Dave, thank you for taking the time to answer some questions about your illustrations and design in general, but also for the band Ghost. Since English is not my first language, have please some mercy on me. 🙂

Thank you for contacting me and preparing such excellent questions in advance.  I apologize that this took me longer than anticipated…so I appreciate you bearing with me.

If you feel a question is inappropriate or too personal, please just leave it out. I know that the band is also very cautious with information. Thank you!

All good.

First of all, I want to congratulate you on the great design for Ghost’s new single „Hunters Moon“. The colors are terrific! 

Thank you! That was a fun and new favorite of mine as well since it was a tie-in with the Halloween film franchise.

Would you call yourself a Ghost fan and do you attend to concerts?

Yes, I am a ‘dyed in the wool’ Ghost fan and have enjoyed them since their inception/demo era through and including the new song Hunter’s Moon.

For context, please let me indulge this question a bit deeper.  I first discovered Ghost online via the demo making the rounds online and the buzz surrounding this new mysterious group.  Once Fenriz from the band Darkthrone anointed them the ‘Band of The Week’ on his blog, I looked forward to an LP. 

The mystery of Ghost for me and many others in those early years grabbed ahold like no other band at the time (or since).  Opus Eponymous was a real eye and ear opener.  I absolutely loved the concept, aesthetic, eclectic influences, and anonymity of early Ghost.  I have always had a very diverse interests in all sorts of music from generally the last 60 years or so,  and what they were doing lined up with all of my favorite bands sonically as well as visually and more.  So of course I had to search and dig online to find all of the projects that were related to Ghost at the time such as Subvision, Magna Carta Cartel, TID, and the early Repugnant material.

My wife Christina and I have attended Ghost concerts in the USA practically from day one.  We were really into the recorded material and looked forward to seeing them live. Ghost was new and I did not want to miss out on what I believed must have been similar for fans witnessing the same sort of rise that early Metallica went through in the clubs back in the early 1980s.  Not to mention NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) and early punk; when bands were new, fresh, and exciting.  I wasn’t the only one that saw and knew this band was capable of a similar trajectory…so we were not surprised to see how it all has unfolded right up to today.

I missed their 2011 premier at Maryland Deathfest – but have seen them well over 50+ times live over the last decade from NYC to California and back – and many places in between and down south for vacations and road trips.  The 2012 ‘13 Dates of Doom’ tour was at a time that you could see them in such intimate venues as the Bowery Ballroom NYC and the ‘Rock N Roll Hotel’ in Washington DC, which was the smallest venue we ever witnessed Ghost live. 

That is truly impressiv! I saw you also met Papa II in 2013, right?

Yes, that photo was taken 7/29/2013 in Baltimore, MD at Rams Head Live. The band was very generous to arrange that backstage right before they went out to perform.  I was so surprised and never shared that image until 2019 – long after Ghost started doing the official meet and greets and after Ghost were announced as Loudwire’s “Metal Artist of the Decade”…wow time flies…

It was a very special time from 2013 through 2015 watching the band grow and release Infestissumam and Meliora.

‘Haze Over North America’ were such amazing shows.  We attended the three 5/11, 5/12, 5/13 concerts in a row.  On the 13th while at the 9:30 club in DC, I met and chatted for a long while with original guitarist Martin Persner about how much I enjoyed Ghost as well as Magna Carta Cartel’s Goodmorning Restrained album.   

I first met ‘Papa II’ out of his stage attire a few days later at Mr. Small’s in Pittsburgh (5/18).  That was a very memorable show where I took a slew of my own photos along the stage.  Again, these were intimate enough shows that if you would get to the venue early enough and wait out in line part of the day, you easily found a spot up front.  I hadn’t done that ever – for any band. 

Then Ghost added a weeklong run of shows during the summer of 2013.  Attended every show from 7/27 – 8/2 (including Lollapalooza).

These treks to see the band live continued into 2014 on both coasts as the venues got larger for their ‘Year Zero’ tour, which culminated in NYC at the Best Buy Theatre. It was Ghost’s biggest show in the USA yet to that point – so we watched from the back to take in the spectacle.  It was definitely our most memorable experience seeing them live and then hanging out on that tour.

To then witness the further expansion with Popestar and Prequelle in the following years from 2016 – 2019 were incredible – and before the pandemic hit unfortunately.

How did the collaboration with Ghost come about? Did you apply or did Ghost reach out to you?

Now, since Tobias Forge has publicly ‘unveiled’ himself so to say, I am much more comfortable in sharing and reflecting publicly how grateful I am to him and the band for trusting and calling on me to collaborate since 2013.

From my understanding, I was first approached and asked by the band to work on an idea after they saw my editorial portrait of Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly magazine’s review of  ‘Under the Dome’. 

In Martin’s published words: 

„M met Brinley on tour many years ago, befriended him and got to see the art that Brinley was doing. Highly Impressed, M took the news and art to the HQ and since then Brinley has been doing all kinds of artwork for both Ghost and other bands connected that way.“

Quote from MCC The Demon King (5 Track EP) press releases – 2017; Source: https://bit.ly/3E8wMHi

“Having met with Martin Persner (Vocals / Guitar MCC) outside a show in the US years ago, they became friends and Brinley has since, after having been introduced to the Ghost HQ, done several designs for Ghost.” 

Quote from MCC The Demon King (5 Track EP) press releases – 2017; Source: https://bit.ly/3p8PdVV

I do remember this first collaboration very well.  While waiting to see Ghost in Knoxville, TN at the Bijou Theatre (October 14, 2013), Tobias and I chatted before the show.  In conversation, I was asked if I would be interested in creating a ‘Jaws’ t-shirt design based on the movie. I did want to contribute in a way that I believed I could – and this was a very exciting opportunity.

When I returned home that week, I sketched a tight pencil comp based on Roger Kastel’s classic poster art – but conceived of the idea to substitute the shark head shape with the mitre and cropping Papa II’s eyes looking up along the lower border for the drama and sense of anticipation. 

I sent the rough pencil sketch off to Tobias for approval and then focused on painting it in acrylics on an 18”x 24” piece of heavy watercolor paper.   My enthusiasm had me completing it from start to finish over the weekend.  I photographed the painting and assembled it in Photoshop with the large PAPA letterforms and again, sent it off to Tobias.  He was very pleased and said it was exactly what they were looking for.  

I’m pretty sure it premiered the next month in the UK on the first version of the shirt. A cool photo of Duff McKagan, member of the rock band Guns N‘ Roses, wearing one of the first ‘PAPA/Jaws’ shirts was making the rounds at that time. I believe they were in the hallway of a radio station promoting the Alice in Chains | Ghost BC | Walking Papers tour during November 2013.

‘PAPA/Jaws’ also popped up unexpectedly as a 19” x 27” Christmas poster of all things – as an added folded insert for Rock Hard Italia magazine that December.  I had no idea this happened until I saw an image of it shared online.  ‘PAPA/Jaws’ then made its way onto official tote bags, swim shorts, and other merchandise since it was so popular.  I’ve seen plenty of bootleg posters and other stuff online too over the years unfortunately…

An interesting thing happened after ‘PAPA/Jaws’.  I painted a pastiche of the ‘Phantom of the Paradise’ movie poster (Richard Corben’s version) for a Ghost concert being held in Los Angeles at the Fonda Theatre April 27th, 2014.  It wasn’t requested or even sanctioned by the band at all…but I loved that movie and soundtrack so much, that I thought a ‘Papa of the Paradise’ image would make for another fun and iconic take on the character.  I just went ahead and painted it 20” x 30” in acrylics on paper for my own amusement. I put it together digitally with typography similar to the film poster, liked how it looked, and felt it was appropriate for a Ghost concert in ‘Los Angeles’ since that was the city where the original film opened in 1974. 

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So when the actual concert neared, I did share/post the image anonymously online to a few fan sites.  It then spread around to advertise the show — definitely unofficial but I still liked seeing it out there.  We also attended the concert, so the entire experience was very memorable for many reasons.

Would you like to explain to us how exactly it works when you design an illustration? Are there guidelines from the band or do you follow your own ideas?

In terms of Ghost, it usually depends on the usage.  Conceptually, I typically begin with a short note or brief to solve something and to conceive of it creatively in visual form.  Many of the tour ideas including the VIP shirt and poster projects (for the Black to the Future and Popestar tour meet and greets) would be pretty specific in regard to references and the objective of the piece. 

This was a bit different from my editorial experience where you’re typically called upon for your sole idea as well as execution – but with that said,  I love collaboration; so there was always a generous attitude towards things and being able to sketch things out that we could share back and forth.  All of this gives me motivation to do good work with the tight deadlines and fast turnarounds for the band and management.

Various official shirt designs, merchandise, and many of the Pale and Ultimate tour posters have more conceptual leeway as well as the execution of said ideas to conceive of things once the overarching concept or aesthetic is established.

We do share many similar interests I believe – in that I try to think and live a bit vicariously through Ghost and Tobias’ mind’s eye if that makes sense…to inform and enhance the artwork and what can be imagined and created.  Striving to envision what the piece should ultimately look like to satisfy the objectives for the band and fan alike before I even start.

As an example, the GHOST logotype ‘marble treatment’ was an exciting brief and a true challenge – It was part of the request for the ‘Rats! on the Road’ tour poster before Prequelle was released.  It took some time for me to get it right after messing around for such a specific texture.  I remember just going ahead and painting it with acrylics by hand from start to finish about 16” x 20” in order to present it…because that was the only way I could see it looking ‘real’ and dimensional as marble. 

Once I presented it to Tobias as part of the poster, it worked out very well.    It was used in the LP/CD packaging and was utilized in Europe as a projected stage logo while opening for Metallica during the Summer of 2019 tour.  I’m still very proud of it and believe it’s their best logotype ‘treatment’ yet. 

And what does your work for an illustration look like? How do you start? How do you develop a design? Do you do hand sketches? Do you work digitally?

I typically paint 18” x 24” or larger with acrylic paint on cradled Masonite – but for many of the Ghost illustrations I use thick acid free Canson cold press watercolor paper.  I like the slight, toothy texture for brushwork. I also typically coat the paper surface with gesso before beginning to seal the paper and give it a strong flat base.

I also work many projects nowadays that I refer to as ‘hybrid’ via analog and digital means.  Sometimes more, sometimes less. I preferred using solely acrylic paint through much of my illustration career work, but now use acrylic and photoshop ‘paint’ to allow for different approaches during the process from composition and design to the final interpretation. 

My process begins with word lists, lots of reference material and research, moving into initial loose thumbnail drawings, building compositions, collaging, scaling elements, layering, refining line art and large shapes – then further blocking in values, colors, and details from general to specific. 

Anything painted, hybrid, or digitally designed, I will usually paint the physical/analog portion of the work first, then photograph or scan it hi-res to allow it to be incorporated digitally into Photoshop.  All in conjunction with a large Wacom/Cintiq tablet for various digital brush choices but mainly for the speed and ease of design and finish.

You graduated with honors from ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, and from Hartford Art School’s prestigious MFA Illustration program. You are also a full professor of art and design at the University of Delaware.

Yes, I was fortunate to study at excellent schools with highly inspirational and respected professors that I am very thankful for. 

I began having my personal gallery paintings and illustrations published in American Illustration and the Society of Illustrators juried annuals as a student.  I began pursuing freelance editorial illustration after graduating ArtCenter as my work was sought out by TIME magazine, Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, Newsweek (US and International), Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated, GQ (US and London), SPIN, and the Los Angeles and New York Times magazines – mostly for conceptual covers, portraits, editorial spreads, political pieces, and spot illustrations for years.  I continue to do so today for online and print via my artist representative RAPP|Art in NYC.

I also really enjoy being an educator as well now, since I get to work with students who are interested in fine arts, illustration, and design careers.

Was it always clear to you that you wanted to be a full-time artist? How did you discover your love for art?

I believe movies, television, music, and natural history/art museums were my first gateways into art and what was out there beyond my own limited understanding as a child.  It was clear to me since around kindergarten age.  I would always be drawing as a means of escape and expression. 

In 2nd grade I drew a caricature portrait book of classmates that my teacher praised, so that gave me motivation through grade school. 

In High School, I was very serious about art and music.  Any window to the outside world I was interested in finding and looking into – mostly books, magazines, local record and video stores, and going to see films/cinema. 

Concerts and museums were the most exciting.  I played guitar in local bands through High School and into University, but image making was becoming more interesting to me when I discovered editorial illustration and the Society of Illustrators annual books.

 As a student, I really enjoyed photography, art history, painting, drawing, the history of design and illustration, as well as printmaking.  I also had a very inspiring teacher that encouraged me to pursue ArtCenter and move west to California. I needed that challenge.  Then I moved back east since I’m an east coast kid at heart.  I love NYC (lived there for a while) and being on this side of the country.

I think your style is very unique and it has great recognition value. Unfortunately, I do not have much knowledge about art, but I like the clear structures and the interplay of colors.

Thank you Kyra, I really appreciate that.  I understand your point about a clarity of design. I also like to incorporate textures and elements to help make my illustration work more distinctive. 

I believe that it very important to successfully communicate visually as an illustrator and respect that quality in others as well. Developing the form and content of your work is something that comes through experimentation, time, and your own idiosyncratic path of how you draw things representationally. 

I always had a tendency towards more stylized mark making with paint than highly detailed pen and ink lines or strictly working in a ‘naturalist’ or tonal painting fashion.  I tend to utilize more chromatic hues and triads but try to not be too obvious and sometimes begin with abstract color fields and flatter initial shapes to inspire representational ideas.

Are there any artists who have influenced and inspired you?

Absolutely.  More collectively than any one individual.  As far as inspiration, I always go back to reading about and looking at the history of fine art, illustration, and design. 

I enjoy the art of the greatest classical painters to folk and self-taught visionary artists – and all of the ‘isms’ such as classicism, fauvism, symbolism, impressionism, etc.  Not to mention contemporary art, retro art, antiques, aesthetics of the 1930s, and a library of books that I have collected over the years.

LP album cover artists and designers were also of course a huge inspiration when I was first deciphering illustration as a teen.  Mostly listening to rock, metal, and punk music, I would literally stare at record jackets in my hands while sitting on the floor in front of the speakers.  I definitely realized how critical the aesthetics of a band are to their branding, marketing, and ultimately, their success.

With all that said, I love and admire so many different approaches that I am forever a student in that I still crave, discover, and appreciate new artists all the time (musical and visual + historical and contemporary).

Do you need a special environment to be able to work creatively? Do you have special rituals like the guy from Stephen King’s Misery? 😉

I do have a room dedicated to art and inspiration.  Each area is dedicated to certain aspects of the process.  I paint and work at all hours of the day and night but do prefer natural light during the day rather than artificial light at night.  Working digitally can be done anytime I suppose.  Hours go by before you realize how deep into the ‘zone’ you can get and need to go eat haha!

I have no special rituals other than trying to highly focus and seal myself off into my own creative world – at times in silence when working on concepts, other times with all sorts of my favorite music playing behind me as I work.  I’ll stop to play my guitar once in a while for a break and then ‘back to the drawing board’…

One of my absolute favorite songs by Ghost is „He Is“. It is a wonderful anthem for me. I get goosebumps every time I hear it and feel some kind of „comfort“. I think your cover fits perfectly and reflects exactly that feeling.

Me too. It is truly an anthem and a wonderful song that lifts spirits.

Thank you, I am glad it goes hand in hand with the feeling of the song.  I remember getting great feedback on the pathos in that image from the band and the fan community when it was finished.   

When you get the request to design a cover, do you get the chance to listen to the song in advance to get a feel for it and find inspiration?

Nothing in advance in terms of hearing the actual music, but usually I’m in tune with things visually that are spoken of or provided visually and work with Tobias’ vision and my own research for the various projects.  

Btw., as a passionate collector, unfortunately I’m still missing this shirt in my collection. I hope I can own it one day. 😊

The HE IS shirt was released a bit later for a very short time…only with the 10” picture disc bundle I believe.  The generous fan groups must help you get one!

If I recall correctly, the HE IS image was released first on the Square Hammer/HE IS ‘square’ picture disc that was released as a limited edition of 1000 at the very beginning of the Popestar Tour.  My understanding was 500 US, and 500 Europe once it hit the streets. 

I do have a very limited promo CDr of it that was released by Spinefarm Records which was cool to see.

I really like your website “www.davidbrinley.com”. You’ve put together a great collection of your Ghost illustrations and designs there. It’s a cool resource and overview, especially for collectors. Do you collect Ghost merchandise yourself?

Thank you again Kyra.  I do like to document the Ghost pieces and do my best to curate them online with some context for all to see.   I would love to collect all of the Ghost illustrations into some sort of large scale/high quality printed book form or a sort of monograph one day.  Even if only for myself.  I have dabbled with a layout a bit but who knows.

I collect quite a bit of the official recordings – (mostly first press colored vinyl/import LPs and CDs) – as I’m sure most hardcore Ghost fans do…

I have retained all of my original official Ghost paintings in large portfolio cases as well as the sketches and additional painted elements used to create all of the digital collages for each and every project.  A few are framed on the wall such as ‘Madam(e) Satan’ (done for the 2015 VIP shirt) which was painted 24” X 30” on Stonehenge paper. 

I typically collect extras of the printed merchandise or the physical media format.  Mostly the CD singles, merch stand posters, t-shirts, picture discs, the upcoming 7” of ‘Hunter’s Moon’, etc. that my illustrations and designs have been used for. 

I do collect some other Ghost merchandise but am selective. Over the last few years, it has been hard to keep up.  I have seen some excellent fan sites online that keep very detailed notes and images from many of the tours such as shirts, posters, and their own respective collections. 

Do you wear shirts with your own designs?

I have worn the Ultimate Tour USA ‘arms outstretched’ tour shirt quite a bit as well as the ‘Popera’ shirt which I wore while attending a meet and greet in Salem, MA with Kirk Hammett for his ‘It’s Alive!’ exhibition in 2017.  We chatted for a bit and he did notice and compliment the shirt which was a fun gateway to a conversation about his extraordinary collection and of course, a bit about Ghost.

Many of your illustrations and designs for Ghost are based on the covers of classic horror movies, like Jaws, Rosemary’s Baby or Pan’s Labyrinth. Are you a movie fan and was it your idea to use these artworks as an inspiration?

Yes, I am very influenced by cinema and have a substantial collection of films of all genres.  I really enjoy digging into commentaries and extra production details -especially the classics.  This fascination also dovetailed nicely with the band. 

I mentioned earlier how the Jaws image came about and how this pastiche approach was conducive to Ghost’s penchant at the time for clever pop culture references. 

I was privileged to have the opportunity to create the entire run of singles art for Meliora during the summer of 2015.  Most all were based on briefs for each song from the band. First Cirice (Silence of the Lambs) and Zenith (as well as the ‘Necropolitan’ t-shirt for bundles) — then Pinnacle to the Pit and Majesty (Papa/King Kong).  The take on Rosemary’s Baby was a very specific request for the Zenith 10” single.

HE IS was created later in February 2016 after we did the blue Papa VIP poster in 2015. 

I was also thrilled to help with painting additional backgrounds and formatting my Meliora singles illustrations for their launch as YouTube videos and additional merchandising.

When I actually heard the songs when Meliora was released – I was so impressed with how strong the album was and really looked forward to the tour.  As much as I love Opus and Infestisummam, that recording, production, and entire concept was such an instant classic.  Majesty was a favorite.  Cirice, He is, and Zenith of course – an amazing piece of music.  The Swedish boxset with the Zenith standalone 10” was such a treat.  The shows we saw on that tour were incredible as well.

The ‘Pale Pope’ t-shirt came later for the March 2017 European Tour I believe…which originated from a very small ball point sketch provided by Tobias which I then gave dimension to and was influenced by various references for the yellow 2016 VIP poster.

At around that time, I did a short interview for Heavy Music Artwork magazine (Human/issue #3) that published some of the above images.

Ghost won a Grammy Award for the song „Cirice“. How did you feel about that a song for which you designed the cover won a Grammy?

Again, thrilled for the band.  Plus it helps when you also believe that the song deserved it. I remember sending them a quick congrats on the Grammy win as soon as I heard.

The image originated with great reference provided to me of the children from the Cirice video – which was shot prior to me getting the call for the single art.  Starting from the requested Silence of the Lambs poster inspiration, I put together a tight sketch with the radiating sections across the two halves of the children’s stylized faces, placed the title below the chin, the Ghost logotype across the forehead, and sent it. 

After the sketch was approved and the image was painted 18” x 24” in acrylics, there were a few revisions to the final painting as the band were still deciding on some elements – but then it was decided to revert to the original finish which I had to repaint a few details back over.  I didn’t mind haha. 

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It was such an iconic riff on Silence of the Lambs for Ghost and became the song’s visual identity.  The painting was used as the cover splash for their official website for a time.  I was very proud of that image and how it connected with the audience and became identified with the song. 

I really love the tour posters you illustrated for the ‘A Pale Tour Named Death’ tour. It must have taken an incredible amount of work and attention to detail to design your own posters for so many cities, right?

Thank you – Yes, both the series of ‘Pale’ and the ‘Ultimate’ tour posters were honestly so creative and fun, if not a bit stressful – but in a good way!  I completed each in both series as hybrids.  After the ‘Rats! on the Road’ tour poster experience (both the purple and red versions), I was given an initial brief for the ‘DEATH’ type treatment and the concept of the new ‘Pale’ tour.  First to be done was the Brooklyn/Barclays poster.  The sketches were working but I painted something that didn’t quite work for Tobias yet.  The colors and the values were not mysterious enough.  So once I decided to glaze the image and give everything more of a monochromatic and hellish atmosphere, I was on the right track. That process definitely took some trial and error for a bit and some patience from Tobias which I appreciated.    

I essentially painted many of the dancing Cardinal poses and other elements on paper and digitally collaged the illustrations – since there was also the typography design and the Holbein Dance of Death ‘D-E-A-T-H’ square woodcuts to complete the final poster designs.    

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The ‘Pale’ tour was then officially announced at an event at Irving Plaza in NYC in April of 2018.  I also handled the European run from a list of cities on the tour; drawing various poses for Cardinal Copia and incorporating the venues that the band wanted to highlight behind Copia.  This also included Australia with added koalas and kangaroos for the poster art – I really went for it in that one.

As time and my research allowed, I tried to fit in as much relevant information and landmarks for the cities and other details as the poster series progressed. 

The ‘Ultimate’ tour series was an exciting continuation at an even bigger scale with the power of Papa Nihil culminating in more ‘high voltage’ images in my mind where I introduced new design elements such as the thematic ‘blue’ palette, more and more lightning, and even more landmarks to create a deeper and interesting visual for residents of the specific cities and fans like me.  All done to make it fun finding all sorts of signs and geographic identity.

My favorite ‘Pale’ poster in the series may be ‘Royal Albert Hall’ or perhaps the Australian poster since it was a bit more humorous.  A very memorable ‘Ultimate’ tour poster experience would be the initial ‘arms outstretched’ USA poster that was used for all of the branding inside and outside of the venues… and I can’t forget the final Mexico City poster from their last arena show March 2020 which came together really well. 

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Is there a design that is particularly dear to you? And if so, which one and why?

Wow, that’s almost impossible for me to answer.  All of them in the sense that I’ve really respected and enjoyed illustrating, painting, and designing each and every one. 

A lot of favorites were the pastiche images from 2013-2016 – PAPA/Jaws, Unholy/Unplugged, the Popestar Tour poster, the London Palladium (March 2, 2016) poster, the “He’s Back” Halloween movie shirt series, as well as the VIP shirts and VIP posters for the Black to the Future and Popestar tour meet and greets.

I enjoyed creating ‘Popera’ which was part of a ‘monsters’ series I was able to do on my own for the merchandising company.  That image was used on Ghost shirts for the 2017 Iron Maiden tour here in the USA and possibly elsewhere.

I also can’t forget the Royal Albert Hall poster image which was part of the ‘Pale’ tour and poster series.  I do really like that one too.

Some other favorites with interesting ‘collaborative process’ memories:

• “Papastrello” wine label and box

• Zenith 10” vinyl cover art

• The screen printed Wiltern Los Angeles Poster

• Stephen Colbert Show Halloween poster advertising their USA television premiere.

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Is there a design that you would want to change today or that you don’t like anymore?

Well, there are always elements in certain illustrations that you view in hindsight that could be improved, but then they wouldn’t be what the piece was intended to be at that point in time when everything intersected with the time allowed. 

I always try to do my absolute best with every opportunity within the time frame I am given.  Luckily, I hope most everything turned out OK and I am still proud of them all and the opportunities afforded to me by everyone involved with these ‘dream projects’.

I can’t really imagine but are there also designs that were not used and are now lay sleeping in your desk drawer?

Yes, there are. Some ideas were abandoned for other ideas and some just didn’t proceed further, as well as a few really ‘big’ things years ago that just didn’t coalesce at the times they took place.  Those opportunities would be something in hindsight I hope are able to happen again…especially with the digital tools… but time, research, technical issues, and a band’s vision are always things that are fragile and can change and differ; so things evolve and move forward.

I saw on Facebook that you were recently in the Bavarian Alps. Since I live in Germany, I would like to know how you liked it? Did you try typical food and drink a beer? 😉

Oh – I only wish I was there for real!  I would love to visit and see Germany one day soon!   My wife has German ancestry and we talk about traveling there.  I’m half Hungarian, so a trip is inevitable at some point I hope!

I only tagged the ‘Papastein’ shirt image on Instagram with ‘Bavarian Alps’ since that was the location of the fictional original Frankenstein movie village. 

I can only imagine authentic German food and beer in Germany – must be fantastic!

Maybe one day I can invite you and your wife to a fine german diner. 🙂

Dave I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to answer my questions. It was a great pleasure and honour working with you. It was incredibly exciting to hear what you had to say. You are blessed with a terrific talent and I can’t wait to see more illustrations and designs of you. Thank you!

Thank you again Kyra for reaching out to ask me such insightful questions. I did my best to answer them and recall many memories for anyone that may be interested. Hopefully we can do it again sometime after this.  You have a very professional site in The Ghost Report and I wish you the absolute best with it. I appreciate that you and the very gracious Ghost fanbase have enjoyed my contributions to the band as much as I have. Hope to see everyone out there at future Ghost concerts. Take care!

If you want to see more of Dave’s amazing designs, please have a look at his website and social media accounts.

https://www.davidbrinley.com/ghost

https://www.instagram.com/davidmbrinleyart

https://www.facebook.com/davidmbrinleyart