Little is known about the painter Bosch and perhaps his most famous work, the triptych “The Garden of Earthly Delights”, so Colwell brings his imagination and experience as a painter to this graphic biography. The book is Colwell’s first full graphic novel in over 30 years.
Bosch, born Jheronimus van Aken, created the work between 1490 and 1510. Its three panels portray the Garden of Eden, the titular earthly delights, and those suffering the result of disobedience in Hell. Colwell uses the time period and subject matter of the work to tell a story that involves motivations of creativity, business, religion, and sensuality.
Colwell’s underground comix series Inner City Romance was collected by Fantagraphics in 2015 (see “Guy Colwell’s ‘Inner City Romance’”).