First published in 1905, The Gods of Pegana has long existed as a kind of secret cornerstone of modern fantasy. It’s strange, lyrical creation myths and sleeping gods would go on to influence the likes of H.P. Lovecraft, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Ursula K. Le Guin. Even with that influence, Lord Dunsany’s work has remained oddly out of reach for many contemporary readers.
Luckily, all that’s about to change.
Starting today (February 3), Denver-based publisher Wig Shop has launched a Kickstarter for a lavish, fully illustrated edition of The Gods of Pegana that was created in collaboration with artist Dustin Holland. The result is a 7×10, 139-page full-color paperback that transforms Dunsany’s cosmic mythology into something tactile, hallucinatory, and wholly contemporary.
Why Pegana, and Why Now?
For Wig Shop founder Jeff Alford, the timing came down to both opportunity and alignment.
“This past year or so saw some ease and elasticity to my bandwidth that allowed me room to jump into a big project with Dustin,” Alford said.
Longtime admirers of each other’s work, Jeff saw early on that Holland would approach Dunsany not as a relic, but as a living text.
“I knew he’d see it like I do,” Alford said, adding that “it’s so much more than just a far-out story. I hope what we’ve made meets the ineffable majesty of the original text.”
Just as importantly, Pegana felt like the purest expression of Wig Shop’s core identity.
“Wig Shop has always been about exploring the realm between comics and traditional art books,” Alford said. “This book exists in a liminal space between genres. When it’s finally out, it will undoubtedly be the most ‘Wig Shop’ book in the shop.”
Discovering an Alien Classic
For Holland, The Gods of Pegana wasn’t a lifelong obsession — until it was quite suddenly.
“I first encountered The Gods of Pegana when Alford invited me to work on this new edition,” Holland said. “I read it straight away and was really impressed with how otherworldly it felt.”
What surprised him most was how fresh the book still feels, even after a century of influence.
“Even after reading generations of work inspired by Dunsany, this book feels alien and surprising,” Holland said. “I’m still finding new wonderful aspects of the text.”
On a personal level, the project also offered something quite rare: time.
“It was an amazing opportunity to talk books with Alford and to focus on my painting,” Holland said. On a broader scale, Holland sees Pegana as proof that imagination doesn’t expire, adding, “It’s a testament to the lasting power of truly imaginative work. That’s always worth celebrating.”
Turning Myth to Magic
Illustrating every page of a dense, abstract book like Pegana is an ambition few modern projects attempt. Dunsany’s prose is famously nonvisual, offering little concrete description of gods or worlds. That’s something Holland found both daunting and liberating.
“A lot of the prose is pretty abstract,” Holland said. “That was intimidating, but also incredibly freeing, because it gave me a lot of room to play.”
Holland developed a flexible visual language that shifts with the text. Action-heavy chapters lean more illustrative and occasionally cartoony, with borders that “may as well be comics.” Meanwhile, quieter, more meditative passages draw from medieval illuminated manuscripts, using negative space and decorative motifs to let the text breathe. Added Holland, “So much of the power of Dunsany’s book is how nebulous the world is. I did my best to leave some mystery.”
A Book Like Spells
That visual ambition required equal care on the design side. As publisher and typesetter, Alford faced the challenge of balancing readability with art in a book where every page is a canvas.
“We discussed illuminated manuscripts early on,” Alford said, settling on illustrated drop caps and marginalia. Originally, they planned to leave some pages as text-only—but that idea didn’t last.
“The pacing was disrupted by the occasional emptiness,” Alford said. “We made a mutual decision to go all-in and hope readers buckle up for the ride.”
After all, as he put it, “Dunsany already unmoors his readers with his strange, lyrical prose, so what’s a little more madness?”
Influences, Constraints, and New Territory
Holland’s influences on Pegana are wide-ranging: medieval manuscripts, Leonora Carrington, Max Ernst, the Fleischer Brothers, and underground cartoonists like Gary Panter, Marc Bell, and Julie Doucet.
However, illustrating the text pages themselves proved to be the biggest leap.
“Once I started, it was hard to stop,” Holland said.
The roughly one-inch painted border on each page became a creative constraint that reshaped how he thought about pacing, composition, and reader experience.
“The book is just so rich with ideas,” Holland said. “It really pushed me into new territory.”
Why Pegana Still Speaks Today
Though Pegana helped shape some of the biggest names in speculative fiction, its concerns feel strikingly modern. The book wrestles with faith, creation, mortality, and even the smallness of humanity in an indifferent cosmos. Holland sees it as both foundational and experimental.
“You can read it as a deconstruction of fairy tales and folklore,” Holland said. “Or, as a weird metatextual experiment.”
Fans of Lovecraft will recognize its DNA immediately, and readers of 20th-century literature may spot echoes of Flann O’Brien’s At Swim-Two-Birds or James Joyce’s Dubliners. Holland said that “as lofty as [all] that sounds, it’s also a really quick read that’s scary and funny and dreamy.”
Alford framed the project as part of a larger cultural moment.
“We’re seeing a lot of interest in illuminating forgotten origins,” Alford said. “The dream is to have readers start to see traces of Pegana in things they didn’t know were connected.”
An Event, Not Just Some Reprint
This Kickstarter isn’t positioning The Gods of Pegana as a simple reissue. Alongside the deluxe paperback, backer tiers will include original art from the book, turning the campaign into a celebration of process as much as product.
“I hope readers find a sense of wonderment,” Alford said. He joked that opening the book should feel like a classic fantasy moment, adding, “An old wizard blowing dust off a magical tome for an unsuspecting hero.”
Whether readers come to Pegana as scholars of fantasy history or curious newcomers, Alford hopes the experience is transportive all the same.
“You can connect the dots from Dunsany to so much of the 20th-century literary canon,” Alford said. “But even if you can’t, I hope it reminds people that you can still be whisked away by a book.”
With its all-over painted pages and reverent-but-radical presentation, Wig Shop and Dustin Holland’s The Gods of Pegana isn’t just reviving a forgotten classic — it’s inviting readers to fall under its spell all over again.
For more on the Pegana Kickstarter, head here.
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