5 Questions with Alan M. Clark - Artist Edition

I am pleased to have another of my favorite artists grace the virtual pages of my blog. I've admired Alan M. Clark's work in the horror field for many years. In fact, if you've read horror at all, you have surely seen his distinctive covers. Just take a look at his credentials page. I have bought books based on his covers alone, and that says a lot - I'm kind of a stingy bastard! Anyway, much thanks to Alan for not only answering my five questions, but for giving me permission to put up some of his wonderful work!

"I Become My Resting Place" Ó Alan M. Clark

1 – What have you been working on lately?

I have been writing and illustrating The Door That Faced West. It should come out in the fall. The novel will be the seventh I've had published, but only the second one of my own writing that I've illustrated.

"The Loveliest Dead" Ó Alan M. Clark
Medium: Acrylic on board. Size: 12"x18". Matted and framed. Cover for THE LOVELIEST DEAD by Ray Garton. Cemetery Dance Publications

2 – Who’s your favorite artist and/or what’s your favorite piece?

Max Ernst, one of the original members of both Dadaists and Surrealist movements, a great explorer in art.

"In the Night, In the Dark" Ó Alan M. Clark - one of his newest!
Medium: Acrylic on board. Size: 24"x16". Cover art for the Double Down book, Only the Thunder Knows/East End Girls by Gord Rollo and Rena Mason respectively - Journalstone Press

3 – What’s your favorite aspect of creating art?

Discovery – stumbling upon the unexpected while in the creative process. I might set out with a goal, but however tightly I try to manage the production of a piece of art in trying to reach that goal, the unexpected pops up. And, actually, I crave it. It keeps the work interesting and fresh. I've learned to pack the process with opportunities for discovery. Many times, what I discover along the way is better than anything I had preconceived.

"The Halloween Mouse" Ó Alan M. Clark - the cover of a children's tale written by the late, great Richard Laymon

4 – Any good anecdotes about being in the business?

When I was starting out and going to New York to get work, a friend of mine, Jack Daves, a country fellow and a writer of horror, gave me a buckeye and told me to rub it before going in to my appointments. What did I have to lose? I took the buckeye with me as I made my rounds. One of the companies I had an appointment with was the Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club. I rubbed the buckeye, the meeting with the art director went well, I left samples and eventually went home. I got a call from that art director not long after that and he gave me a job. I called Jack to tell him about it. "What's the job," he asked. "I'm to do the cover for John the Balladeer by Manley Wade Wellman," I said. "He's my favorite writer," Jack said, "That's a collection of his pulp stories about a guy named Silver John who fought evil in the Appalachian Mountains with folk magic. The Silver John stories are his best." "Great I said, because they've given me a short deadline. Maybe you can help by suggesting which of the stories I should read to get the flavor." "Yes," he said, "And Robert (A friend of ours from a band called The Shakers) would make a perfect Silver John. We'll dress him up right and you'll have a model." This all worked out well. I did the illustration and got paid. Almost a year later, I got contributor copies in the mail and sat down to read the stories I hadn't read. In one of them, John was talking about carrying a buckeye for good luck. All excited, I called Jack and told him about it. "I know," he said. "That's how I got the idea."

"Long After da Vinci" Ó Alan M. Clark - another of his newer pieces!
Medium: Acrylic on board. Size: 12"x18". Cover art for THE RISING: SELECTED SCENES FROM THE END OF THE WORLD by Brian Keene, published by Deadite Press

5 – What was the most helpful craft advice you've ever received?

I was told by my high school English teacher, "Show, don't tell." I use the advice in my writing, but have learned that it is just as valuable in illustration. Interpretations of one’s art should vary.

"The Pain Doctors of Suture Self General" Ó Alan M. Clark

5 Questions with Russell Dickerson - Artist Edition

Russell Dickerson created an illustration for my short story Fetal Position when it appeared in a small horror zine called Wicked Hollow a while back. The illustration went on to be included in Spectrum 9; The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art. (You can check out the illustration here.) Anyway, I've followed Russell's work ever since, and I'm thrilled he agreed to answer my 5 questions.

Digital manipulation - Sleep of the Dark Ones

BUT before or after you check out his answers, you need to see his step-by-step process of how he created the above work. It is incredibly cool! See it here. I'll wait.

Okay, here we go...

1 – What have you been working on lately?

I recently finished a cover for S.P. Miskowski's book Astoria – part of the series of covers that I've done for her. I'm currently working on the cover for Vincenzo Bilof's Queen of the Dead, the second cover I've done for his zombie series. I'm also getting back to working on original inks, hopefully I can do quite a few of those in the coming months.

2 – Who’s your favorite artist and/or what’s your favorite piece?

I can't say that I have just one specific art or favorite piece, because I love so many artists and works. It's one of the reasons I keep a running "Creations that inspire me" Pinterest board, since I always find new pieces to love. Put on the spot, though, I could maybe toss out a few artists. Caspar David Friedrich, Franklin Booth, Bernie Wrightson, N.C. Wyeth, Michael Whelan, Thomas Cole, Berkeley Breathed, Arnold Bocklin, and the list goes on and on.

3 – What’s your favorite aspect of creating art?

I think it's the idea that I can explore these different worlds, different visions even, that I can't see in real life. I maybe don't even want to see them, especially as many of my pieces are horror. But the exploration of the unknown, of the strange and unusual, is fascinating to me. It's something that art is perfect for.

4 – Any good anecdotes about being in the business?

I'm sure I have lots of convention stories especially, but I'd have to have a fair amount of drinks to go into them.

5 – What was the most helpful craft advice you’ve ever received?

The funny thing is, I don't get to talk to artists that often. My list of friends is chock full of authors, so I don't get to talk shop very often with other artists. But I think the authors that I know always have great advice that works for any kind of creator. I think the most important of those, that many of the fine authors I know have said, is that the most important thing any creator can do is put down that first word (or line in my case). One word leads to two, two leads to a sentence, and before long you have a whole story created. For me, it's always that first line that's the worst, so it's sage advice.

5 Questions with Keith Minnion - Artist Edition

I became an instant fan of Keith Minnion's art when I first saw it gracing the covers of Greg Gifune's magazine The Edge - Tales of Suspense. Afterwards, I saw much of his work appear in the magazines Cemetery Dance and Weird Tales. His work is distinctive. It can be subtle. It is often highly detailed. But it always evokes the perfect mood for whatever tale he illustrates. To top it off, Keith is also a fine writer.

Pencil drawing for Loren Rhodes story "Still Life with Shattered Glass" in CD #54

1 - What have you been working on lately?

At the moment my entire house is packed up in boxes (studio stuff too) for a move to a new house in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, so I have no deadline illustration commissions work currently on the board. I do have cover/interior/etc. work coming out soon for a massive story collection of Tim Curran’s work for Tasmaniac called “Cemetery Wine”; also an illustration in CD (Cemetery Dance) #70; and I just agreed to do all of the interior illustrations for a big horror anthology coming out next year. On the fiction side I have a story that just came out in the “Eulogies-II” anthology, and I have a rather long horror story coming out soon in “Postscripts.” I am also working on a military thriller novel, a horror novella, and a middle-grade juvenile fantasy novel – all of which I can continue to hack away at because their respective notebooks are NOT packed, and my iMAC remains plugged in until moving day!

Acrylic polymer and ink for Ronald Kelly's Undertaker's Moon

2 - Who’s your favorite artist and/or what’s your favorite piece?

Favorite artists:

I love a very broad range of painters, so I have quite a few. Abstract expressionist? Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still. Minimalist? Robert Ryman and Robert Mangold. Impressionist? Maurice Prendergast and Childe Hassam. Symbolist/Decadent? Edward Burne-Jones. Realist? Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper. Illustrator? N.C. Wyeth, Joseph Clement Cole, Virgil Finlay, and Roger Dean. All of who in no particular pecking order.

Favorite piece:

Has to be two: Early Sunday Morning by Edward Hopper, and Siri by Andrew Wyeth.

3 - What’s your favorite aspect of creating art?

For my illustration work, it is doing all the grunt research to insure the final image is completely correct in every detail. I prefer to illustrate a scene that the writer does NOT describe (why duplicate something the reader will do better in their mind’s eye anyway?). This way I can ADD something new to the story and the reading experience.

Pencil drawing for Bentley Little's story "The Move" in CD #34

4 - Any good anecdotes about being in the business?

This is from the 1990s: Rich Chizmar sending me three manuscripts to illustrate for the next CD issue with the note: Can I have these next week? Then sending me three more stories a few days later, same deadline. Wait, I asked, isn't this all of the stories for this issue? Yep, he replied. You can have the cover too if you have something handy. Very cool.

Acrylic and ink for Ray Garton's Graven Image

5 - What was the most helpful craft advice you've ever received?

Don’t run with scissors. And always use the best tools and materials you can afford – that is 80% of the battle right there. And ALWAYS beat the deadline!