Q:Hello! Today I bought the 1982 "Music From the 21st Century" compilation and noticed that the cover is a gnarly Whelan illustration. I have never seen this one, do you have an original image that you can share with us? Thanks so much!

divine-winds-deactivated2018120

Great question!  That was TIME AND AGAIN, originally commissioned by ACE for the book by Clifford D. Simak.  It was a very early cover c. 1975.  Many album covers featuring Michael’s art were licensed under secondary rights.  This was definitely an obscure one as I hadn’t see it before.

The illustration was also collected in Michael’s first book </em>Wonderworks</em> (Donning 1979), which is long out of print but there are copies still floating around on the secondhand market.  


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Q:First off, the fact that you did an Obituary album cover and they put it on a Lovecraft collection(An album cover used as a book cover--not often they are as good as your work and get put on a book) is words of a colorful nature to the Nth power, and stuff. I won't be tacky and ask anything specific, but--do you get something in a four figure range for a painting? Bad way to pose a comissions question--and you are probably living rather well and taking projects as it pleases you, still ...TY4YT

sh1ny-ru1ns-drag0n

LOVECRAFT’S NIGHTMARE was originally commissioned by Ballantine books in 1981.  It was a diptych that the publisher used for the cover of 6 separate books by H.P. Lovecraft.  Interestingly, the two images blend together from either side when displayed together.

Like many of Michael’s album covers, Obituary’s CAUSE OF DEATH was not a commission but rather a secondary rights use the image.  That being said, he’s done many original commissions for albums over the years as well (for Meatloaf, Sepultura, the Jacksons).

Because of the popularity of those images, we get a lot of inquiries from bands looking for cover commissions—just about as many as we get from self publishing authors.  You’ll find more information in our FAQ on the website:

http://www.michaelwhelan.com/about/faq/#commissions

Generally, Michael is not open for commissions.  He devotes most of his time to his fine art and is very selective about the projects he takes on.  Looking back at the past decade, you can see his covers have been for best selling authors like Stephen King and more recently Brandon Sanderson.

Thanks for the question,

~MJ

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