Michael Whelan | |
|---|---|
 Michael Whelan and the Dark Tower | |
| Born | (1950-06-29)June 29, 1950 (age 75) Culver City, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | Painting,drawing |
| Movement | Fantasy art,surrealism |
| Spouse | Audrey Price |
| Children | Alexa Price-Whelan,Adrian Price-Whelan |
| Website | www |
Michael Whelan (born June 29, 1950)[1] is anAmericanartist of imaginativerealism. For more than 30 years, he worked as anillustrator, specializing inscience fiction andfantasycover art.[2] Since the mid-1990s, he has pursued afine art career, selling non-commissioned paintings throughgalleries in the United States and through his website.
TheScience Fiction Hall of Fame inducted Whelan in June 2009, the first living artist so honored.[3][4] According to his Hall of Fame citation[5]
Michael Whelan is one of the most important contemporary science fiction and fantasy artists, and certainly the most popular. His work was a dominant force in the transition of genre book covers away from thesurrealism introduced in the 1950s and 1960s back to realism.
His paintings have appeared on the covers of more than 350 books and magazines, including manyStephen King novels, most of theDel Rey editions ofAnne McCaffrey'sDragonriders of Pern series,Piers Anthony'sIncarnations of Immortality series, the Del Rey edition ofEdgar Rice Burroughs'Mars series,Melanie Rawn'sDragon Prince and Dragon Star series, the Del Rey editions ofH. P. Lovecraft's short story collections, the Grand Master edition ofRay Bradbury'sfix-up novelThe Martian Chronicles,DAW editions ofMichael Moorcock'sElric of Melniboné books, numerous DAW editions ofC. J. Cherryh's work, many ofRobert A. Heinlein's novels includingFriday andThe Cat Who Walks Through Walls, theAce editions ofH. Beam Piper's Fuzzy novels, andTad Williams'sMemory, Sorrow, and Thorn,Otherland, andShadowmarch series andBrandon Sanderson'sThe Stormlight Archive. Whelan provided covers and interior illustrations for Stephen King'sThe Gunslinger andThe Dark Tower, the first and last of hisDark Tower books.[2]
Cover art by Michael Whelan has graced many musicrecord albums. These includeDemolition Hammer'sEpidemic of Violence,The Jacksons'Victory;Sepultura'sBeneath the Remains,Arise,Chaos A.D. andRoots;Soulfly'sDark Ages;Obituary'sCause of Death; and every album by the Elric-influenced metal bandCirith Ungol. He painted original works for the covers ofMeat Loaf'sBat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell andThe Very Best of Meat Loaf albums and several of his older paintings illustrate theliner notes of the former. In 2009, he painted the cover art forthrash metal bandEvile's albumInfected Nations.
Michael Whelan was born inCulver City, California, the son of William and Nancy Whelan. As a child, he had a nomadic existence, moving nearly every other year, as the family followed his father's career in the aerospace industry. So he attended eight elementary schools, three junior high schools and four high schools, and often lived for a summer in other locations. He grew up inColorado, several cities along theCalifornia coast, and inNew Mexico, near theWhite Sands Missile Range. Whelan's time near White Sands andVandenberg Air Force Base proved a lasting influence; in a 2000 interview, he noted that "living near to missile launching sites and Air Force bases had an impact. It was always thrilling to watch them go up ... and sometimes blow up."[6]
By the time he was a sophomore in high school, his family had moved toDenver, Colorado. There he began formal training in art, taking summer classes at theRocky Mountain College of Art and Design when he was 15.[7]
Whelan continued school as apre-medical biologymajor atSan José State University, initially. There he worked in the Anatomy and Physiology Department, gaining a first-hand knowledge ofhuman anatomy. He says that his job "involved all sorts of tasks related to the anatomy department, such as preparing cadavers for the classes, stringing bones together to make complete skeletons, making models of body parts, some medical illustration, etc."[8]
After graduating from San José State University in 1973 with aBA in Painting (as a "President's Scholar"), Whelan studied at theArt Center College of Design in Pasadena, California for nine months from 1973 to 1974. In 1974, Whelan exhibited his work at theWorld Science Fiction Convention in Washington, D.C., where it was seen by Thomas Schlück, who first discovered his work and contracted to use it in European publications shortly afterwards.Donald A. Wollheim ofDAW Books gave him his first American professional assignment—the cover painting andfrontispiece drawing forLin Carter's fantasy novel,The Enchantress of World's End (May 1975).[2]
Shortly after arriving on the East Coast he exhibited some of his student work in theLunacon convention art show in New York, where it was seen byHarlan Ellison. Ellison obtained the first magazine assignment for him, illustrating Ellison's story "Croatoan" which appeared inGallery magazine in June 1975. At Lunacon Michael also met Rick Bryant, who subsequently introduced him toNeal Adams. Adams called the art director ofAce Books and paved the way for his first assignment at Ace. In 1975, Whelan painted the cover illustrations for ten books, eight from DAW and two Ace reprints of early Darkover novels by Marion Zimmer Bradley.[2]
Whelan soon gained a reputation as a talented, imaginative, and dependable cover artist, working for science fiction and fantasy publishers such as DAW, Del Rey, and Ace. Whelan credits the 1978 publication ofAnne McCaffrey's best-sellingThe White Dragon featuring his cover art as a turning point in his career.[9] The SF Hall of Fame agrees.[5]
Whelan won his firstHugo Award for Best Professional Artist in 1980 at theWorld Science Fiction Convention in Boston. He went on to win the next Hugos, and at the 50th Worldcon in 1992 was voted the best professional artist of the last 50 years. As of 2010, he has won fifteenHugo Awards.[10]
When commissioned, Whelan made a practice of reading the entire book that he sought to illustrate, usually twice. "I try to let the book I'm illustrating determine the approach and subject matter," he stated.[8] FantasistMichael Moorcock wrote of Whelan, "I am more than usually grateful for an artist who not only depicts him [Elric] as I imagine (and describe him) but who also manages to capture some of the appropriate atmosphere" (Wonderworks, p. 36). Science fiction writerAnne McCaffrey praised him, declaring, "Fortunate indeed is the author who has Michael Whelan for an illustrator" (Wonderworks, p. 55).
Whelan illustrated the cover forMeat Loaf's 1993 albumBat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell. He also provided several illustrations for the insert booklet, which were also used for the single releases such as "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)". Larger versions of his artwork were featured in the album's 2002 special edition release. He has since gone on to paint album cover artwork for many other recording artists, fromMichael Jackson to Sepultura to Jonn Serrie.
In the early 1990s, Whelan devoted his time to personal visions and gallery works. In 1997, he held his first one-man art show at Tree's Place in Orleans, Massachusetts. Its success led to another in 1999 and his eventual semi-retirement from illustration.[11] Over the past two decades, many of Whelan's gallery pieces found their way into published projects, including theSPECTRUM art annuals.
Whelan has returned to illustrate several major book covers during his semi-retirement, including the last book ofStephen King'sDark Tower series, the final volume ofRobert Jordan'sThe Wheel of Time, covers forThe Last King of Osten Ard series byTad Williams, and the first arc ofThe Stormlight Archive byBrandon Sanderson. In 2015,The Stephen King Companion: Four Decades of Fear from the Master of Horror, which feature Whelan's illustrations, was published by St. Martin's Press.
In 2024, Whelan announced in an interview that the cover forWind and Truth would be the last assignment of his illustration career.[12]
Whelan has two children, includingAdrian Price-Whelan.[13]
Whelan's honors and awards include:
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Press release 2009(?). Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (empsfm.org). Archived August 14, 2009. Retrieved 2013-03-19.