QUESTION AND ANSWER

Cover illustration for Poul Anderson

Sep 11, 2024

A man stands with a shovel in hand as he regards a cairn set with a makeshift cross made of wood and twine. Around him is a mixed group of humans and bipedal aliens. The humans drop their heads dejectedly. The alien bodies resemble that of a kangaroo while the head, ears, and stripes are reminiscent of a lynx. The scene is set against a pearlescent pink and lavender sky with a huge craggy moon hanging low and another smaller moon floating high above. — QUESTION AND ANSWER (1977), Acrylic on Masonite

Early in my career, I had the great privilege of illustrating the work of legends, among them Poul Anderson who shared his thoughts in my first art book Wonderworks:

Two page spread from WONDERWORKS titled "SCIENCE FICTION" with art featuring a spaceship in an arc over a lunar surface. On the horizon several stone formations jut out of the ground. The arc of a large planet fills the thin stretch of sky at the top. Below is an essay written by Poul Anderson. Far from being an insignificant offshoot of the “mainstream,” fantasy is the wellspring of literature. It was likely the first form of storytelling, ages before the idea of writing existed. Certainly the oldest narratives we possess are fantasy, tales of gods and heroes who had adventures which could never happen in mundane life. Science fiction of a sort came along not much later; for example, the Odyssey. “Realistic” novels didn’t appear until a mere thousand or so years ago, and have only become dominant in the past couple of centuries. Today we seem to be witnessing at least a modest resurgence in the popularity of the imaginative story. Fantasy and science fiction art shares the same antiquity. Together with those splendid naturalistic cave paintings are works more enigmatic. From the earliest historic times onward, we get countless depictions of that on which no living eye ever fell. In our contemporary world, the literary revival of high-flying fancy has called forth an abundance of gifted artists to illustrate and enrich those dreams. Over the years, l've seen covers and interior drawings for tales of mine and learned for the most part to pay them scant heed, because the majority have been bad or mediocre. When a good one has come along, though, I have naturally been delighted. Well, I never had a greater experience of this kind than when I first saw simultaneously prints of Michael Whelan’s cover paintings for novels by me that Ace Books was reprinting. Why? The reason is twofold. First, he is an extremely fine artist by any standards. Composition, color, stances, facial expressions, all are marvelously handled, to produce scenes that are dramatic but never melodramatic. Indeed, when for The Night Face an unconscious human is being carried off by a band of apelike creatures, the effect is precisely the half mystical one for which the text strives; it’s like a staging of Ondine. The eerie twilight on World Without Stars, the vigorous humor on The Man Who Counts, the sorrow on Question and Answer—these too show just what I was hoping to convey, which is most encouraging to me as a writer. Thus we arrive at the second major reason for Whelan's importance. He reads. Remarkably few illustrators do, you know. Far too often (with honorable exceptions, of course) the pictures they produce bear little or no relationship to what the author was describing. Michael Whelan obviously studies manuscripts with care, then thinks hard, before starting work. I assure you that in everything mentioned above, and surely in most everything else, he has gotten settings and people—including nonhuman people—exactly right. — Introduction to the Science Fiction section of *Wonderworks*

“[Michael Whelan] is an extremely fine artist by any standards. Composition, color, stances, facial expressions, all are marvelously handled, to produce scenes that are dramatic but never melodramatic…

“The eerie twilight on WORLD WITHOUT STARS, the vigorous humor on THE MAN WHO COUNTS, the sorrow on QUESTION AND ANSWER—these too show just what I was hoping to convey, which is most encouraging to me as a writer…

"...I assure you that in everything mentioned above, and surely in most everything else, he has gotten settings and people—including nonhuman people—exactly right."