Patrick Woodroffe - 1940-2014

I was saddened to learn of the death of the great fantasy artist Patrick Woodroffe on the 10th May. I'll always remember the cover he did for the Corgi edition of The Satyr's Head and Other Tales of Terror in 1975, illustrating my title story more vividly than I could have ever imagined. His iconic artwork graced the covers of numerous fantasy novels, as well as record sleeves. There was never any mistaking his work, it was so outstandingly characteristic.

One of my prized possessions is his book Mythopoeikon, which contains some of his best artwork from the 60s and 70s

Nightmare on Mad Gull Island by Adrian Cole

 

Copied from Pete Coleborn's excellent Piper at the Gates of Dawn website:

Coming at Easter 2014, and brand new from Spectre Press: Cthulhu 4: Nightmare on Mad Gull Island is a Nick Nightmare novella by Adrian Cole. The wraparound cover is by Jim Pitts, also making a welcome return to the genre.

Publisher Jon Harvey says: “Since restarting Spectre Press in 2012, after a 30-year hiatus, I have begun publishing again. The first was a portfolio of artwork by the likes of Stephen Fabian, David Lloyd, SMS and Dave Stewart – eleven plates in all, plus a wraparound cover and a booklet that introduced each plate. Then in 2013, I decided to resurrect an old favourite publication of mine, Cthulhu: Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. Issue 4 is the aforementioned Nightmare on Mad Gull Island. Cthulhu 5 is a new novella by Andrew Darlington. More titles to follow.”

Nightmare on Mad Gull Island is available in two formats: booklet (£5.00) and hardcover, which includes an article by Jon Harvey, “Pulp Fiction”, and an afterword by Adrian Cole in which he discusses Nick Nightmare. The signed, numbered hardcover edition costs £20.00.

Contact Jon Harvey at spectrepress01 [at] gmail.com for ordering details.

Paul Mudie nominated for Best Artist - BFS Awards

Paul Mudie, who has done every cover for the Black Books of Horror has reached the shortlist for the British Fantasy Award for Best Artist. Congratulations Paul!

These are some of his covers:

More Artwork

Having started to rummage through some old papers, I've come across a few more pieces of artwork I did decades ago. Here are a couple of the better ones. If anyone thinks the face of the undead king looks familiar, I copied it off a picture by Albrecht Durer, one of my favourite artists. Call it homage. The second picture is supposed to be based on Pickman's Model by the one and only H P Lovecraft.