BOOK COVERS

IN THE 1970s Bruce Pennington was one of the most famous and original British Fantasy artists on the scene. His work graced the covers of many of the classic novels that emerged then and are still revered today, examples of which decorate the border of this page. Although he mostly retired from commercial illustration many years ago, Pennington was tempted back into action for this Book of the Vampire, written by Nigel Suckling and published in September 2008. Click on the cover or the Vampires link at the top of the page for samples.

BELOW IS A SELECTION of Pennington book covers that have not previously been reproduced in any collection of his work. Click HERE for a page about when his career really took off in 1974.

AN INTERESTING CHALLENGE for Pennington came along in 2010 when he was approached by another Bruce Pennington who had written an article about Pythagoras for Philosophy Now magazine. Would the artist be interested in doing a couple of illustrations? It so happened that he already had a portrait of Pythagoras drawn years earlier as one of a series of famous vegetarians. Interesting double coincidence. So he dusted it off and used it as a starting point for two new portraits of the philosopher as a young and old man. The illustrated article was published in the May 2010 issue of the magazine, as you can see below. The end credit reads: "Bruce Pennington, the author of this article, is a math teacher living in upstate New York. The portraits of Pythagoras are by another Bruce Pennington (unrelated!) who is a renowned sci fi illustrator living in Britain."

ONE OF THE PLEASURES of Science Fiction for Pennington is being able to indulge his abiding enthusiasm for flying saucers. Click on the picture below for a gallery full of them.

SOMETIMES A PARTICULAR BOOK-COVER painting has several 'rebirths' through different publishers throughout the world, earning the artist more royalties in the form of 'second rights'.

The Armoured Horseman shown below is a typical example. Originally produced by Pennington for a British publisher as the cover of a collection of Sword & Sorcery stories, it was later used by Dutch and other publishers in the same standard paperback format.

More recently (2008) it was reproduced in the United States on a larger scale as the cover of a luxury 'coffee table' anthology devoted to supernatural fiction.

MORE RECENTLY STILL IN June 2009 the same picture appeared on the cover of Fantasy Art magazine published in Beijing, the first and foremost forum for both western and eastern fantasy art in China. The magazine also carried an interview with Pennington, thumbnails of which can be seen below. You'll have to buy the magazine and be able to speak Chinese to read it though.

NEXT COMES A GALLERY of distinctly macabre book covers that have also not appeared in any previous collection of Pennington's work.