The New Jim Baen's Universe Cover Artist

Well, that's me! I hardly believe it myself! It's astounding! It's fantastic! It's startling!

Here's December 2008's cover. I chose to feature legendary writer Ben Bova's Moon Race. I'll make a few more tweaks on it before publication, but this is the basic idea:


The piece is very much inspired by the works of the 1940's-50's sc-fi and fantasy pulp magazine artists. I was born too late to get the pulps off the newstands, but I am lucky to know them through second hand finds and printed collections. I spent many happy hours in my youth dreaming of the far away worlds those classic magazines provided such thrilling glimpses of. I still do. I have to pinch myself now that I am the guy doing the covers for an amazing magazine like Jim Baen's Universe! It's a childhood dream come true.

I'm now working on the cover for the upcoming October 2008 issue. The art will feature Mike Resnick's very moving story, Article of Faith. It looks like this will be a regular gig for for a while, I can hardly wait to see what future stories I will get to homage in cover art! I'm so freaking happy I'm going to dance the 'Eagle Rock' all up and down the docks! "Everyone in for the Eagle Rock!" (Dances the 'Eagle Rock' Be glad there is no video.)

It still boggles my mind. I get to make moon walkers and androids for the covers of a popular sci-fi and fantasy magazine that has all the magic of the wonderful pulps of yore, and more. What a lucky life.

Postscript: I neglected to thank my friend Dennis A. Martin for making a 3-D model of the walker based on my sketches. His version forms the base of the image you see here- I think it's time I learned how to use that 3-D stuff! Thank you, Dennis!

Prologue: A Bookshelf

I have a recurring dream.

I dream that I am standing in front of a large bookshelf in a private library room. The room features a big overstuffed armchair and a good reading lamp in an inviting corner; just the kind of place to settle in for a good long read.

The bookshelf holds many volumes of hardbacks and paperbacks, novels and short story collections- their titles are alluring and they all allude to the subjects that I find most engaging; strange worlds, mysterious beings, epic fables...

I pick one off the shelf and smile at its colorful cover art. I open it briefly to read a paragraph and get a hint of what awaits me as a potential reader, just those few brief words draw me in, I very much want to curl up in that armchair with this book. I pick up another volume randomly from the bookshelf and am once again entranced- These are exactly the kind of books I love, this is a treasure trove! I eagerly look forward to reading every book on this shelf!

It occurs to me that I haven't even looked to see who the authors are yet, so I scan the bookshelf... they all bare the same name printed down their spines in a variety of hues and fonts. It's a surprising discovery:

The name is Garrett W Vance.

This is where I always wake up, my hand reaching out to see what wonders I have penned. As the shrouds of the dreamworld fall away I realize with a deep dissapointment that the books don't actually exist except as phantoms of what could be... of what should be.

The dream is sending me a message, the most important message I have ever received in my life: Write those books!

So, here I am. It's time to fill that shelf.