John Picacio has turned in the final artwork for the forthcoming Pyr reissue of Robert Silverberg's classic Son of Man.
He talks about the process of creating the preliminary sketches here, with a rare glimpse at some of his pencils, and the final work done on the finished painting here. (I'm intrigued by his Jimi Hendrix comments.)Son of Man is one of my favorite SF book of all, so I'm thrilled to be reissuing it under the Pyr banner. And Silverberg and I both knew that John was the perfect illustrator for this job. For those who know the book already, I think you'll agree that Picacio has done an incredible job picking up on both the messianic and the sexual overtones, and has managed to get that 60s/70s psychedelic feel without feeling at all like he was going retro or pastiche. Here's the full wrap-around painting:
Beautiful Picacio art, for a beautifully visionary Silverberg novel.
ReplyDeleteJohn's listening to Hendrix's Electric Ladyland seems appropriate -- the album was only a few years old when the the novel was published.
I envy anyone who's reading this for the first time, and only knows Silverberg's work from his latter-day Majipoor novels (though I've enjoyed those, too.
Robert
Hi Robert,
ReplyDeleteGlad you approve. Again, this is one of my favorite novels, so I'm really glad that I'll finally have a beautiful edition of it myself!
I think that Silverberg was as fearless and innovative in his "cool" way, as was Ellison in his "hot" way.
ReplyDeleteYou don't suppose...that maybe someone could interview Silverberg about writing Son of Man -- and post it on the Pyr blog??
Robert
Good idea!
ReplyDeleteLou,
ReplyDeleteThanks. The most recent Silverberg interview I've seen was in Locus in 2006.
I'd love to know how he views the transformation his fiction underwent in the 60s & 70s. Also about the sexuality that infused so much of his work at the time.
Robert
I'll hold that in reserve if it happens!
ReplyDeleteI should start reading this blog too! I already posted in John's blog.
ReplyDeleteI'm one of those poor souls who's only read Silverberg's Majipoor novels. I've already ordered this one, so I'll be adding it to my stack.
Unfortunately, hubby has been strongly hinting that I should read Asimov's Foundation novels now that he sees me reading something in SF besides Fantasy, so my "to read" pile is growing. :-)
I think you'll find this and Foundation widely different animals.
ReplyDeleteI've never read Majipoor, though, so have no idea how this will compare to that.
I think you'll find this and Foundation widely different animals.
ReplyDeleteI've never read Majipoor, though, so have no idea how this will compare to that.
I'd say that the Majipoor series is more Jack Vance-ian in its exoticness...while Son of Man is more like Olaf Stapledon on Acid. Or shrooms.
ReplyDeleteRobert
I want to read Marjipoor one day, though the likelihood of my reading anything not for Pyr grows smaller and smaller as we grow larger and larger.
ReplyDeleteWow, I just finished this book yesterday, and it's up there among my favorites as well. I'm glad after next month it will no longer be out of print.
ReplyDelete