Introducing Wonderworks

Remastering the e-book

and

Sep 22, 2024

Ruth, a pearl white dragon with green eyes, poses regally with wings spread against a cliff face. Her rider Jaxom rears back, saddle-mounted just above her wings. A foreclaw grips rock as the other releases, flexing like fingers. Ruth's tail, marked with a parallel ridges of short spikes and ending in a spade-shaped tip, curls forward around her back leg. A tiny dragon grasps Jaxom's finger, perching like a bird. Across the misty valley, a group of dragons take flight, soaring past the Red Star which hangs in deep blue sky like a bloody moon just above the jagged spine of mountains. — Detail from THE WHITE DRAGON (1978)

Editor’s Note: The Donning Company published Michael Whelan’s first art collection in 1979 under the Starblaze imprint. Both Wonderworks and the artist were nominated for Hugo awards that year.

In 1980, Michael won the Hugo for Best Artist for the first time. He would earn that prestigious honor for the next 7 years consecutively—13 times overall—establishing himself as the most decorated artist in the genres of science fiction and fantasy.

The following are his thoughts on illustration as presented in the foreword to that first book.

Book cover for WONDERWORKS featuring THE WHITE DRAGON — *Wonderworks* (Donning, 1979), Second Edition

Foreword

A good artist is a good communicator. The art form may be written, oral, visual or a host of others, but the resulting creation must convey something to its audience. Therefore, the artist has to skillfully combine craftsmanship and approach so that an idea or feeling is clearly communicated to a significant number of people.

In the field of illustration, this concept is complicated further by the illustrator’s task of re-expressing the ideas of another artist: the author. Ultimately, not only must the artist communicate the thrust of someone else's ideas to a significant number of people, he also must do this in a manner consistent with the author’s vision, while doing his best not to miscommunicate his own. Add to this the necessary element of commercialism and the illustrator's major dilemmas become apparent.

View of space from the barren surface of a planet or moon. A person stands under and arch of stone staring out in awe at the dotted field of deep blue. In the upper left, one star glows so bright a hazy aura forms around it. — BLUE ARCHWAY (1978), Acrylic on Illustration Board - 16" x 24"

Successful communication in the field of editorial illustration involves two important considerations. First, like every good artist, the successful illustrator is a simplifier. His foremost talent is the ability to select and then to emphasize, subdue, or to omit given information in such a way that the message comes through. In other words, the fine editorial illustrator has a commitment to transcribe faithfully in visual form the most important aspects of a story. The task is made especially difficult by the demands of the field, because the second consideration facing the illustrator is that the image he creates must be sales-worthy.

Often, the illustration has to survive poor color reproduction, clashing mammoth type, indiscriminate cropping, and generally unimaginative graphic design. In the special area of paperback book cover art (which represents the majority of my work to date) there are even more frustrating restrictions. For example, how can each cover illustration be unique and striking when the top third must be left “open” for title type and the whole image reduced to a mere four by seven inches?

The artist must walk a fine line between commercial necessity and aesthetic responsibility. One wonders why such artwork should be bothered with at all! But for me, there’s the irresistible challenge of creating a vital and expressive piece of art out of the inherent difficulties in commercial illustration.

A bearded man wearing a mask, black turtleneck sweater and pants holds out his hand with fingers tensed. Floating in front of him is a metallic orb. Behind him is a swirling abstraction of alien faces. — Untitled (1975), Acrylic

And then there are the stories.

I find a special attraction in fantasy and science fiction illustration in the written material itself. There is a seemingly infinite variety of writing in this field, and it calls for the greatest use of my imaginative and creative abilities. In doing fantasy and science fiction illustration, I can be absolutely faithful to a writer’s story and still paint a picture that echoes fantasies I’ve nurtured since my first flight to Mars—aboard the spaceship I drew on the underside of my parents’ coffee table when I was 4 years old.

Looming low in a rusty sky, a craggy moon straddles the horizon. With engines burning green, ships shaped like manta rays sweep over a devastated battlefield. A robot, as seen from behind, stands tall over the husks of futuristic tanks. The fin on its head defines its line of sight right as it follows the airships. Its muzzle, reminiscent of a llama, is set on a long broad neck with square serrations projecting from the sides and back. Its broad shoulders and long torso rests on a tripod of squat legs, each set on an independent motorized tread. The sinuous fingers of one hand grip a blaster pistol, while an additional pairs of arms project from its waist with similar tendril-like digits. — ARMAGEDDON (1978), Acrylic on Illustration Board - 20" x 30"

So, many of my own ideas and feelings go into my work. But because I strive to fulfill my obligation as an illustrator—to express narrative, characters, themes, or moods as the authors describe them—my paintings reflect a part of the author as well. Hence, the design of the book you are now holding.

I’ve invited several authors for whose books I’ve done cover art to share their thoughts about the importance of good illustration. Together, my artwork and comments along with the authors’ views tell much about the field of science fiction and fantasy literature and its “packaging.”

Here is Wonderworks—a look at the first years of my career as an editorial illustrator, but more importantly a communication of my own sense of wonder and my wish to inspire yours.

Michael Whelan
Brookfield, Connecticut
Fall 1978

Share The Art of Michael Whelan

Remastered cover for WONDERWORKS featuring title text above a red bordered rectangle that contains THE WHITE DRAGON illustration. The wings of Ruth extend outside of the box on the right. Below reads: Science fiction & fantasy art by Michael Whelan — Re-worked cover image and type for the digital spread of the ebook cover

Remastering the Past

More than a decade ago I started archiving Michael’s art books for digital reference. The PDFs I assembled have served as intended for years, allowing me to quickly search for what I need to curate daily art posts, but as you would expect these files were meant to be practical not pretty.

I had a notion that this project would eventually lead me to produce e-books to fill the gap left by long out-of-print editions of Wonderworks (Donning 1979), Michael Whelan’s Works of Wonder (Del Rey 1987), and The Art of Michael Whelan (Bantam 1993). The question has always been whether fans would want such a thing.

Two page spread from WONDERWORKS titled “Sword & Sorcery” featuring art. In the immediate right foreground is a male warrior with winged helm armed with sword and shield but wearing only a thong. Across from him on the left is a female spellcaster holding up her hand. Lighting forks downward. A text introduction by Michael Moorcock is set in two columns at the middle of the spread. — Original “Sword & Sorcery” chapter introduction for *Wonderworks* written by Michael Moorcock

To make electronic editions viable, I knew I would need to do more than replicate the print editions. I spent quite a bit of time wrapping my head around where the books could be improved, and I kept coming back to paintings that fell between the cracks. It’s surprising how many great illustrations still have not been featured in an art book because of timing and circumstances—I can name quite a few!

A lot of that has to do with Works of Wonder being published by Del Rey. Michael’s second art collection featured covers only for that one publisher. Many illustrations completed for other publishers from 1979 to 1987 would be featured later in The Art of Michael Whelan…but not all.

When we eventually follow-up to with another coffee table book, we’ll have an eye towards filling in the rest. For now, there is an opportunity to do that with remastered digital editions.

With that in mind, I pushed past the publication date of Wonderworks (1979) so that I could include paintings that made sense even if they came out later. That would mean expanding representation of authors like Poul Anderson, C.J. Cherryh, and H. Beam Piper. A bit of a no-brainer there, right?

The original print edition of Wonderworks runs 120 pages. The e-book now stretches to the equivalent of 220 pages. It’s not quite done as I still have text to assemble, and that’s going to take some coaxing “behind-the-scenes” information from Michael.

In the meantime, I thought I’d show off some of the design changes. (Make sure to click the images to see the page layouts in all their high res glory!)

Redesigned “Heroines” spread featuring an Amazon warrior with a long spread resting over her should. The title is set in serif font in the lower right with a subheading that reads “With an introduction by C.J. Cherryh”. — “Heroines“ chapter illustration for *Wonderwrks*

Introduction to the “Heroines” section written by C.J. Cherryh

Side by side page detail from the Heroines chapter featuring GATE OF IVREL, the cover of the book by C.J. Cherryh, and a pen and ink sketch. The text reads, “The context for this commission—quite possibly lost in the long arc of our careers—was as C.J. Cherryh's debut novel. It was also a unique assignment coming in the first year of my career when I was almost exclusively paired with well established authors.” — Page detail for GATE OF IVREL

Michael created unique art for each chapter of the print edition. Most of that art was sold before he had a chance to photograph it, so there is no archival record. Unfortunately that left me to work from 70s quality print—not ideal but with a little photo editing magic I was determined to make it work.

To improve the reader experience, I separated text from the chapter art. The goal was to give the art breathing room to appreciate it in full and to give the reader a break from eye strain.

As you can see below, the format change allowed me to include additional art where space permitted.

Redesigned “Sword & Sorcery” spread featuring the same art. The title in white serif font stretches across both pages with a subheading “With an introduction by Michael Moorcock” in light gray. The text introduction is absent. — “Sword & Sorcery” chapter illustration for *Wonderworks*

Heading: Michael Moorcock. Introduction reads: Michael Whelan is perhaps the best artist regularly to illustrate my American paperback editions. He seems to be able to cater for the genre demands whilst giving a decent interpretation of the characters and moods of the books. This is particularly true of Elric. The market demands muscles (my hero is actually something of a weakling), so Whelan has done muscles. But, he has brought up the demonic element in the character—his griefs, his internal struggles and so on—and has emphasized the sword, the alien qualities of my protagonist, and the wild, romantic landscapes. This is evident in what I think is his best cover in the series (although they are all far better than most I get)—the cover for Stormbringer! This is probably the best book in the series and my own particular favourite and Whelan appears to have pulled out all stops on depicting Elric at the height of his struggle—internal, external, and cosmic! Having suffered from some pretty extraordinary Elrics (several on early paperbacks and magazine covers were unrecognizable—one was black, doubtless because the artist had looked up albinoism in the dictionary and found it sometimes referred to "white negroes" in an area of Africa once controlled by the Portuguese!); and so I am more than usually grateful for an artist who not only depicts him as I imagine (and describe him), but who also manages to capture some of the appropriate atmosphere; for in a romance of this sort hero and landscape are essentially one thing. Moreover it's a pleasure to have an artist who can draw. Too often a decent cover idea has been marred by the simple fact that the artist in question isn’t very good at simple anatomical detail. Fantasy subject matter is often an excuse to obscure and tangle-over mistakes which would never be allowed in other types of paintings. It’s something from which Whelan's work is by and large refreshingly free. Fantasy art, like fantasy fiction, demands certain disciplines which must be firmly adhered to if the work is going to be worthwhile. These days there are too many bad artists drawing monsters and “alien” people, because their draughtsmanship and sense of anatomy isn't all it should be. You never get this feeling with Whelan. You feel he could do a perfectly straightforward painting if he chose to. His work has that kind of authority which the best sword and sorcery has. You know the authors write pretty much anything they cared to—but what they enjoyed was fantasy. Michael Whelan obviously enjoys doing fantasy too and as a result I have a series of covers far better than any series of covers I have had in America before. — Introduction to the “Sword & Sorcery” section written by Michael Moorcock

Side by side page detail from the Sword & Sorcery chapter featuring SAILOR ON THE SEAS OF FATE, the cover of the book by Michael Moorcock, and a pencil sketch. The text reads, "Nice things sometimes come out of necessity. My usual dilemma—keeping the top third of the painting empty enough for type—was solved by the misty fog that envelopes the scene. The usual riggings, sail, and mast are somewhat obscured and fade away behind it, leaving plenty of room for the type and setting—exactly the mood that the author created to surround his mystical anti-hero, Elric." — Page detail for SAILOR ON THE SEAS OF FATE

There are a total of six sections in Wonderworks:

Science Fiction with an introduction by Poul Anderson
Sword & Sorcery with an introduction by Michael Moorcock
Romantic Fantasy with an introduction by Anne McCaffrey
Horror with an introduction by Gerald W. Page
Heroines with an introduction by C.J. Cherryh
Aliens with an introduction by Alan Dean Foster

Paid subscribers will be receiving an expanded preview that will include all of these sections—expect that in a separate email soon—and ultimately the entire book when it’s complete. We’ll also be making the e-book of Wonderworks available in the shop.

What do you think? Does this look like a worthwhile update for an old classic?

Weekly Art Recap

Grid of images corresponding to the titles listed below — Art featured Sept 16-21

White Wolf - cover illustration for Weird of the White Wolf by Michael Moorcock
Chasm - a fan favorite from the Faded Star series
Turn Left at Tethys - the 2nd Leftover & Palette Gremlin for 2024
Sanctuary - both a Passage and Portals painting
City of Golden Shadows - cover for the Otherland book by Tad Williams
Afternoon Shadows - with a special dedication to Audrey’s mother Pat Larsen who passed away on Tuesday at the age of 103.

Question and Answer with Michael

Given the events of this week, we’re going to postpone the Q&A and pick it up in a later newsletter. If you have questions for Michael, please continue to send those in via comment or email reply.