Internal Art for Anthologies

[Greyflank]

In the old days of SF, Galaxy and other pulps would commission stories based on the art cover they had prepped for the issue. The most famous of these (that I know of) is “Going Down Smooth.”

http://www.majipoor.com/work.php?id=388

A computer starts dreaming. And then cursing… and tries to cling to sanity as his handlers just seem amused by its behavior. I really loved that story as much for the backstory as that it’s by Robert Silverberg.

Anyway, someday, maybe someone will do anthologies of furry stories based around an artist’s work.

[Bahumat]

In the old days of SF, Galaxy and other pulps would commission stories based on the art cover they had prepped for the issue. The most famous of these (that I know of) is “Going Down Smooth.”

http://www.majipoor.com/work.php?id=388

A computer starts dreaming. And then cursing… and tries to cling to sanity as his handlers just seem amused by its behavior. I really loved that story as much for the backstory as that it’s by Robert Silverberg.

Anyway, someday, maybe someone will do anthologies of furry stories based around an artist’s work.

I’ve considered doing this with some of my favorite artworks. Simon Stalenhag’s paintings cry out for stories, I think, and likewise within the furry genre there’s a few artists I’d love to pair up with writing stories to fit their pictures. (I’m looking at you, Bubblewolf.)

I know that FurAffinity user Strype regularly does little smutty stories to fit with smutty artwork he finds and likes or commissions. I’d like to get in on that on the non-smut side, if I could figure out how to monetize it!

[Munchkin]

My first written piece posted on FA was based souly off of a picture I fell in love with. It started as a simple reply to the author for “What do you think this wolf is looking out of the window for”. The story doesn’t do quite so well without the picture, but when paired it still gives me goosebumps.

Who was it… there was one artist on FA who my ex used to watch. They nearly-always paired their artwork with stories that ranged from 500-2k words. It definitely brought a lot more to the art!

[Fred_Patten]

My favorite example is the s-f paperback novel “Khi to Freedom” by Ardath Mayhar (Ace Books, May 1983); cover by Stephen Hickman. The cover shows an alien cat-woman reclining on a tree branch, with a spaceman who looks very much like Flash Gordon (except for brown hair) below her.

In the story, the spaceman is described as an African with skin so dark that it’s almost purple.

Hickman’s art is usually very accurate, so when I met him several years later, I commented that that was one time when he obviously hadn’t read the whole story. He answered that he hadn’t read the story at all, or any other Ace Books that he’d done the cover for around then. Ace’s Art Editor at that time would just telephone him and describe what she wanted. For “Khi to Freedom”, she told him to show a sexy-looking cat-woman on a tree branch above a human spaceman, so he did. It wasn’t until the book was published and he got a copy because of his cover that he discovered that the spaceman should have been a very black African.

[Dark_End]

So to come back to the original topic: Internal illustration on an anthology is awesome when you can spare the coin, but PLEASE get artists 1) a copy of the story to read and 2) contact information for the author with instructions to contact them and ensure the artwork is at least vaguely representative!

For (1), so far as I am aware, Sofawolf always does this, for novels as well as anthologies.

For (2), we typically have an editor working closely with the artist to make sure the art works well. For Heat, that’s one of Teagan’s jobs. I’m not sure how it works for novels, but I think the editor in charge of the book works with the artist.