The Book by its Cover

As I've depleted the Fenix material for 2012, I thought I'd present some work from more diverse sources. The through line for the following cover commissions is British Fantasy writer and part-time Ray Winstone impersonator Steven Savile, who I got to know through my previous job at Foxrain AB.
The bottom picture was created for the first book in a series called "The Lazarus Initiative". Ultimately, the publishers went with a different cover that, while probably more appropriate to the content, had 100% less fire in it, and thus - 100% less badassdom. You can't win 'em all, I guess.

"Moonlands"

2012
Written by Steven Savile

"World's Collider - A Shared-World Anthology"

2012
Edited by Richard Salter
and written by;
Steven Savile, James Moran, Aaron Rosenberg, Trent Zelazny, Jonathan Green, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Kelly Hale, Jonathan Templar, Jordan Ellinger, Megan N. Moore, David N. Smith, Dave Hutchinson, Pete Kempshall, Dave Hoskin, Elise Hattersley, Violet Addison, Richard Wright, Paul Pearson and Nicholas Blake.

"Crescent Lake"

2012

Written by David Sakmyster.

 

"The Lazarus Initiative - Book 1 - N.D.E."

2012

Written by David Sakmyster and Steven Savile. 

(unused)

The Doom that came to Fenix.

For reasons that I shouldn't really have to explain to anyone, #6 of Fenix for the year 2012 was all about the end of the world.
Kicking off what I had every reason to expect would be the final chapter of the magazine - and indeed the human race - was "Undergångsuret" (The Doomsday Clock), written by Kristoffer Krämer. A piece of investigative horror campaign fodder centered on a mystical artifact that predicts (or maybe causes) the end of the world. Can the protagonists turn back the clock on the Apocalypse? Will they even wish to?
The piece de resistance came in the form of Ken Hites last hurrah, "51 Mythos Dooms", where almost every horrible thing from H.P. Lovecraft's works gets their turn at bat. Nothing says "The Party's Over" like Lovecraft, and this world isn't going to end itself.

"51 Mythos Dooms"

2012

cover

"The Doomsday Clock"
2012

*Notes on the cover*

This piece has got a bunch of Easter eggs in it, most of them inspired by the sections of the article devoted to; Cthugha, Daoloth, Dark Young of Shub Niggurath, Dholes, Hastur, Tsathoggua and Yog-Sothot. The print on the girls t-shirt is my version of the well worn HPL meme. I don't know who first came up with that idea, but kudos to them.

*The (same) color out of space*

Seeing them on top of each other like this, the similarities in color composition between the two pictures are pretty obvious. I could go off on a whole spiel and get all defensive, but truthfully - It was crunch time, I was tired and it just happened like that. I guess I was in a blue-ish green and purple state of mind:)

Black and White

Some choice picks from the old sketchbook.

Also in the news..

Guld och Bly (Gold and Lead) is a complementary skirmish system for Western RPG that started as a table top event at BSK (Borås Game Con) in 1997. The new edition, released in 2012, was promoted in Fenix #5. Both featured the following illustration depicting the stalwart group of hero GMs who run the game on all Cons where it appears.

"Gold and Lead"

2012

(Anders "Quest" Qvist, Peter & Anders Edgar, Marcus Brissman and Fredrik Hoppe)

Babylon, Which Hates Injustice!

“The king spake, and said, ‘Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of kings by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?” 
                                  -Daniel 4:30

So begins Kenneth Hite's 8th contribution to Fenix Magazine, called "Shadows of Babylon" which ran in #5 2012.
It provides the history of Babylon, with its legendary gardens, ziggurats, gods and monsters, along with means to resurrect the great city of Marduk into the urban fantasy campaign of your choice. Be it Paris in the Age of Steam, present day Dubai, or 1930s New York, the spirit of Babylon is there whenever men build towers to challenge the gods.

"Shadows of Babylon"
2012

cover

*Fun fact*
The hero is based conceptually on the Burney Relief, depicting the goddess Ishtar as a great winged woman, whose symbol is an eight pointed star, flanked by owls, and standing atop a lion.

Madness?! This is Pindariaaaa!!!

In Fenix #4 2012 Ken Hite goes back to the roots of science fiction warfare by taking the military history of ancient Greece into outer space. "Diagoras Sector - an interstellar warzone" presents a complete setting with human and alien factions, based on nations and armed forces from antiquity.

"Diagoras Sector - Pindar Infantry"
2012

"Diagoras Sector - System Map"
2012

Fifteen men on a dead man's chest...

Fenix #3 2012 had a pirate theme, so I signed up with Captain Kenneth Hite to terrorize the high seas of gaming. The article, titled "Just Add Rum - everything you need for pirates", is a detailed guide for implementing the pirate phenomenon in any role playing setting imaginable. From ancient Greece to the Outer Rim, there can always be swashbuckling, plunder, and grog!

"Just add rum"
2012

Sketches

A few personals

The Lovecraft one ran with a different color scheme in Fenix back in 2010, the other ones were just for me:)

"He just wants a hug"
2012

"Jane Eyre"
2011

"The Mindscape of HPL"
(Variant)
2012

"Mud Flamingo"
2012

"Tiny Adventure"
2012

I Declare War!

About two years ago I was commissioned to do the this cover as a kind of work exchange deal between my then employer and the band Imperial State Electric, helmed by Nicke Andersson of Hellacopters fame. It went through a couple of iterations before finally getting the green light, as you will see. The basic concept philosophy from the client was always Frank Frazzettas Death Dealer cover, and it started off pretty crazy and slowly but surely became cleaner and more concise. I like it:)

"Imperial State Electric - Pop War"
2011

Below are two examples of the work in progress:

The Big 5ive-O

With #2  2012, Fenix Magazine celebrated its 50th issue as a gaming publication. As it happens, I have had artwork featured in every single one of those issues, so it was a big thing for me as well.
 I commemorated the event with a cover that's a spoof of the classic Frank Frazzetta cover from Conan the Adventurer but with a guest appearance by another prominent character from Fenix's history, namely 'Birger Barbaren' (Birger the Barbarian). This comic character created by Åke Rosenius has been featured with three new strips in every issue since the start. 
 Also in this issue; "Last Flight of KG200" an original game by Kenneth Hite centered on the cursed crew of the titular Nazi bomber who gets lost en route the their destination and ends up in a randomly generated weird fiction nightmare in the sky. The only question is; "when, and by what hellish means do they all expire"?
 Lastly, a playing card sized illustration for a 'Rock-Paper-Scissors' like game, with a phoenix theme of course:)

"Birger Barbaren strikes again!"

2012
(cover)

 "Last Flight of KG200 - Evil Skies"
2012

"Last Flight of KG200 - Werewolf SS"

2012

"Fighting Phoenix"

2012

And last but not least, some sketches:

The time has come..

..to take some responsability, for god's sake. I've got a boatload of pictures I want to show off but I still want to keep some semblance of chronology, so from now on I'll post like one or a couple of pictures a day with some relevant info until I've caught up to the present time. There's some interesting things coming up so I want to share as much as I can.
Let's start where we left off, shall we?

"the Werewolves of Dacia"
Fenix magazine #1 2012

 
As I said in the previous post waaay back in O-twelve (was anyone ever so young?), Its a fantasy game setting by the eminent Ken Hite that's an original take on Lord of the Rings with werewolves because, hey, everything's better with werewolves:)

*Addendum*

I just realized that I had a preliminary sketch on file. I usually draw by hand to work out design concept ideas and rough composition. The text is in Swedish of course, so if you're from south of the wall you're out of luck:)