Check out Jim Gurney's Americana watercolor, "Harpy Meal," from his blog.Gurney, is both a fine artist and illustrator, and with stuff like this, might be working his way into Norman Rockwell territory as somebody who captures the zeitgeist.
Twenty-odd years ago, Gurney illustrated the cover for my novel, The Man Who Never Missed, and his sketch of Emile Antoon Khadaji, for a cover that didn't get used, nailed the guy exactly as I pictured him. I posted this here before, but it deserves another look.
Those covers for the first three books are my favorites--I've always preferred the "painterly" approach over bad hyperrealistic computer renderings.
ReplyDeleteI too really like the Matador novels, and the original covers --- I did run out and buy _The Musashi Flex_ promptly, at full price from a local bookseller, so I hope that encourages you to write more.
ReplyDeleteI am especially looking forward to finding out why the longevity drug didn't pan out, hence the interest in the mechanical alternative as shown in the Galaxy Ranger books.
William
Gurney did TMWNM. The second and third covers were by Rick Berry -- although I'm given to understand that a second artist worked with Berry on Matadora -- one of them painted Dirisha, the other constructed the flitter behind her. Probably Phil Hale, with whom he has done a bunch of collaborations.
ReplyDeleteThese days, most of Berry's stuff is electronic.
The second set of Matador books had covers done by the Spanish artist Royo.
The Musashi Flex's cover was by Chris McGrath, and this one is the only one into which I had much input. They asked me what I wanted to see, and I told them a muscular guy in a martial arts pose with a knife.
This is a funny thing, call it an exercise in mental reality; I never pictured Khadaji like that at all. My Khadaji has a beard, closely trimmed, and maybe shorter than this one looks. Dirisha is almost per pixel an exact replica of mine, and my Bork looks nothing like the Royo cover...He's WAAAAYYY bigger, for starters.
ReplyDeleteI think i mentioned two approaches on the longevity drug and I expect that in the end, both were used, to various degrees. I see only more more book in the universe, The Siblings of the Shroud, and that's directly after Musashi, so it won't reach the future where TMWNM was.
ReplyDeleteStellar Rangers? Different universe ...
How is Stellar Rangers a different universe if Dirisha is the Patron Saint of Warriors? Tends to make one believe it's the same universe, just further in to the future.
ReplyDeleteI agree, first 3 covers are my favorites with Musashi Flex being next.
One of my running jokes that hardly anybody even notices -- Dirisha shows up all over the place. She's had walk-ons in the Net Force books, in Star Wars, in some of the animated shows ...
ReplyDeleteAlso, the Stellar Rangers protagonist is taught by a master who had fought the legendary Matador Saval Antoon Bork to a standstill --- I'd always taken that to indicate same universe, later in the timeline, elsewise why put in the same character name?
ReplyDeleteWilliam
And, I confess, throwing other characters in hither and yon amuses folks trying to keep track.
ReplyDeleteThe infamous criminal organization Black Sun in Star Wars is also in the Matador Universe.
There's a character in Shadows of the Empire named Benedict Quisling, a clue I offered readers as to what he was going to do, (using the first and last names of a couple of famous traitors.)
There was a long quote from T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland in one of the Conan novels. The editor caught it, alas, and took it out. I did manage to slip rat's feet over broken glass in there somewhere.
LIke Hitchcock, I sometimes give myself a walk-on in some of my books. Look for an old guy wearing glasses walking a dog or dogs ...
No real continuity from universe to universe, just some playful sprinkling of spice here and there.
Well, I guess I don't need to worry 'bout tracking down the rest of the _Stellar Ranger_ books. I'm still curious as to your thoughts on how humanity would deal w/ near immortality though --- if you don't tackle it in the Matador universe, I'd like to see it come up in some other.
ReplyDelete::sigh::
and I thought I'd left the whole multiverse thing behind when I quit reading Michael Moorcock.
William
(actually, to be honest, I haven't quit, it's just that my tolerance is much lower than it was when I was younger and the last book of his I purchased (The Dreamthief's Daughter) is sitting next to _Tales of the White Wolf_ which I couldn't finish reading 'cause the typesetting was so _incredibly bad)