Covers Unbound

  American artist John Schoenherr (1935-2010) began producing SF art in the latter 1950s, working for a variety of magazines: Amazing , Fantastic and Infinity Science Fiction and especially Astounding / Analog , where he created 75 covers and many hundreds of black-and-white interior illustrations. He also worked for paperback publishers, including Ace Books and Pyramid. His most famous work is undoubtedly the art he created for Frank Herbert's Dune stories in Analog (1963-1965), and then for later book editions. Notable art on its own terms, these visualisations have also exerted considerable influence on later visualisations of Herbert’s imaginary universe, by other artists, in video games and movies. Frank Herbert said ‘I can envision no more perfect visual representation of my Dune world than John Schoenherr's careful and accurate illustrations.’ [ The Illustrated Dune (Berkley Windhover, 1978): cover above ]. Here is the cover for the initial instalment of Dune , publi...

 American artist Michael Whelan (born 1950) was inducted into ‘ The Science Fiction Hall of Fame ’ in June 2009, the first living artist so honoured. His Hall of Fame citation describes him as ‘one of the most important contemporary science fiction and fantasy artists, and certainly the most popular. His work was a dominant force in the transition of genre book covers away from the surrealism introduced in the 1950s and 1960s back to realism.’ In demand, copiously productive, Whelan has produced a deal of work for DAW books, and much for other imprints too: SF, Fantasy and Horror. His run of awards is particularly impressive: he won the Hugo for Best Professional Artist in seven consecutive years—1980 to 1986—and only didn’t win again in 1987 because he declined the nomination (he subsequently won the same award six further times, also receiving the 1988 Best Nonfiction Hugo award for his compilation, Michael Whelan's Works of Wonder ). Whelan has also won many Locus Awards, Chesl...