Cover art is a key part of any book, which makes our artists as important and as much part of the skulk as our writers and the behind the scenes team. We wanted to tell you more about them.
Daniele Serra is a professional illustrator. His work has been published in Europe, Australia, United States and Japan, and displayed at various exhibits across the U.S. and Europe. He has worked for DC Comics, Image Comics, Cemetery Dance, Weird Tales magazine, PS Publishing and other publications. Winner of the British Fantasy Award.
Work for FS: The Lonely Dark, The Velocity of Constant, European Monsters, African Monsters, Asian Monsters, Tales of Eve, Pacific Monsters, American Monsters 1. Illustrations: Monsters
Hailing from the frozen wastelands of distant Hoth (Wisconsin) Jeff Preston is a freelance illustrator in the gaming industry. His images have graced the pages of over 40 game books in the past 14 years. He’s 43, a virgo, likes disco, holding hands and long walks on the beach. Jeff can be reached at jeff at team-preston.com
Work for FS: Blood Bound
Kieran Walsh is an artist and designer based in Leicester. He has always been interested in the creative arts and in 1992 moved from his home town of Kells in Ireland to the UK, where he gained an Honours Degree in Fine Art. Since then he has worked extensively in the Arts and has worked on many projects as a freelance community artist, graphic designer, illustrator, animator, sculptor and other creative roles.
Kieran currently works as a Youth Arts Project Worker for Soft Touch Arts in Leicester. He is also involved in a number of freelance projects, including the illustrations for a series of books published by Foxspirit.
Work for FS: Illustrations for Tales of the Nun & Dragon, Tales of the Fox & Fae and Tales of the Mouse & Minotaur, also illustrations for European Monsters, African Monsters, Asian Monsters, Pacific Monsters, Cover Into the Blight,
S.L. Johnson is a well known, if seldom seen, recluse living in CT. It has been rumored that she was a messenger for the French Resistance, going by the name of “Le Noir Pigeon.” Or a rich Russian heiress, disowned by her family for falling in love with a poor Norwegian carpenter. Or a woman who took leave of her senses when she was jilted at the altar. Feel free to ask her any questions about her artwork. But not about her past. This artist’s work can be found online at sljohnsonimages.com
Work for FS: Covers for Drag Noir, Weird Noir, Noir Carnival, Wolf at the Door, Obsidian Eye Obsidian Moon, Heart of Fire, White Rabbit, Winter Tales, Dreambook Unikirja, The Pseudopod Tales, And the Fox Crows, Respectable Horror
Vincent Holland-Keen spent most of his formative years drawing in front of the television. He then stopped drawing for a while and tried writing instead. He now does both. Beyond that, his life is packed with incident. http://www.vincenthollandkeen.co.uk/
Work for FS: Covers of Office of Lost and Found, Billy’s Monsters, Tales of the Nun & Dragon, Tales of the Fox & Fae, Tales of the Mouse & Minotaur, Eve of War, Internal art African Monsters, Asian Monsters, Fox Spirit Logo. layouts
Sarah Anne Langton draws things, writes and scribbles a lot about comics. Qualified Astronaut. Part time archaeologist. Full time geek.
Sarah has worked as an Illustrator for Hodder & Stoughton, Forbidden Planet, EA Games, The Cartoon Network, Sony, Marvel Comics and a wide variety of music events. Written and illustrated for Jurassic London, Fox Spirit, NewCon Press, Anachron Press and ‘The Fizzy Pop Vampire‘ series. Daylights as Web Mistress for the worlds largest sci-fi and fantasy website. Her work has featured on io9, Clutter Magazine, Laughing Squid and Creative Review. http://www.secretarcticbase.com/
Work for FS: 25 Ways to Kill a Werewolf, A Pack of Lies, Fool if you Think it’s Over, The Fox Pockets Series (10 titles), Wicked Women, Spares, Extricate/Throw the Bones, The Stars Seem so Far Away, The Peruvian Pigeon, Children of Artifice
Tom England currently works as the graphic designer for a multi award winning marketing company. When he isn’t busy tinkering with 3D models, animation or digital painting; he can be found sketching images down for a story for his baby daughter. Often seen at night scurrying towards his laptop on a quest to help the online communities with a glass of wine in hand. Tom thrives on challenges and has a “this job isn’t done until the client is happy” attitude. He also writes in the third person to describe himself. http://www.tomenglandart.co.uk/
Work for FS: The Second Giganti, The Dioccilini, Logo for Vulpes
Dave Johnson has had a love of drawing since he was a small child. Graduating from Norwich School Of Art & Design in 2003 with a degree in Graphic Design he has gone on to become a full time illustrator. He specialises in digital illustrations, book covers and concept design.
Work for FS: Covers of The Girl at the End of the World, Vol 1 & 2, both versions, graphics for stories in African Monsters, Asian Monsters, Pacific Monsters, logo for FoxGloves
Matt Clark Hellery ‘Devon based redfacedmonkey has worked for a number of publications, including Holdfast Magazine and Fox Spirit Books as well as the pop up cinema project ‘Puny Gods’. His artwork can be viewed on www.redfacedmonkey.co.uk and you can contact him via his Facebook page https://m.facebook.com/redfacedmonkey/
Work for FS: Covers Ghoulsome Graveyard, logo for Fennec
Jenny Haines Hi! I’m Jenny, a freelance digital artist! I love bright colors, games/game design and ancient art history. I’m currently available for commissions or other freelance work! More: http://jennyhaines.tumblr.com/ #VisibleWomen
Work for FS: Cover Skytown, Todd & Reynard images
Jenna Whyte
http://www.jennawhyte.co.uk/
Work for FS : Cover of Emily Nation
Michaela Margetts is a freelance illustrator based in Derby. She works under artist name MM illustrations on a wide range of projects. with a bold, graphic style, with a sensitive understanding of colour and composition.
http://www.mmillustrations.com/
Work for FS : Cover of You Left your Biscuit Behind
Tabatha Stirling is a writer and poet living in Edinburgh, Scotland with her husband, two Elven children and a depressed Beagle, called The Beagle. Her publishing credits include Spelk fiction, Camroc Fiction Press, Literary Orphans, Mslexia, Feminine Collective, Sick Lit Mag, Twisted Sister and was recently the winner of the Scottish Book Trust 50-word short story competition. Tabatha is a member of the Society of Authors & The Federation of Scottish Writers.
She recently signed with Unbound, the literary crowdfunding publisher, for her book, Blood On The Banana Leaf, about maid abuse in Singapore and how women cope in the most brutal of circumstances.
Tabby is absolutely ready for a zombie apocalypse.
https://unbound.com/books/blood-on-the-banana-leaf
Blog: http://www.volequeen.com Design Studio @Mudlarkdesign.tumblr.com Twitter @volequeen
Work for FS : Cover for Hobgoblin’s Herald, Petra MacDonald & the Queen of the Fae, Eater of Names
Jonathan M. Chaffin is the designer and writer behind the Cthulhu tiki mug and other horror-themed barware collections from Horror In Clay; each object has a backstory and contributes to a narrative for the collection. He also co-owns Mug Crate, the quarterly tiki mug subscription box, has narrated and designed for Pseudopod, and frequently speaks on all things tiki, horror, crowdfunding, and pop culture at events like DragonCon and Anachrocon. He also writes horror movie reviews for The Collinsport Historical Society from time to time.
Jonathan also designed the original identity work for Pseudopod.org and Escape Artists as well as several t-shirts and ads. With his wife Allison he briefly managed PodDisk.
Work for FS: Cover Pseudopod Tapes Vol 2
An illustrator and writer, Rhiannon Rasmussen-SIlverstein works with juxtaposition and layering, especially comparing and contrasting humanity with elements of monstrosity and phantasm. Rhiannon’s work has appeared in galleries & magazines including Lightspeed Magazine, IGMS, the Sockdolager, Shimmer, ZEAL, the Tankadere comics anthology, Weird Tales, Autzen Gallery & STORE Gallery (Portland, OR).
Rhiannon is currently employed as a Prepress Technician at Dark Horse Comics. Freelance credits include illustration, design, prepress, editing, and visual development for companies including Beyond Press and Iron Circus Comics. They can be reached via email at rhi.rose@gmail.com
Work for FS: Starfang Trilogy cover art
Not really too good at these ‘about yourself’ bits, but here it goes. Hi, i’m Jacob…and graduated from the Printmaking course at the Limerick School of Art and Design, Ireland in 2012. I aim to keep drawing, making, and..drawing some more.. It’s what i love to do, so..that makes sense. My career highlight is when the one and only Don Conroy said he liked a drawing i was working on for my degree show! So…hope you like the work. If it makes ya smile, laugh, or you think ‘hey..thats kind of cool..’, then that would be great news! And get in touch if you want to know anything more, commissions, or just want to say hi.
https://www.behance.net/jacobstack
Work for FS: Cover Illustration for The Girl in the Fort
Eugene Smith
Eugene Smith grew up in sunny California. He remembers distinctly being terrified of monsters as a young boy. The only thing that made sense was for him to start drawing monsters. He studied illustration at The Academy of Art University in San Francisco and is now illustrating for clients around the globe. Currently he resides in Chicago with his lovely wife and daughters. He also has two cats which he is convinced are trying to kill him.
Work for FS : Internal European Monsters, African Monsters, Pacific Monsters
Gavin Pollock
Gavin Pollock is a Scots Cumbrian comic artist (http://benandantiastralbodyguard.wordpress.com) and occasional teacher and life model. He studied Politics (East Asia) at Newcastle and Fukuoka universities, which led to him living in Japan for eight years before moving back to Cumbria with his children. Gavin spent a few years busy raising them before starting drawing again.
Work for FS : Internal European Monsters
Fabian Tuñon Benzo
Fabian is a graphic designer, Painter and Comic book artist. Studied at the School of Fine Arts in Cartagena – Colombia and correspondence courses in Modern School Inc. of Miami, he worked with advertising agencies, has collaborated with comic strips in several newspapers of Colombia, besides didactic publish comics with local government and he has participated as an inker on the comic “The secret lives of Julie Newmar” and worked with another company of United states by creating characters. More work can be seen at cartagenacomic.blogspot.com and atube.deviantart.com/gallery/
Work for FS : Internal European Monsters
Amine Benali is a graphic designer/illustrator/comics author. His publishing career began in 2009. In 2010 he published his first manga ‘Sardar’ at Z-link, followed in 2011 by the publication of a short comic: ‘Pride & Jealousy… The Origins of Evil’ in the Collective album Monsters at Dalimen. He’s worked as a graphic designer since 2012. Amine would also like to work in self publishing with comics or web comics. He is interested in many fields: comics, graphic design, science, psychology, spirituality, music, cinema, humour (parodies).
Work for FS : Internal African Monsters
Su Opperman is an artist and freelance illustrator based in Cape Town, South Africa. Though a fine artist by heart, an interest in the development of South African comic art remains a key concern of hers. As such, she works for the CCIBA (Centre of comic, illustrative book arts) as their comic art co-ordinator. In this capacity, she also functions as an organising member of Open Book Comics Fest and is curator to the POP the Culture creative hub initiative. Other than that, she draws things for other people and for herself
Work for FS : Internal African Monsters
Benjamin Chee, being from a Cantonese-speaking family in Malaysia, grew up on Hong Kong films. They taught him to be afraid of stiffened, but no less agile hopping corpses—the jiangshi—who would feed on his abundant flesh if they could get their claws on him. So far he has managed to avoid being monster chow, hiding in Singapore, drawing comics and making games. His comics appeared in Liquid City Vol. 3 and LONTAR Issue 5. He can be found at charsiewspace.com, don’t tell the monsters.
Work for FS : Internal Asian Monsters
Cindy Mochizuki is a Japanese-Canadian interdisciplinary artist who creates drawing, installation, performance, animation, and collaborative works that consider spaces that embody both the fictional and documentary. She has integrated shapeshifting monsters, ghosts and spirits in her narrative-based projects. Her children’s book Things on the Shoreline was published by Access Gallery in 2016 and tells the story of slow processes and how we call forth the creaturely life of our imaginations. Her illustrative work has appeared in West Coast Line, The Capilano Review and Alternatives Journal. She lives and works in Vancouver, Canada and has screened and exhibited her work nationally and internationally. Please visit www.cindymochizuki.com
Work for FS : Internal Asian Monsters
Imran Siddiq has visited Asia, searching for dragons in Hong Kong or the hairy apemen in Borneo, though did cross paths with a Velociraptor (claimed to be a Monitor Lizard). Based in Leicestershire, UK, he writes with passion and dabbles in dark art. His genre of preference is YA Science Fiction but he would love to have a crack at a graphic novel. When not working in the NHS and writing, he’s looking after his cats. You can contact Imran at Flickimp@gmail.com His website is: www.imranwrites.com and he tweets as @flickimp
Work for FS : Internal Asian Monsters
Lahela Schoessler was raised on the island of Maui, Hawaii. When she was 11, her grandfather took the family to Disneyworld and there Lahela discovered the beauty of animation. It was then that she decided she wanted to be an animator. Lahela studied at Ringling College of Art + Design and has had the opportunity to animate on Disney and Marvel video games. In 2013, Lahela reignited her love for illustration and created Helabella. She has been involved in many comic conventions in the Pacific Northwest. Pacific Monsters will be the first time Lahela’s illustrations have been published.
Work for FS: Internal art Pacific Monsters
Laya Rose is an artist from New Zealand. She does both digital and traditional art, and is currently studying design at Massey University. She’s inspired by the South Island landscape which she grew up tramping in, as well as the sci-fi and fantasy that she loves.
Work for FS: Internal art Pacific Monsters
Photography and Honourable Mentions
Steve Upham photography for Always a Dancer
http://www.screamingdreams.com/
Bill Munster photography for A Heart for the Ravens
https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-bill-munster.html
K.A. Laity photographyfor Dreambook : Unikirja
All-Purpose Writer
Michael Marshall Smith photography for Dark Travellings
http://www.michaelmarshallsmith.com
John Howe for use of an illustration in the cover for Multiverse
https://www.john-howe.com
Steve Shaw for assorted graphics including ‘House Fox’
Stephen Hopkinson for Peace, Diversity and Broadswords