Jun 09
Click for larger imageRandall Frost Art Direction “I want you to really sell the sea serpent’s scales! I mean really make a gorgeous stained glass mosaic of it! Don’t waste time on the faces. Just make a couple of commas, and BOOM you got yourself a face!”
Published 1982
(Average: 7.45 out of 10)
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June 9th, 2020 at 9:06 am
Then the centaur punched a hole in the bottom of the boat with his powerful hooves, and they all drowned. The End.
June 9th, 2020 at 10:00 am
That’s really knot gneiss.
June 9th, 2020 at 10:07 am
That looks more like an Igor than an Ogre.
I think Randall Frost has the right of it: the artist spent so much time getting the scales on the serpent right (and perhaps the sea: those waves and fish aren’t bad) he ran out of time for the rest of the picture, and just hurriedly sketched in the protagonists. I particularly like the way he decided to resolve the problem of showing a very small character, the gnome or mini-golem or whatever he is, by having him humping the gunwale.
June 9th, 2020 at 10:50 am
What do they tell you about standing up in a boat?!
June 9th, 2020 at 11:39 am
‘Deep six the damned navel.’
https://www.deviantart.com/centaureg/journal/Centaurs-Don-t-Have-Bellybuttons-238504294
June 9th, 2020 at 3:35 pm
Massive hairy balls, Batman!
June 9th, 2020 at 4:21 pm
@Bruce AM—Meanwhile the big ogre seems to be getting ready to hump Robin. As for the Centaur, why do I keep hearing Chaucer?
I trowe he were a gelding or a mare
June 9th, 2020 at 4:46 pm
How timely: now that we’ve all got 80s Cabinet Minister hairstyles, a cover depicting (l-r) Ken Clark, Colin Moynehan, Hestletine (and below him, Francis Pym clinging on for dear life) and Edwina Currie, all facing down a big-toothed opponent with demon eyes.
June 9th, 2020 at 4:48 pm
That certainly is a super-70s cover. I thought that all of the Piers Anthony books were Baen-y in nature, so I am quite surprised to see this illustration that appears more at home on something by Dick King-Smith.
June 9th, 2020 at 6:59 pm
B-b-but shouldn’t it have a supermarket on the cover, at least?
June 9th, 2020 at 11:30 pm
Sea monster’s mouth is watering. Must be planning out his next few meals.
June 10th, 2020 at 1:32 am
@Ryan: Even Baen wasn’t Baen yet, being founded in1983, a year after this, and there’s a fair amount of overlap between the late 70s and early 80s, Reagan and Thatcher notwithstanding.
June 10th, 2020 at 1:55 am
I think the sea serpent swam in from a better book. Not published by SFBC, which I knew this was without checking the tags.
The two humanoids have particularly badly-drawn faces. Doesn’t matter as much on the ogre and gunwale-humper. And I agree with @BC about the centaur.
Why are the gamboling fish smiling? What good is centaur’s bow without any arrows? And is centaur going to smash in the skull of being-on-the-right? Is the boat going to capsize with someone standing up and most of the weight over to one side? And where’s the aisle?