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Artistic Liberty

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  • #1

    Artistic Liberty

    Was just looking at the Image gallery and was wondering had any of the Artists read any of MMs work? It just seems all a bit too unconnected with the scenes actually portrayed in the books or the descriptions of those characters. Then again, this is the Multiverse so I suppose they are all correct. Somewhere...
    Just a thought...
    "What do you think you're doing? This is a closed set!"
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  • #2
    Are you referring to published book covers, etc. or the readers' submission artwork (or both)? I guess that most of the book covers give a 'feel' or 'sense' of what the book is like, although some like the Whelan Elric covers or the Clifton-Day Hawkmoon ones do sometimes depict actual scenes from the stories.
    _"For an eternity Allard was alone in an icy limbo where all the colours were bright and sharp and comfortless.
    _For another eternity Allard swam through seas without end, all green and cool and deep, where distorted creatures drifted, sometimes attacking him.
    _And then, at last, he had reached the real world – the world he had created, where he was God and could create or destroy whatever he wished.
    _He was supremely powerful. He told planets to destroy themselves, and they did. He created suns. Beautiful women flocked to be his. Of all men, he was the mightiest. Of all gods, he was the greatest."

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    • #3
      I can safely state that not one of my EC depictions was ever from a specific scene in a book. I tend to color outside the lines in that regard. I'm currently working on a John Carter scene, for example, which you will not find described in any ERB story. It's possible, afterall, for there to be events which occurred in a given character's life but which have not yet been written down.
      "Wounds are all I'm made of. Did I hear you say that this is victory?"
      --Michael Moorcock, Veteran of the Psychic Wars

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      • #4
        It's one of the problems of book publishing that often the cover art is commissioned without (a) the artist having the opportunity to read the book and/or (b) the author having any chance to review the art.

        Hence the unfortunate Jack Caughan cover that Barry Smith copied in the Conan comic featuring Elric.

        But some certainly artists do read the books and do depict actual scenes.

        I know Bruce Pennington was always "good" in this regard, but I don't think he ever had the opportunity to do a cover for Mike... ?

        Whelan certainly did... check out the cover for [link expired], fr'instance... "[There sat on Urish’s throne] a fat, scaly thing of yellow and green and black. Brown bile dripped from its grinning mouth and it raised one of its many paws in a mockery of a salute." — "To Snare the Pale Prince"

        Gr.,
        Ant

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        • #5
          I believe he (Whelan) may have used one of my nurses as a model :roll: ...
          It's something that always really bugged me as a young 'un: cover discontinuity with text: much sixties/ seventies 'pulp' or classic reprints suffer from this. There's a 'War of the Worlds' version with some belligerent, muscular-looking blokes in funny helmets on the cover, the only thing the artwork having in common with the text being the colour red. I don't mind 'suggestive' or cleverly oblique artwork (PX has juxtaposed art not directly linked to the text, he disclaims suddenly and anticipatorily) but complete thoughtlessness is quite vexing, really.

          Vexing.

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          • #6
            My copy of PKD's Man in the High Castle has a rotund, generic Mega-City-style tower on the cover, with hover cars zipping around it. :roll: Actually, a number of the other books had similar artwork on, so perhaps the publisher just bought a job lot from one artist and randomly assigned them to books?

            http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P...2.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
            "That which does not kill us, makes us stranger." - Trevor Goodchild

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            • #7
              Originally posted by DeeCrowSeer
              My copy of PKD's Man in the High Castle has a rotund, generic Mega-City-style tower on the cover, with hover cars zipping around it. :roll: Actually, a number of the other books had similar artwork on, so perhaps the publisher just bought a job lot from one artist and randomly assigned them to books?
              Whereas the guy who painted the cover for my copy had clearly been watching Blade Runner the night before:



              ;)
              _"For an eternity Allard was alone in an icy limbo where all the colours were bright and sharp and comfortless.
              _For another eternity Allard swam through seas without end, all green and cool and deep, where distorted creatures drifted, sometimes attacking him.
              _And then, at last, he had reached the real world – the world he had created, where he was God and could create or destroy whatever he wished.
              _He was supremely powerful. He told planets to destroy themselves, and they did. He created suns. Beautiful women flocked to be his. Of all men, he was the mightiest. Of all gods, he was the greatest."

              Comment

              • #8
                Eeeesh! I've seen a more recent edition which has a simple corruption of the American flag, which not only reflects the contents of the text but also makes for a striking image, more likely to appeal to the casual reader than either of the two covers above.

                http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P...2.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

                Sometimes less is more. Although obviously the Whelan covers are gorgeous (especially Stormbringer '85)
                "That which does not kill us, makes us stranger." - Trevor Goodchild

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