#rainbow goblins

These feisty lil gitz feast on all the colours of the rainbow (much to the dismay of their fellow grots).

Fortunately for the many colours of the galaxy, Big Chaz is on the scene to wrangle his lil ladz

This children’s book stands out from across the room like a beacon of psychedelic delight. The size of the book is unique. It’s vibrant colors and fantastical emotion on the hardbound cover is hypnotic. And with a title like The Rainbow Goblins, the intrigue is irresistible.  The 1978 Warner Books hardcover was a purchase I could not resist. I could stare at that cover for hours, and that’s just a gateway into Ul de Rico’s imaginative vision inside.

Italian born Ul de Rico, biologically named Ulderico Conte Groppiero di Troppenburg, is an artist from the Munich Academy, studying painting under the helm of Professor Franz Nagel and with Professor Rudolph Heinrich’s influence, he received his diploma in stage and costume design.

On his personal site, he describes himself as a translator of emotions. It’s a beautiful construct that makes you ponder this philosophy because of the results from The Rainbow Goblins and also his storyboard and set constructions of his work on The Never Ending Story.

If sifting through his work—separated into three stages: before, during, and after the Academy—does not excite you, then his working principles and philosophical ideas to the arts will. His work is a grounded perspective to an exorbitant vision of the surreal.

The Rainbow Goblins is a story that is nestled beautifully in its own context. The story is about seven goblins who roam the world sucking up the colors of the rainbow. The goblins are mischievous in nature and frightening in Rico’s aesthetic of them. Their slanted eyes and pointy noses gives them a reality of a mythological creature of the underworld, a demon, and a witch. As these goblins terrorized the land, there was one place the goblins have not touched, the hidden Valley of the Rainbow. Most of the story is about the goblins in search of the valley. As Rico breathes life into the characters of these goblins, it’s what exemplifies fright in the readers and a fear amongst the animals of the valley. Without the rainbow, this world would lose its magic. But in Rico’s world, natural wonder prevails.

Rico’s use of colors is almost overwhelming. When the landscapes have deep contrast like the darkness of a cave or a looming thunderstorm, visual emotions are exemplified.