ALIEN HORIZONS
1995
Artist: Bob Eggleton
See more of Bob's work HERE |
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On our first meeting, Bob had just stepped off a transatlantic flight, jetlagged and nauseous, but we sat straight down to work and within a few hours the outline of the book, and even the cover, was there. He can work at blinding speed without any sacrifice of quality, which makes collaborations with him a real treat.
Bob's work is wide-ranging in content and he delights in crashing the barriers between genres.
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HARD CURVES
1995
Artist: Julie Bell
Visit the Julie Bell website
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Until this book it was the custom of the old Paper Tiger to fly overseas artists to London for interviews. Julie was too busy, so I optimistically suggested they fly me over there. Ho ho. What I got was the use of their office phone.
It would have been in my interests (travel-wise) for the book to have turned out a disaster, but sadly it worked out perfectly. So even after several books, Julie and Boris only knew me as a disembodied voice until they saw the portrait on this website.
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GARLANDS OF FANTASY
1994
Artists: Linda and Roger Garland
Visit the Lakeside Gallery website
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Linda and Roger live in Cornwall so I visited them there. It's a great way both to meet people and see the world, having a book like this to focus on. Yes of course there's the pressure of getting things right within a usually horrendous deadline, but that also sharpens the senses.
As you can see elsewhere, we've since done other books together on Goddesses, Unicorns and a dragon-themed Tarot pack.
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MERMAIDS AND MAGIC
SHOWS
1994
Artist: David Delamare
Visit David Delamare's website
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David Delamare arrived in London from Portland, Oregon, with a spare pair of jeans and the optimistic notion that when a publisher's contract says 'payment on signature' it actually means you get a cheque when you sign it. Luckily strings were pulled so he could enjoy the theatres here instead of staying holed up in his very grotty hotel room.
David's paintings have a dreamy beauty that really is hard to compare to any others.
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MINIATURE BOOKS
1994
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These were an interesting diversion from the beaten track - beautifully produced little hardback books about 8 by 10 cm. They are miniature classics though I don't believe they had much of a run because they were simply too easy to shoplift. However, here's a taste of how they looked and I believe they can still be bought from the Artists UK website mentioned at the top of the page.
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ONLY VISITING THIS PLANET
1994
Artist: Danny Flynn
Visit the Danny Flynn website
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My interview with Danny began with us chasing round the Oxfordshire countryside in search of some runaway puppies. We spotted them marooned under a pylon amidst a vast, ploughed and very muddy field and had to break much of the Highway Code in getting to them. Somehow this incident coloured the whole book. There's a great warmth and love of nature in Danny's pictures, even the more fantastic SF ones, which is probably why Arthur C. Clarke likes them so much.
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HORRIPILATIONS
1993
Artist: J.K.Potter
See more of Jeff's pictures
HERE
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Jeff Potter has a weird sense of vision that enables him to take the most bizarre and haunting photographs with antique equipment and often no more than a talent for spotting the strangeness that is under our very noses. He does also sometimes perform some kind of darkroom alchemy, but less than people imagine.
Click on the cover for more, and a photo he took of me at the time.
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THROUGH A LOOKING GLASS
1992
Artist: Wayne Anderson
Visit Wayne Anderson's website
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Here's where I met Wayne Anderson. I had no idea for most of the interview that he was facing a major operation afterwards, which he more than half expected not to survive. There's a professional for you. Because of this we tried having a picture of Old Father Time on the back cover, but the editors decided it was too gloomy. They chose instead a cheerful tightrope-walking moon, which actually was apt because Wayne pulled through to continue the balancing act of his career.
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