#2. "RE: New cover art for Last of the B" In response to Reply # 0
I've been trying to get this cover since 1986. In the early days I could suggest an idea but I had to accept Bantam's choice of artist and, usually, that artist would only communicate with the publisher through their agent ... meaning not much communication.
In the mid 1990s I started working with Greg Manchess at the Louis L'Amour Western Magazine. After awhile I got him into doing covers for the Audio division and then, finally, I got him accepted by the book people. Our relationship allowed us to work directly together, no agent or publisher slowing down the back and forth. The PRH Art Dept. is really helpful these days and does a great job on their part of the covers, lettering, color, back and inside design, Greg and I just do the art itself.
Occasionally, I have to use someone else sometimes that works out well, sometimes less so. For awhile PRH wanted us to do those photo based covers. The guys I worked with on those were great, but the medium (composited photographic elements) had a lot of limitations.
It's great to be back to working with Greg, we're ding a new cover for Sitka right now.
#7. "RE: New cover art for Last of the B" In response to Reply # 2
Its been interesting to watch the covers change over the years, mostly NOT to my liking...but I'm not the audience they are aimed at.
I came along just as LL was hitting his peak in the late 70s-80s-ish, and have always been partial to the final "logo branding" of that era. Bantam was great with that in those days (Doc Savage...a perfect series design IMHO). While many of the subsequent illos have been fine, graphic design has been pretty tepid. I like the new "Lost Treasures" the best by far of these later years, and I've been re-buying to get the special essays by Beau which are really swell and make the books definitely worth buying again. It's cool to see some of the original art still being used, like CATLOW and OVER ON THE DRY SIDE, and I think that the Manchess art is fantastic.
#8. "RE: New cover art for Last of the B" In response to Reply # 7
It's REALLY hard to get good art these days ... mostly because so few people care that the supply of artists has dried up. Art is really secondary when everyone is buying their books on-line. The good artists are also often pretty hard to work with. The guy who did The Diamond of Jeru Audio was excellent but he wouldn't talk to me without his agent on the line. Afraid of being asked to do too much or something. That's not the way to form a relationship.
With Greg I can just give him a sentence or two. Sometimes when I see the rough version I'll ask for some adjustments, you can't do this if you can't learn as you go. But again it's usually a pretty short conversation. We can do that because we've been working together for almost 30 years and we talk about sorts of other stuff. Each pretty much knows how the other thinks. We don't always get a home run like LOTB but it does increase the chances!
