Five ’70s SF Cover Artists Who Stay True to the Story

[james_davis_nicoll]

Five ’70s SF Cover Artists Who Stay True to the Story

Comments

[jbwoodford]

I partially agree with the one comment that DKS drew a lot of people who looked like they'd gotten too much sun, but my particular quibble with him is that he tended to put people into far more elaborate outfits than the plot would support. For instance, his cover for "The Riddle-Master of Hed" would have you believe that Morgon was a Renaissance-costumed dandy, when he actually lives on a not-very-glorified farm.

[ba_munronoe]

Daryl K Sweet: frustrated fashionista?

[affreca]

That's a man who loves tippets.

[jbwoodford]

Oh, yeah.

[cofax7]

I don't have to click on that link to know what that picture looks like! So awful.

I don't think I've ever seen a DKS cover I actually liked, just maybe a few that I didn't think were absolutely awful. His figures always seem weirdly out of proportion for me. And yes, the clothing is so often awful.

[mikeda]

I thought his Silmarillion cover was excellent.

(There aren't any people on that cover, though.)

[jbwoodford]

I will say for him that despite his addiction to tippets it was always clear that he'd actually read enough of the book he was illustrating to accurately draw a scene from it. That's an impressive feat.

I was also somewhat impressed by this really nice line drawing he did for the frontispiece of Riddle-Master, of Morgon playing a harp. Yeah, the clothes were still extravagant, but apart from that it was good--the proportions were right, the pose was natural, and since it was a line drawing Morgon didn't look overly aged.

[daidoji_gisei]

THE DOPPELGÄNGER GAMBIT!!!!

I read that book when it came out and I remember a great deal of the story itself but of course had lost all trace of the title or author. Thank you! That book cover was instantly recognizable. :D

[cofax7]

I had that copy of Forerunner Foray. As a child, I disliked the cover, but looking at it now, it's pretty cool.

[kathmandu]

Ooo, I had Inherit the Stars with that cover!

[maruad]

I remember one Canadian author talking about the DKS cover that was scheduled for his first book. His agent and editor were both so happy for him because DKS covers sold books. No one really knew why but they sold books. The author despised the cover so much that he convinced the editor to let him design his own cover. They did and his career survived and Charles de Lint is still writing 35 year later.

I do remember Dave Duncan getting a DKS cover for his second book. He did well from it iirc.

Funny, two of the nicest writers I have ever met and I met them at the same convention. It was a co-incidence that we were using Canada Council funding to bring in extra writers for Keycon. IIRC our guests included Gene Wolfe and several of the Scribblies from the Twin Cities got shoe horned in when they showed up.

[bolindbergh]

That would have been this one:

Yep, a pretty accurate rendition of both characters.

[maruad]

Hmmm... I had thought it was The Reluctant Swordsman (because, iirc, that was a DKS cover) but I had forgotten that Shadow was his second book.

I hadn't realized (or I had forgotten he had passed). All my memories of him are fond ones.

[agharta75]

Next:

"Five cover artists whose naked women and tentacled monsters are true to the story"

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[petrea_mitchell]

I'm reminded of the introduction to Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials, where Robert Silverberg (IIRC) talked about the great and rare joy of having an artist who would depict something that was actually in the book.

Also an incident some years ago where the fans hated a cover so much that the publisher offered to change it if people were willing to chip in for the new artist's fee, which it turned out they were. (It's a book by John Ringo and Tom Kratman, though, so I'll spare you the temptation of looking it up by not naming it.)

[agharta75]

Maybe they should have kept the cover and changed the book?

[chrysostom]

I liked DKS, although I recognize that's probably because he did the covers of a lot of books I liked.