They're bigger in the Expedition book, and I would've preferred more book covers or Thype instead. While Barlowe's thoughts on his goals with his Expedition pieces are interesting, it was kind of annoying having any space taken up by them. I don't know if he's ever talked about why Thype fell by the wayside, because from this book it sounds like his baby. The difference is Hell spawned two art books and two novels, and he still regularly paints Hell pieces. Several of the Thype paintings here are recognizable as completed versions of sketches that appeared in Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials, just as Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy features several Hell sketches.

The third section is 'projects', where he discusses his long-gestating and still unrealized weird fantasy warrior Thype, Expedition, his Hell works, and some others. It's always a delight when I see a Barlowe cover in a bookshop, and every time I have to remind myself the contents probably won't live up to the cover.Īnother section is given over to his dinosaur paintings. But I think even the crappier and slapdash painted covers were better than the generic emblems and robed actors in wind tunnels we get now.

Granted, most weren't up to Barlowe's standard, where he actually read the novel in question, and carefully considered the best characters, symbols, and moods to represent. It's amazing to think there was a time when tons of science fiction and fantasy novels got painted covers. The first section covers his early and commissioned work, mostly book covers. So many times I was thinking to myself, 'If only this pictures were about 6 feet tall.' But at some point, I realized what Barlowe's pictures make me want to do is fall headlong into the worlds he imagines, for them to be real and living places and things (not so much Hell, though the paintings are still great). Frustrating, because of its brevity, because of the many projects mentioned in its pages that will never see the light of day, and because the book is only about 10 by 12 inches. Delightful because it gives insight into his artistic process, thoughts on art, his sources of influence and inspiration, and, of course, the images.

This is both a delightful and frustrating book for the Barlowe fan.

Wayne douglas barlowe expedition