster or companion to somebody with unusual ideas about responsible animal ownership.

This is historical stock art with one foot in folklore and the other in something unpleasant beneath the floorboards.

CORPSES, DISCOVERIES AND THE AFTERMATH

Four pieces deal directly with death or its discovery:

• Forest Discovery

• Warehouse Death

• Dead Villager

• Frozen Peasant

The Forest Discovery can begin almost any sort of historical mystery. A body, abandoned camp, ritual site or evidence of violence has been found somewhere isolated. The characters are either investigating, implicated or simply unfortunate enough to be nearest.

Warehouse Death shifts the setting into an urban or industrial space. It suits period crime, pulp investigation, smuggling, murder and stories involving valuable goods with an inconvenient human cost.

The Dead Villager is immediate and personal. A single dead inhabitant can represent murder, plague, war, monster attack or the first evidence that an apparently quiet settlement has a problem.

The Frozen Peasant adds weather, exposure and isolation. The figure might have died naturally, been abandoned, frozen by supernatural means or preserved long enough to reveal something nobody expected to survive.

Historical horror benefits from evidence that looks specific without dictating the whole solution. A corpse creates questions. The writer decides which answers are true and which were planted by somebody with a shovel.

SHAKESPEARE HAS HAD BETTER REVIEWS

The Bloody Shakespeare Bust is exactly the sort of peculiar object that earns its keep in a stock-art folder.

It could be:

• A murder weapon

• An occult artefact

• A theatrical prop

• Evidence discovered backstage

• The centrepiece of a literary cult

• A perfectly innocent bust positioned beside a spectacularly guilty person

It belongs in historical mystery, theatrical horror, gothic adventure or modern investigation involving old institutions and older grudges.

Perhaps the blood belongs to an actor.

Perhaps the bust itself inflicted the wound.

Perhaps someone has been arranging deaths according to the plays, in which case the investigators should hope the murderer does not reach Titus Andronicus.

Objects like this are useful because they are memorable. A generic dagger may be overlooked. A blood-covered Shakespeare tends to remain in the mind.

GANGSTERS, BLONDES AND A TOUCH OF PERIOD CRIME

The Dapper Gangster, Seductive Blonde and several Tough Guy portraits move the collection into pulp crime, noir and twentieth-century period adventure.

The gangster might be a mobster, bookmaker, club owner, fixer or gentleman who regards criminality as merely another form of business administration.

The Seductive Blonde could be a singer, spy, socialite, suspect, agent or classic femme-fatale figure. She need not be a villain; appearing glamorous in period fiction is not yet a criminal offence, though detectives frequently treat it as probable cause.

Add one or more Tough Guys and you have the beginnings of a nightclub, criminal organisation or private meeting from which somebody is unlikely to return.

These figures can support:

• Prohibition-era crime

• Noir investigation

• Pulp espionage

• Historical urban fantasy

• Gangster horror

• Period thrillers

The collection’s occult pieces can be folded into that material easily. A gangster financing a sorcerous circle is not remotely sensible, but organised crime has rarely suffered from excessive caution where profitable new markets are concerned.

LAVINDA

One portrait is supplied under the name Lavinda.

The filename gives her a name but no role, culture or period. That makes her one of the collection’s most flexible character pieces.

She could be:

• A village elder

• An occult practitioner

• A witness

• A servant

• A relative of the deceased

• A local authority

• Somebody who remembers what happened before everyone else agreed to forget

The temptation with stock-art filenames is to invent an elaborate official identity where none exists. There is no need. Lavinda provides a distinctive face; your project provides everything behind it.

That is the bargain stock art offers at its best.

A COLLECTION WITH RANGE

Historical Collection 1 does not attempt visual unity around one date or geographical location. It moves between ancient warriors, period crime, occult ritual, folkloric horror and ordinary people caught in ugly events.

That breadth makes it useful for:

• Historical role-playing games

• Pulp adventure

• Gothic and folk horror

• Historical fantasy

• Period crime

• Occult investigation

• Ancient-world adventure

• Weird history

• Supernatural ’zines and fiction

A single broadly historical campaign could use much of the collection, particularly one involving a secret society operating across generations.

More likely, the Egyptian Warrior will appear in one book, the gangster in another and the frozen peasant in an adventure written six months later when you remember you already own a perfectly suitable illustration.

Stock art is an art library, not a compulsory group portrait.

WHY PUBLISHERS BUY STOCK ART

Bespoke commissions are ideal when an image must show a particular character, costume, location or creature.

They are less economical when the manuscript simply needs a corpse, villager, rogue, cult scene or ominous old man.

That is where stock art earns its money.

This collection can be used for:

• Character portraits

• Encounter scenes

• Chapter openings

• Historical atmosphere

• Occult and supernatural incidents

• Crime scenes

• Supporting cast

• Bestiary entries

• Player handouts and visual clues

Twenty-five separate commissions would cost a substantial sum. Twenty-five ready-made TIFF illustrations allow a small publisher to put artwork throughout a book while reserving bespoke commissions for the cover and those images that genuinely need to match the text exactly.

It also removes a surprising quantity of layout procrastination.

The empty box labelled ART HERE has never improved through prolonged contemplation.

EXACT FILE BREAKDOWN

The collection contains:

• 25 TIFF files

• 25 distinct illustrations

• No duplicate colour or greyscale variants apparent in the contact sheet

• Three separate Tough Guy portraits

• One illustration for every listed filename

The filename extensions vary between .tif and .TIF, but all supplied artwork shown in the contact sheet is in TIFF format.

Some pieces may also appear in other Brad McDevitt collections where they suit more than one genre.

LICENCE

The artwork is supplied for personal and professional projects under the terms of the attached licence.

Read the licence before publication and check its requirements concerning credit, alteration and redistribution. The files are intended to be incorporated into finished products, not repackaged as raw stock art under a new folder name and an expression of wounded innocence.

Further characters, monsters and historical misfortunes can be found in the wider Brad McDevitt Stock Art range.

The cult has been interrupted.

The villager is dead.

The gargoyle has moved.

The manuscript, at least, is looking considerably healthier.