Bth-M.Wheln Wrks Wondr

by Michael Whelan and Michael Whelan

Book Overview

Dust jacket notes: "The imaginary lands and bizarre creatures of science fiction and fantasy exist nowhere int eh real world. AUthors invent and readers dream, but only the most talented artists have... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345326792
• ISBN13: 9780345326799
• Release Date: October 1987
• Publisher: Del Rey Books
• Length: 109 Pages
• Weight: 3.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Whelans art from sci fi book covers

Beautiful hardcover book showing lots of Mr. Whelans original art for sci-fi book covers he had been commmissioned to draw. It's interesting seeing them without the novel's titles over them, like the foundation series that i know well. Also in the book are the preliminary sketches he used to plan and experiment with before the finished painting (I have uploaded the picture of the pages of "Second Foundation" as an example). He also gives his thoughts on why the paintings are composed the way they are. Highest Recommendation.

A good intro to Whelan's work

I finally located this at a used bookstore after years of searching, and the time was well worth it! This out-of-print book is not as comprehensive as "The Art of Michael Whelan", but it certainly does the job for me. It contains beautiful reproductions of his sci-fi and fantasy book covers up to 1989, when it was published. My main reasons for wanting this book are the inclusion of the oversized piece done for "The Best of HP Lovecraft" and the John Carter of Mars gallery, reprinting every cover done for ER Burroughs' Mars series. Many of the pieces are framed with conceptual sketches, giving food for thought on how these beautiful works could have turned out differently. Other works include covers for Heinlein, Niven, Piers Anthony, and Asimov's "Robots" series.

A pity...

...that that book be out of print. It trully is beautiful. It also include many a cover of famous SF books, such as R A Heinlein's "Friday", and many more great books by Larry Niven and co. I would strongly recommend anyone interested in SF to try get that book...Many SF art books are slightly disappointing to me because they mix styles. Michael Whelan, though, is one of the most perfectionist and 'clean' SF artist - his pictures are of strange places and times, or familiar heroes, but easily understandable and enjoyable.