All
prints come
"ready to hang"
in handmade
hand-embellished
"Artist's Frame"
"ready to hang"
in handmade
hand-embellished
"Artist's Frame"
Print £33_4 x 8.5 inches (10 x 20 cm) framed
Print £66_6 x 12 inches (15 x 30 cm) framed
Print £99_9 x 19 inches (23 x 48 cm) framed
Print £15013 x 28 inches (33 x 70 cm) framed
About "Artist" Frames
 
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The
Fabulous Riverboat.It's
the second book in The Riverboat Saga, a
Science Fiction book by Philip Jose Farmer. "The Day of the Great Shout
first appeared in "Worlds of Tomorrow" in January 1965 and also
appeared as the first part of "To your scattered bodies go" in 1971
being a complete riverworld short story. This story is almost identical
to the first part of To your scattered bodies go. The Suicide Express first appeared in "Worlds of Tomorrow" in March 1966 and also as the second part of To your scattered bodies go in 1971 and yet again in "THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF NEW WORLD SCIENCE FICTION" in 1991.The
Felled Star (Part 1) first appeared in "Worlds of If" in July 1967 and
parts 1 and 2 make up chapters 1-14 of "THE FABULOUS
RIVERBOAT" published as a novel in 1971. The Felled Star (Part 2) first appeared in "Worlds of If" in August 1967. The Fabulous Riverboat (part 1) first appeared in "Worlds of If" in Jun 1971 and parts 1 and 2 comprise chapters 15-28 of "THE FABULOUS RIVERBOAT" which was published as a novel in 1971. The Fabulous Riverboat (concl) first appeared in "Worlds of If" in August 1971 . In 1974 Peter created this painting as the
cover of the 1975 Panther Books Edition and it was republished in 1978,
again in 1979 under the Granada imprint which absorbed Panther and
again in1988 when yet more publishing evolution saw it published under
the Grafton imprint when Harper Collins absorbed the previous imprint
and the image remained on the cover until it
finally disappear after 1993.Painted
in Oil on Paper what is significant about the Artwork is that it defied
convention by being painted in dull, laid back muted classical colours,
decidedly different from typical covers in the genre at the time. At
first the Art Director was very dubious but after some discussion
decided to back Peter's hunch and sales of 20 years endorse the risk
taken.That's some track record!Curious
was this about the image - many years after it had been published Peter
was handed copies of the other two Riverworld series books, and when
placed alongside his own cover the mountain walls on the shore matched
up!A complete and total coincidence.The
design stance Peter took was "counter-culture" - he assumed the book,
with its amazing storyline, would be a powerful seller as indeed would
Jose farmer's name, so there seemed an opportunity to "back-pedal"
visually, to take a risk, to do the opposite of the norm, the typical.
He "threw convention out the window" and painted the image "as though
it were a Renaissance masterpiece, not a book cover, as though it were
hanging alongside Rembrandt's Nightwatch in The Riksmuseum, and as far
away from "book cover art" as I could dream up, as far away from
"Sci-Fi" or Pulp magazine art as I could manage, just "a picture in its
own right" like perhaps a Limited Edition Print Artist might paint."Ironically,
whilst the original Panther publication, with its classic Steve Abis
(Panther's brilliantly talented Art Director) "clean typography"
balances out wonderfully against the detail and complexity of the
textures in the painting, preserving the original creative idea, the
final publication under the Grafton imprint uses typography that
destroys much of this, obscures the overall feel of the vast scope of
Riverworld encasing the river, and the steamer, and reduces the book
cover to a typical "Sci-Fi" cover.Full circle . . . . . . . . . . . |
See it in this
Collector's Edition book
