NOT too long ago I was looking through some old Ace Books anthologies from the 1960’s. I noticed that quite a few had interior black and white illustration. This seemed a common practice back then, but is rarely done these days. Indeed, Harlan Ellison went out of his way to get Leo and Diane Dillon to do header illustrations for every story in his first Dangerous Visions book published in 1967. For the second DV volume he had artist and film-maker Ed Emshwiller doing the artistic honors. I always thought the black and white illustrations added much to the appeal of these books. At Ace Jack Gaughan did interior black and white drawings for many of the annual World’s Best Science Fiction series published during the decade. Nowadays a publisher like Fantagraphic Books (better known for it graphic novels) will put out a book that is mostly text and includes some illustrations, but in general illustrated books has been abandon by most non-children’s book publishers.
I find I miss this practice in many of the anthologies I read today and so when presented with the opportunity to design the book jacket for Mike Ashley’s collection of vintage science fiction (Steampunk Prime) I decided to follow in the footsteps of the Dillons, Emsh, and Gaughan, and create 16 story illos for the book. I have been doing advertising art for so long that I had forgotten how exhilarating it was to actual create illustrative art not geared to pleasing marketing people and focus groups. I hope to do more interior illustrations for other books in the future.
And if Harlan Ellison ever gets around to doing the Last Dangerous Visions – which he has been working on for many years now – I would love to design the book jacket and illustrate every story.
(Illustration: Luis Ortiz, from Steampunk Prime)