Cover Illustration for Der Schmerz des Erwachens (The Awakening) by Brett McBean, Festa, 2015
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- Skizze
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- Erste Farbschicht
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- Zweite Farbschicht
Dritte Farbschicht
Scan des fertigen Bildes
Cover © Festa
German Edition of the Novel The Awakening by Brett McBean ; to be published in a limited edition in 2015 by Festa.
From the publisher’s preview:
“Für Toby ist es der letzte Sommer vor der High School. Die Gedanken des 14-Jährigen kreisen um die unerreichbaren Mayfour-Schwestern, nächtliche Horrorfilm-Marathons und darum, Dwayne und seiner Gang nicht in die Quere zu kommen.
Und dann ist da noch Mr. Joseph. Der entstellte, alte Mann lebt zurückgezogen in dem schäbigen Haus gegenüber, beißt Hühnern den Kopf ab, starrt den Kindern nach und wird häufig das Opfer gemeiner Streiche.
Eines Nachts wird Toby Zeuge eines solchen Streichs und muss erkennen, dass Monster existieren – nur nicht unbedingt dort, wo wir sie erwarten …
Brett McBean erzählt eine packende, düstere Geschichte über einen unvergesslichen Sommer und eine ungewöhnliche Freundschaft – und über eine fremde Welt voller Tod, Schmerz, Voodoo-Geister, Sklaven, böse Hexer … und Zombies!”
The painting shows Ghede Nibo (or as in the book: Guédé Nimbo), an intermediary between the living and the dead in Haitian Vodou.
Illustrations for “The Alchemy of the Throat” and “The Dripping of Sundered Wineskins” by Brian Hodge, 1999
The book Von Heiligen und Mördern, a collection of two loosely connected novellettes by Brian Hodge, was edited by Frank Festa as part of his Edition Metzengerstein and published by Blitz. Initially they were published within Poppy Z. Brite’s anthologies Love in Vain 1 (1994) und 2 (1995). The first novelette, “The Alchemy of the Throat” (Die Alchemie der Stimme), was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award, the second,”The Dripping of Sundered Wineskins” (Von Heiligen und Mördern), for the World Fantasy Award.
I love both stories deeply, to work with them and to create these 13 drawings was pure joy.
The book cover was designed by Malte S. Sembten, based on two black-and-white, Celtic inspired initials that I painted with acrylic.
Cover: © Blitz
Illustrations for Edition Metzengerstein and Festa, 1996–98
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- Henry S. Whitehead, Der persische Ghoul
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- Henry S. Whitehead, Der persische Ghoul
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- Frank Festa (Hh.), Lovecrafts dunkle Idole
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- Eddie Angerhuber, Die verborgene Kammer (nicht verwendet)
Henry S. Whitehead was an American writer of horror and fantasy fiction and a friend of H.P. Lovecraft. His portrait (embellished with details from his stories “The Chadburne Episode”, “Scar Tissue” and “Bothon”) was a commission for the short fiction collection Der persische Ghoul. The book was edited by Marco Frenschkowsky, translated and designed by Malte S. Sembten. and published within Frank Festa’s Edition Metzengerstein in 1996.
The acrylic painting portraying H.P. Lovecraft was used as a interior illustration in Lovecrafts Dunke Idole, an anthology with Lovecrafts favorite authors, edited by Frank Festa in 2007.
The cover illustration for Die geheime Kammer by Eddie Angerhuber, also an acrylic painting, wasn’t used for the book. Regardless of whether you like the picture or not (I do like the privet hawk moth, but not the rest), I have to admit that it wouldn’t have matched the edition’s design.
A fourth commission for Edition Metzengerstein were the illustrations for Von Heiligen und Mördern by Brian Hodge.
Cover: © Festa
Cover illustrations for Atlan comic books, 1995/96
Atlan is one of the main characters in the science fiction pulp series Perry Rhodan and the title hero of the Atlan series, which has been published intermittently and in various form since 1969. These three hardcover albums, reprints of three volumes of the comic series Perry – Unser Mann im All were published by Hans Joachim Bernt Verlag in a limited edition of 800 copies in 1996/97. The paintings (the only case in which a publisher bought not only the publishing rights, but also the original artwork) may show that I am more familiar with ancient Egyptian gods than with spaceships …
Cover: © HJB Verlag
Cover Illustrations for Two Paperbacks by Jay Bonansinga and Bernard Taylor 1994
Cover illustrations for two horror/mystery thrillers by the US American author Jay Bonansinga (Black Mariah) and the English author Bernard Taylor (Evil Intent). The German translations both published by Bastei Lübbe in 1995. The cover illustrations were quite close to the original editions, especially in the case of Die Handschrift des Bösen (Evil Intent) where the English cover photo served as a reference for my oil painting.
Mr. Taylors name is misspelled on the cover, his first name is Bernard, not Bernhard. Well, shit happens.
Cover Illustrations for Zaubermond, 1994/95
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- DK Buch 27
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- DK Buch 28
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- DK Buch 29
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- DK Buch 31
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- DK Edition Classics, Buch 32
Cover illustration for The Killer Wasps of Dr. X (detail)
The German publisher Zaubermond was founded in 1994, in the beginning mainly to reprint two horror pulp series from the 70s and 80s, Dämonenkiller and Larry Brent. I produced 11 cover illustrations and 14 black-and-white interior illustrations for Zaubermond pulp booklets as well as hardcover editions. Some of the pictures were used again by Bastei.
In some cases (image 1, 2, 4 and 5) the original paintings are lost.
Cover: © Zaubermond
