EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 14 © 2016 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

96 @ It is always really heartwarming when we receive feedback from the artists that we feature—the message below is from Pacha who was our number one contact when we were working on Android Jones' feature in issue 12: I received my copy of illustrators magazine and it is BEAUTIFUL! The print quality is fantastic, and the layout looks great! Nice JOB! Andrew has requested a pdf version of the article. This way we can save it in our archives. Plus we run everything in digital, so we would love to have a copy in this format. Thank you very much! —Pacha We were also extremely stoked when the amazingly talented Denis Zilber posted these pictures on his Facebook page apropos of his feature in issue 12: Coming Soon Neal Adams! And we were honoured to receive the following message from Curt Swan biographer Eddy Zeno: To those involved in the making of this fine publication; Thank you; issue eleven was beautiful. I especially liked the treatment given to the career of James McConnell. Very much looking forward to the full-length book to come. Thank you again, and best wishes; —Eddy Zeno We were very pleased to receive the following review of issue 9 from G.F. Willmetts, editor at: SFCrowsnest.org.uk which is the go-to resource for science fiction fans with monthly hits in excess of 100.000 As soon as I saw the cover of Illustrators 9, I recognised the work of Bruce Pennington because it's the cover of 'Time, Space And Nathaniel' by Brian Aldiss. It's also one of the few times where I bought the book for the cover art but didn't care for the stories (four of them) inside. Said art also graced the great Science Fiction Monthly magazine from the 70s, too, and that's where I learnt who painted it. A large part of this magazine is devoted to Pennington's work and life story and even, after all this time, a few surprises. He was the first to paint the original NEL 'Dune' trilogy and the first two covers aren't typically his work which is a lot finer but I suspect deadlines played a part in it. Pennington admits in his later years, he's not keen on tight deadlines. His work is also in gouache, a designer watercolour, layers of ink and varnish, making it even more remarkable because of his use of colour and nothing blending together. Breaking into the industry after art college, Pennington's break came from film poster work before being able to make the jump into book covers and becoming an in-demand artist, especially in our genre, covering not only SF but fantasy and horror. The variety of his book covers is breath- taking and if you've missed out on his work, then this magazine will put things into context. I suspect if you own SF books from the 70s-80s, then you will probably already have some in your collection, just not knowing who did them. He was the main cover artist in the UK for writers Brian Aldiss and Ray Bradbury, amongst others. If you want something away from our genre, an examination of the art of Joanna Henly who has an eye for drawing women with pale shades is worth looking at and a demonstration that less can make it look better. Just in case you think all the artists here are contemporary, lastly there is a look at the work of Eric R. Parker. If the name doesn't sound too familiar, then you need to remember the private detective Sexton Blake . Long before Blake became an ITV children's series starring Laurence Payne and Roger Foss in the 1960s-70s, Parker illustrated the series in Union Jack magazine. The article here covers and shows a variety of other work he also did. From what is described, Parker could map out a design in his head and have it drawn out very quickly without any necessity to change things. Very prolific and this made for a nice icing on the cake. Although illustrators is an expensive quarterly magazine and this edition is a year old, it does step into our genre from time to time and it might pay you to see who they cover next. Looking at the paper quality and being squarebound, explains its high price. If you are after specific editions, you might find it easier buy directly off The Book Palace than through other sources in the UK and, in the USA, via Bud Plant. —G.F. Willmetts