IconoGrave is edited and maintained by James T. McCrea, an art historian with broad, thematic research interests in death iconography, funerary art, and materialities of the dead body. He graduated with honors in art history from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and has a master's degree in funerary archaeology from the University of York in the United Kingdom. At the moment, he is completing a brief history of the animated skeleton under the supervision of Dale Townshend with Manchester Metropolitan University's Gothic Studies department. Video gaming has always been his first love, and this project offers a perfect opportunity to merge these otherwise disparate interests. In addition to his research, James is an accomplished visual artist and has also released music under the names Dusthallowed, One Lifeless Eye, Salivating Lamb, Emesis Blood Moon, and 人面犬 (Jinmenken).

"I Loved You Once" 2018

For video game enthusiasts, the concept of a graveyard level should be a familiar—if not iconic—element in genres ranging from action-adventure, role-playing, and even puzzle games to everything in-between. IconoGrave aims to archive depictions of graveyards, cemeteries, and other burial spaces in the context of video games developed between 1980 and 2020, as well as to provide brief art historical interpretations. This website also features short articles dealing with similarly themed subjects written by early career researchers with interests including video games, digital art, and media studies.

Much of this project owes its existence to I-Mockery's own review of the greatest video game graveyard levels, which can be read here: