Robert Boyd
I noticed that
illustrator Don Ivan Punchatz had died but didn't think much about it until yesterday when
Matt Guest sent me a note on it. Guest had been a student of Punchatz at TCU, and, according to Guest, Gary Panter had been a student of Punchatz's at one point. That Punchatz had taught these two artists was enough to make me look further. It turns out that Punchatz was responsible for some iconic, trippy science fiction paperback covers that I had grown up with.
He did all the
Foundation Trilogy covers that were current when I was a teen.
These were the covers of
Dangerous Visions volumes 1-3. It seems like Punchatz went through a period of painting vaguely menacing monochromatic bald guys for science fiction paperbacks. It was the 60s I guess. I love 'em. (All of the above covers were taken from the blog
Skiffy, where you can see lots more classic science-fiction illustration art.)
Of course, Punchatz wasn't all about naked bald guys. He did all kinds of illustration work, including great covers for
National Lampoon and
Time, and many, many other book covers. Matt Guest told me this one was his favorite (which says something about Matt, but I don't know what...)