One of the most well-known and most straightforward examples is “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” by William Carlos Williams, after the painting of the same name for another perspective, W.H. It’s not so much about exact reproduction of the original work as it is the celebration of it, and the reconstitution of its spirit into a new form. De Rico’s vivid, massively detailed illustrations and the gruesome morality of the story have given the book an enduring popularity over the years-so much so that it inspired two separate concept albums, almost forty years apart.Īdaptation is the term most often used for translating a work of art from one medium to another, but in poetry this is called ekphrasis. Originally published in 1978, it tells the story of a nefarious group of goblins on a quest to catch a rainbow and drink its colors, only to drown in their would-be meal in the end.

The goblins lived on colour - they prowled the valleys and climbed the highest mountains looking for rainbows, and when they found one, they caught it in their lassoes, sucked the colours out of it and filled their bellies with its bright liquid.One of my favorite books as a child was The Rainbow Goblins by Italian artist Ul de Rico. Yellow, being the craftiest, was their chief. They were called the Rainbow Goblins and each had his own colour, which was also his name: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. ' Once there was a land that lived in fear of seven goblins. The goblins are thwarted by the flowers- who help the rainbows by drowning the goblins in colors, and then are turned into beautiful birds. It is a magical (and slightly creepy) story about goblins that capture rainbows and suck all the color out of them. One of my favorites is a book called 'The Rainbow Goblins'. I brought a handful of them to Los Angeles with me, and it is such a trip rereading them! These are all stories that I read a thousand times (a thousand years ago), and some of the illustrations spark my memory in such a way that I swear I am 7 years old again! When I was visiting my folks, my dad had me go through a box of my old children's books (he's been very patient in saving them for me.I insist that one day I'll want them all back!).

The rainbow goblins book