Surveying the Gen X landscape and the origins of geek
George Goode is the artist, and he did a number of similar designs (viking and zulu warriors, etc.) in the late ’60s for the same company. There’s a George Goode who worked as a storyboard and layout artist from the early ’70s to the mid-’90s on nerd-canonical animated shows like Star Trek: The Animated Series, Godzilla, Dungeons & Dragons, G.I Joe: The Revenge of Cobra, and The Transformers. I don’t know for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the same guy.
Beautiful D&D-inspired piece artist Joe Linton did when he was in high school. Saved by mom, naturally. I found it on his blog, Homemade Ransom Notes.
The van was built by Gene Gamet, Terry Dodge, and Gary Glenn in Michigan in 1975, and Glenn, an airbrush legend, handled the paint job. Soon thereafter Gary took the van to Southern California, where it became a car show hero and one of the most famous custom vans in the country. Here it is in Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979):
And here’s the little addition Gary made after the movie: “Twinkie Patrol” – ‘We’re coming for your daughters’.
There’s a long conversation about the van and its creators and history at Michael Poulin’s Flickr.
Gary Glenn passed away in 2013.
(Images via Cosmo Lutz/Flickr and the Gary Glenn Memorial Page)
From the first issue of the magazine, which you can read at the Internet Archive. The ad was designed by a young Tom Canty, who has since won multiple World Fantasy Awards for Best Artist.
“From A to Z, in the Chocolate Alphabet” is a short story—a series of short shorts, really—written by Harlan Ellison and first appearing in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (October, 1976). The inspiration for the story came from a Larry Todd painting called “N is for Nemotropin,” which Todd showed to Ellison in 1974 (see the title page above). Ellison wrote the story two years later while sitting in the window of the dearly departed A Change of Hobbit bookstore in Westwood, California.
The comic book adaptation was published by Last Gasp Eco-Comics in 1978, with Todd responsible for all artwork. The original “N is for Nemotropin” painting (below) appeared on the back cover. Note what Ellison calls Todd in the introduction: “one of America’s premier visual technicians.”
In part one I give some background on the book and publisher Malcolm Whyte explains how it came to be. The material Todd covers is a very eclectic mix of ancient myth, fantasy, horror, sci-fi, pulp, children’s literature, and even poetry (Lewis Carroll, whose work was a drug culture keystone). Many of the works represented, including Lovecraft’s Dream Cycle, had recently seen new editions as part of Ballantine’s popular Adult Fantasy series.
Limited edition (1100 copies) ten plate portfolio signed by the artist. All of the pieces here originally appeared on Creepy and Eerie covers except plates one (“Lucy”) and eight (“All Hallow’s Eve”), which I believe are original to this portfolio. Earth Art subsequently released posters featuring the original works (seen below). Interestingly, according to the seller, the posters were given away as carnival prizes.
The man knows how to do zombies, does he not? And if you look closely you’ll see what the Great Old One depicted on the third module is flinging into his maw as if they were M&Ms, and what his giant tentacles churn and swipe—a funneling, appallingly endless mound of people!
Just a reminder that my interview with Tom runs tomorrow.
(All images via RPG Geek)
John Holmes (1935 – 2011) was a British artist known for his minimalist, surrealistic book covers focusing on the human body, especially the face. The Lovecraft editions seen here—edited by August Derleth—directly succeeded Ballantine’s Adult Fantasy editions, which were edited by Lin Carter with covers by Gervasio Gallardo. The first printing of the Derleth/Holmes editions shows the titles in white lettering and volumes were priced at 95¢/apiece. The second printing, at $1.50/apiece, matches the much more engaging title design with the color of Holmes’ respective faces, with HPL’s name in bold yellow.
As an aside: as much as I like Holmes’ work in the fantasy and sci-fi genres, my favorite work of his is the 1969 Panther edition of Vladimir Nabokov’s Despair. The novel is about a Russian businessman who believes a vagabond he meets in Prague is his doppelganger. He murders the man in pursuit of the perfect crime, but it turns out the man actually looks nothing like him, and the police quickly catch the imperfect criminal. The cover painting is a slippery, postmodern homage to Edvard Munch’s The Scream (1893).
Beautiful illustrations by Walter Velez, a fantasy cover artist who worked on many Star Wars publications of the time. He also did some work for TSR in the ’90s. His cover for Robert Asprin’s Thieves’ World (1979) influenced a slew of gamers.
Anyway, it’s Halloween and you can only wear one mask. Which one do you choose? I choose Ackbar.
(Images via eBay)
2 Warps to Neptune 