A Christmas week with Michael Whelan Day Three

"Z-World" courtesy of Michael Whelan. CLICK TO EMBIGGEN

In yesterday's post, I spoke of how Roger Zelazny died never realizing his dream of having a Whelan cover. Well he got his wish posthumously. This is the art piece that Michael got commissioned and finished for Zelazny and it has elements of all his stories (you can see Amber in the distance!). To save money, the publishing companies will have Michael do one painting and divide it up into several books. That's what they did with H.P. Lovecraft, paying Michael for only two huge paintings which I'm sure cost them probably several hundred thousand dollars a few decades ago.  I remember hearing at the time that DAW books blew all of their cover budget and could barely afford the two paintings for all six books. Even back then, Michael was a big deal, and he promised DAW that he'd make some incredible pieces of art that they could then divide up to accomplish their goal.

I have no idea what Michael charges now, but it's probably ten years of my current salary. If St. Martins can afford to pay Amanda Hocking $2 million to write some mermaid books, then to get someone like Whelan to do a cover is probably going to cost equally as much if not more. My guess is probably a couple million, minimum, per painting. Especially since he can just shrug and say, "I don't need you...I have as much money as I'll ever need to take care of my family and send my kids to school, etc." That's what I meant yesterday by the phrase "F U Money." It's a term I coined with my friend James to describe a turning point in a person's career where you choose your own destiny and could care less about outside forces (like the need to eat and have a place to sleep).

Consequently, I heard that these covers on the six books when arranged in order on the shelf, create the entire image that you see using the spines. That would be a cool effect. Be sure to embiggen and check out the details on all the pillars. That's why I chose this particular piece as a favorite. It showcases Michael's obsession with detail. Nothing is too small to be overlooked.

FACT: The only contemporary that Michael has been compared to is the artist H.R. Giger and vice-versa. They are completely different artists, but equally as great. I prefer Whelan to Giger myself. Giger scares me.

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