in a sense, it is. I apologize for the quality of the scan, this is reprinted from the actual pages in ANALOG
SCIENCE FICTION / SCIENCE FACT. This is one of the few times that I made a suggestion regarding
the assignment, which as given included "A double spread opener and a single-page story break..."
I suggested a single page opener and sent sketches to show my idea, and that the story break (shown above)
should be the double-truck. Art Director Anthony Bari, an accomplished artist in his own right, liked the
idea and showed it to Stan Schmidt, who readily agreed. So that's how we did it, the opening illustration
(shown below) became the single page (again, scanned from the pages of the magazine) and the story break
(above) ran sans type, which would have ruined the "spookiness" of the illo and the story. IMHO ...
You'll have to read the story to understand what's actually occurring here, but it's as hilarious as it is spooky!
My long-time friend Redeye Knight, a major patron of the arts, member of the R2-D2 Builders Club, and a
recently "patched" member of the premiere Harley Davidson motorcycle club in the Pacific Northwest
(CONGRATULATIONS, RED!) modelled for me, as he has on several occasions. He's a natural ham actor,
a lifelong skiffy fan, and one of about five people I can truly claim are close friends that qualify as "family".
His wife and daughter have also posed for me for illustrations for ANALOG, so now it's a family tradition.
Mrs. Redeye Knight appeared in the illustration for "Puncher's Chance", which ANALOG readers voted as
second place in its category in 2006, and Padewan Niece appeared in "The Keeper's Maze" as a member of the
crowd watching a jousting match on a space colony patterned after Medieval England:
That's her, second from the left facing us. ("The Keeper's Maze", reprinted from ANALOG)
After ANALOG accepted this illustration, I was emailing back and forth with the Art Director and made a confession:
I was up to my old tricks again and enjoying myself at everyone else's expense. In trying to research the costumes and
architecture for the background, I found that one of my best resources was "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". I
figured that the piece was going to reproduce in such miniscule size that I could get away with it, and I did.
A close examination of the spectators will reveal that they are *entirely* (with the exception of Padewan) comprised of
the Python troupe ... Graham Chapman as King Arthur, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Michael
Palin, and "The Famous Historian" and the "Doctors" from Castle Anthrax are all represented. Hee hee hee, I have
my fun ... but if I'm not entertained while I'm creating a piece, I can't expect people to be entertained when they
study my work, can I?
I also discovered, much to my dismay, that the lake and forest and island up the curve of the toroidal colony bore an
entirely accidental resemblance to Olive Oyl, Popeye's erstwhile girlfriend. Had I realized this, I would have changed
it, but by the time we spotted it (it was actually Redeye Knight who pointed it out) it was too late, so it went through
as you see it. I simply referred to the castle as St. Olive's Keep from that point forward.
Fortunately, the "gutter" (the place where the two pages meet in the center) took most of the curse off the Olive Oyl
image, and also largely concealed the "Famous Historian" nicely. So all was well that ended well.
I mentioned that Redeye Knight is a member of the R2-D2 Builders Club: I'm going to try to include a link here
that will require you to have a supply of kleenex near to hand. Red contributed several components to an
international effort to create "R2-KT", an R2 unit that was pink everywhere R2-D2 is blue. This was done for a
kidling named Katie Johnson, who was afflicted with inoperable brain cancer and more than anything wanted
an R2-unit of her own. And she passed away with it watching over her. R2-KT serves now as a fundraiser for
the Make-A-Wish Foundation and other charitable organizations -- science fiction fandom making the world better!
I'm proud to call him my friend. He and his family are golden people. (Tweet-TWEET-tweet, "Finest kind!")
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