...And I mean the distant past, as this was the cover layout that Russ Nicholson did for one of the books in the Fabled Lands role-playing series that I co-wrote back in the mid-'90s.I always like working with Russ because he is such a powerhouse of ideas. Ask him to come up with a fantasy setting, as we did for this book The Court of Hidden Faces, and he'll devise the costumes, rituals, architecture, fantasy creatures. I can go home early!
Take those flying buttresses in the background. They were so the city could get up and walk. Russ didn't get that from Mortal Engines, which was still five years in the future; we were in a meeting at Macmillan and he just threw it out, sketched what he meant and was right on to the next idea.
Russ did the pencils on Kingdom of Feathers, which was one of the DFC's nearly-but-didn't strips. It's a shame we never got to see that. He's one of British comics' most unfairly neglected talents, I think.
that's a great cover drawing!
ReplyDeleteThe odd thing was, the publisher got Russ to do the interior pics, but they gave his cover design to another artist who completely redrew it:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.arielarchives.com/brett/FL5.jpg
that is odd -- i prefer russ's.
ReplyDeleteMe too!
ReplyDeleteFantastic artwork, love the guy far right,
ReplyDelete