JOHN HOLMES, MY FAVORITE H.P. LOVECRAFT ARTIST

In 1973 I came away with my first John Holmes paperback cover. Six of them actually. All new and priced at 95 cents per. Each book was a story collection by famed Weird Tales author Howard Phillips Lovecraft, or in the case with two of them, Lovecraftian anthologies spearheaded by one of his Cthulhu Mythos stories.

They were all published by Ballantine and seemed to a kind of horror spin-off from their popular Adult Fantasy lineup edited by Lin Carter, which had already featured several Lovecraft titles with covers by Gervasio Gallardo. Holmes was actually given credit inside the books, which was fortuitous because later I came to realize that he almost never signed his paintings, or at least the ones that became cover art.

I don't remember going out of my way to find more Holmes covers after that but I wish I would have. He was apparently surging at the time, producing some of the most distinctive illustrations in all of publishing. However, the majority of his horror output was featured only on British paperbacks that were largely unattainable here in the U.S. Those early covers certainly caught people's attention, but it was his later, more tightly rendered surrealistic artwork, representing various aspects of human psychology, that earned him his rightful place next to the great surrealist painters of the 20th century (you'll find a few examples of what I mean at the end of this post). 

The British born John Holmes (1935-2011) had his first one man show at the Raille Gallery in London in 1961, followed by years of more shows at some of the top galleries on both sides of the Atlantic. For much of his career Holmes juggled multiple commissions just like any illustrator does: record covers, book covers, magazine covers and also advertising. His most famous book covers are probably those that were produced for authors Samuel Beckett, Germaine Greer, and Vladimir Nabokov, although I would argue that depending upon the audience his most famous covers are the ones that were done for Lovecraft, or any number of other horror titles he is credited with.

Speaking of credit, not every cover below has been officially designated as Holmes', but for those who are familiar with his work, I'm pretty sure you will end up agreeing with all of my selections.

Above are the six paperbacks I bought in 1973 with cover art by John Holmes. They have haunted me ever since, but never in a bad way. Horror images, or monster images, even the ones that are exceedingly distasteful, rarely give me nightmares, not in illustration or art or even from the movies. Now, the rhetoric and actions of extremist politicians do, so make of that what you will.

At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft (Ballantine, 1974, 4th).
The Lurking Fear by H. P. Lovecraft (Ballantine, 1973, 3rd).
The Shuttered Room by H. P. Lovecraft (Ballantine, 1973, 2nd).
The Tomb by H. P. Lovecraft (Ballantine, 1973, 3rd).
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Volume 1 by H. P. Lovecraft and others (Ballantine, 1973, 2nd).
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Volume 2 by H. P. Lovecraft and others (Ballantine, 1973, 2nd).

"H. P. Lovecraft: This century's greatest master of weird fantasy--creator of an eldritch dimension of horror, swarming with such entities as dread Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, Hastur, lurkers in the earth or beyond the barriers of time."

I can't help but think that these two images were created initially for Ballantine's Lovecraft series, but it makes just as much sense that they were produced specifically for Orbit. Either way, they qualify as two of Holmes' best monster faces. Ghouls, The Stories Behind the Classic Horror Films, Books One & Two, were both edited by Peter Haining, and published in paperback in the United Kingdom in 1974.

"Ghouls... and other phantoms from the vaults of the great horror movies, portrayed by the great masters of terror whose stories inspired them. Afterword by Christopher Lee."
 

I grabbed this Holmes foursome from Grady Hendrix's Paperbacks from Hell, the most extensive tome ever written about the history of the 1970-80's paperback horror boom. For anybody who's interested in 20th century publishing and horror it's an absolute must book to read and own. Hendrix says that the Horrorscope series was actually conceptualized by Book Creations, a small book-mill operation run by Lyle Kenyon, who pitched the ideas to Pinnacle in 1974 after hiring Robert Lory to write each entry, but they never could sell the fifth volume in this series and so in Hendrix's words "they took in out behind the barn and shot it." Ha!

"---frightening, original tales of modern life, disrupted and devastated by the forces of the supernatural."

Despair by Vladimir Nabokov is one of the earliest known paperback covers by John Holmes, and one of his most disturbing displays of displacement. It was obviously inspired by Edvard Munch's iconic 1893 painting "The Scream," and it may have been the catalyst for Holmes' forthcoming monster faces. Panther published this edition for the first time in 1969.

"Vladimir Nabokov is the greatest prose-stylist writing in English today. Every word drops neatly into place, carrying its exact, intended load. Each sentence is balanced, crisp, strong. The overall effect is neither literary nor ornate but forceful and dynamic, a joy to read. In DESPAIR, the cumulative feeling is one of hidden menace and mounting excitement, relieved by mordant wit and corrosive laughter. A brilliant manipulation of mood and language." -- Punch.

Another early Holmes cover, capturing the witty obfuscation that would become prevalent in much of his non-horror related work. Nabokov's Quartet by Vladimir Nabokov was published in paperback by Panther 1969.

"The stories here---a small cross-section of a lifetime's work---range through the comic, the tragic and the sinister; the three elements which Nabokov combines in all his work in varying proportions but with the constant touch of an alchemist's magic" -- The Times

Here is Holmes' unique "flesh bar," exemplifying the connectivity of humans. It was produced for the cover of King Queen Knave by Vladimir Nabokov (a variation of this bar was also produced for First Person, Peculiar by T. L. Sherred, seen immediately below). Panther published this paperback in 1970.

"Among the most sustained and successful examples of his art... Mr. Nabokov has also a tongue which goes beyond the mere description of what he has seen, expressing the thing itself in a new mode." -- The Spectator 

First Person, Peculiar by Thomas L. Sherred was published in paperback by Ballantine in 1972. It collects four stories: E for Effort (1947); Cure, Guaranteed (1954); Eye for Iniquity (1953); and Cue for Quiet (1953). Noted science fiction writer and critic Algis Budrys was quoted as saying, "With one story, E for Effort, published in ASF [Astounding Science Fiction], Sherred handed the field such a knock that many old plinths are still loose in their sockets." Budrys, however, was not so kind towards Sherred's only published novel, Alien Island, calling it "padded, uncoordinated, and unintentionally whimsical." Leave it to Sherred though to get in the final coup de gràce by placing his last written story, Bounty, in Harlan Ellison's famed anthology Again, Dangerous Visions. Take that Mr. High and Mighty Reviewer!

"How first can a peculiar person get? Which in itself is a pretty odd question. But it is in fact typical of science fiction, a field of writing which examines the unusual the better to extrapolate the unusual, which revels in oddity, in looking at things upside down, or backwards, or even forwards, which delights in the strange juxtaposition, the reversed field, the apparent contradiction---and which is, indeed, the genre where Sherred is certainly one of the first and most significant of writers (although not necessarily peculiar)."

I came across Flesh (1970), Philip Jose Farmer's graphic sexualized novel about futuristic pagan societies, while searching for additional Panther editions with Holmes covers, and although uncredited, it sure looks to me like it was rendered by him. The Atrocity Exhibition by J. G. Ballard (Panther, 1972) has been credited to Holmes, so it's my thinking that the rest of the Panther Ballard's, The Day of Forever (1971), and The Disaster Area, are his as well. I could be wrong though.

Panther struck the Holmes hammer blow first in 1970 with their horror anthology Mind in Chains, edited by Christopher Evans (an earlier prototype of this illustration was seen on the 1969 Spooky Tooth album Ceremony, shown just below). Then Holmes sold the same illustration to Berkley one year later for use on their horror anthology Splinters, edited by Alex Hamilton. A chip off the old Holmes block, as it were.  

Ceremony by Spooky Tooth. Island Records, 1969. Cover by John Holmes

Berkley Books furthered their relationship with Holmes by having him produce the cover art on a 1972 paperback first edition for science fiction writer Clifford D. Simak. Nine years later at the Denvention II, the World Science Fiction Convention held in Denver, Colorado (Denvention I was held in 1941), Simak was the featured guest of honor. I was there in attendance and was duly impressed with the way he carried himself. After that I went on to read about half of Simak's novel and short story output, including Destiny Doll.

"The planet beckoned them from space---and closed round them like a Venus Fly Trap! Assailed by strange perils and even stranger temptations, the little group stumbled towards its destiny---Mike Ross, the pilot, Sara Foster, the big game hunter, blind George Smith, and the odious Friar Tuck. Before them was a legend made flesh, around them were creatures of myth and mystery, close behind them stalked Nemesis. The doll, the little wooden painted doll, was to be their salvation. Or their damnation, for each might choose, and fine, his own Nirvana."

Germain Greer's book on femininity and social injustice, The Female Eunuch, with Holmes' cover art on its first paperback edition from Paladin in 1970, was a force to be reckoned with during the 1970's. You would think that because I'm an obsessive book browser I would have seen it in bookstores back then, but I have no recollection of it at all. But for those who do remember it, it won't come as a surprise to learn that Holmes' painting is still being repurposed on many of the book's reprint editions. When cover art is this distinctive only a fool of a publisher would turn away from it.

The Complete Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 1 & 2 were both published by Ballantine in 1971, preceding the Holmes Lovecraft editions by a couple of years. Bierce's short stories are an inconsistent bunch in my opinion, but I do recommend his absolutely brilliant The Devil's Dictionary, especially if intellectual witticism is something you value. Here are a few samples from that book:

Applause, n.  The echo of a platitude.

Childhood, n.  The period of human life intermediate between the idiocy of infancy and the folly of youth—two removes from the sin of manhood and three from the remorse of age.

Consul, n.  In American politics, a person who having failed to secure an office from the people is given one by the Administration on condition that he leave the country.

Conversation, n.  A fair for the display of minor mental commodities, each exhibitor being too intent upon the arrangement of his own wares to observe those of this neighbor.

Harangue, n.  A speech by an opponent, who is known as an harangue-outang.

Litigation, n.  A machine which you go into as a pig and come out of as a sausage.

Prejudice, n.  A vagrant opinion without visible means of support.

Telephone, n.  An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance.

Here are a pair of uncredited Holmes covers that clearly reveal his singular, albeit disturbing, brilliance.

George Fox apparently wrote only this trio of relatively well-liked suspense thrillers: Without Music (Ballantine, 1971); Amok (1978); and Warlord's Hill (1982), though any biographical information beyond that fact has been impossible to find.   "I love the book. Fox is a brilliantly witty writer who has mastered his craft superbly. WITHOUT MUSIC is as haunting a story as it is a solidly satisfying piece of entertainment. There's little doubt that a powerful, new talent has arrived permanently on the scene." --- Mario Puzo

Life and Death of Harry Goth was published by Ballantine in 1972. After reading about its author, David Keith Mano (1942-2016), I find it difficult to describe him in positive terms, even if his writing talent was said to have been greater than most. A self-described "Christian pornographer," Mano was also a columnist for the National Review, a television writer, and a frequent contributor to Playboy, Qui and other men's magazines, who apparently wrote provocative, smutty novels about the struggle between good and evil and faith in the modern world. I wouldn't know because I've never read his books and don't plan on doing so. "Mr. Mano seems to be trying to offend every race, color and creed," critic John Leonard wrote in the Times. "It is as if James Joyce, for his sins, had been forced to grow up in Queens; as if Sam Beckett had been mugged by Godot in a Flushing comfort station; as if Sid Caesar played the part of Moby-Dick in a Roman Polanski movie shot underwater in Long Island City; as if Martin Heidegger had gone into vaudeville and... never mind. Just boggle.” Mano certainly sounds like a fascinating writer, and one I'd normally be willing to sample, but then there's this tidbit: He was also a practicing Episcopalian before growing disenchanted and abandoning the faith (in college he also rejected secular liberalism), turning instead to Eastern Orthodoxy. His main reason? A refusal to take communion from a female priest.

C. C. MacApp, the pseudonym of master chess player Carroll Mather Capps (1917-1971), had certain themes throughout his science fiction that could drive readers, ala Edgar Rice Burroughs, nuts with impatience: capture, subjugation, escape (rinse, repeat, etc.), and yet somehow I still managed to binge all seven of his novels in a single year in my youth. My favorite was his debut, Omha Obides (1968), which is ripe with all of those particular themes plus his always exciting take on alien invasion, and Bumsider (1972). I enjoyed Subb too, a fix-up novel about an alien encounter, but it in all honesty it's not his best work---that would be Worlds of the Wall (1969). Holmes (uncredited) did his best though to bring attention to the now nearly forgotten MacApp, with his heady cover art brew on Subb. Paperback Library published this paperback first edition in 1975.

"When Man first reached out to the stars the Thurgs arrived bearing Gifts. One was Beam, a mysterious expressway to another part of the universe. The other was the ability to remove the brain from a dying person and install it in a substitute body---a "subb." At first the gifts were accepted with unquestioning gratitude. Then a few people began to wonder. By making it so easy to get to one part of the universe, were the Thurgs, in effect, keeping the rest of the universe hidden? And the subbs... did they remain human? Were the Thurgs deliberately stocking the universe with a new brand of being---one capable of erasing mankind?"

Robert Bloch's Sneak Preview, published in 1971 by Paperback Library while the author of Psycho was serving as President of the Mystery Writers of America, snuck past folks like me who still had their nose stuck inside traditional science fiction and fantasy. It wasn't until later in the 1970's that I got unstuck. Robert Bloch was essential reading by then, capped off by 1984's excellent Night of the Ripper.

"Long shot: The domed city of Holywood, self-contained, functioning perfectly---as it has since it was sealed off against fallout generations ago. The camera moves in, follows a man in priestly white through the doors of Twenty-First-Century-Vox and into a conference room. He is joined by others---some clad in Technobility blue, some in the khaki of the Brass. The man in the archaic business suit at the head of the table is ARCHER, His MGMinence. The camera tightens on his face. As he opens his mouth, his face dissolves to that of a young man, GRAHAM, who says: "Space Operas are important to social conditioning. The hero must be dark; the heroine, blonde; the monster, green; and the plot..."

This macabre illustration by Holmes was featured on Barry N. Malzberg's conspiracy novel, Revelations. Paperback Library (now merged with Warner) published it in paperback in 1972. Malzberg (b. 1939-) is credited with publishing approximately 75 novels, most of which can be categorized as science-fiction, but his canon also includes mysteries, men's action series, general fiction and erotica. He is also a noted essayist and critic, in addition to being a prolific short story writer, with 16 collections of stories published so far.

"Marvin Martin, the REVALATIONS show's host, is angry. Night after night he strips his guests of their pitiful pretensions, their commonplace hypocrisies-- but how long has it bee since he uncovered a genuine revelation? Hurwitz, who selects Martin's victims, is scared. He made a bad mistake when he chose Doris Jensen; she turned out to be from a competitive network and ruined a taping. Hurwitz's job is in danger. Walter Monaghan, historically the 29th man to have walked on the moon, is desperate. He wants to tell the Revelations audience the truth about America's "space program"-- that it never got off the ground. If he's just another nut, why is it so important that he be silenced?"

Holmes' fascination with intense eyeballs would seem to be prevalent in almost every cover he produced. Possible Tomorrows was a science fiction anthology edited by Groff Conklin and published by Coronet in 1973, and it contains just five stories, but one of them, Gone Fishing, is by James H. Schmitz (1911-1981), whom I've always read and admired. Cybernia was also published by Coronet in 1973, and it's a science fiction novel by writer and artist Lou Cameron (1924-2010), whose illustrations I've always admired. Olman, a Canadian book blogger who I also admire, has an entertaining take on it at his always admirable blogspot Olman's Fifty.

POSSIBLE TOMORROWS:  "This book is a pocket-sized time machine. Strap yourself in--and visit five amazing futures. Here are your guides: Isaac Asimov; Kingsley Amis; J. T. McIntosh; James H. Schmitz; F. L. Wallace. And they're the best in the business..."

CYBERNIA:  "Ross MacLean was a computer expert. One of those bright-guys with a head for pure logic. Machines break down once in a while, and he could se them straight in no time. That's why he was going to Cybernia, New Jersey. Cybernia was a new community-- a community of tomorrow. It was fully modernized and automated, run by a fantastic computer. But the computer was acting strangely. At least that's what Ed Morton, town manager, said when he called in MacLean. It was getting bigger. It was controlling things it was never programmed to control. Then suddenly it started killing people."

To read science fiction is to read Poul Anderson (1926-2001), but the prolific, multiple award winning writer also wrote fantasy novels, sword & sorcery novels, historical novels, non-fiction, essays, letters, poetry and a ton of short stories. He even wrote three mystery novels, although I've been cautioned that they're not his strong suit.

Coronet's pairing of Holmes and Anderson would seem to be unique. Typically, Anderson's science fiction would be festooned with traditional sci-fi art, so to use surrealism to sell his titles (Lehr and Powers aside) would seem to me to be a bit of a gamble on the part of Coronet. It makes me wonder if sales of these paperbacks were what they hoped they would be.  

Rebel Worlds by Poul Anderson (Coronet, 1972).
Beyond the Beyond by Poul Anderson (Coronet, 1973).
Tau Zero by Poul Anderson (Coronet, 1973).
Enemy Stars by Poul Anderson (Coronet, 1973)
Byworlder by Poul Anderson (Coronet, 1974).  
Ensign Flandry by Poul Anderson (Coronet, 1976).

Christopher Hodder-Williams (1926-1995) was the son of one of the founders of the British publishing house Hodder and Stoughton, which also owned the imprint Coronet, and as you might expect they published a lot of his early novels. Fistful of Digits and 98-4 were both reprinted by Coronet in 1972 and 1975. John Holmes, of course, was the cover artist. Hodder-Williams started life as a jazz pianist, composer, song-writer and sound engineer, but after a while he turned to writing, churning out 15 rather exceptional novels and 4 teleplays for British TV (Armchair Theater, Suspense) in less than twenty-five years. He is considered a pioneer in the genre of techno-thrillers.

FISTFUL OF DIGITS:  "A natural successor to 1984? Fistful of Digits is a book that cries out to be read, a book that will scare the mind out of your head."

98-4:  "Computerisation gone berserk. The Nerve Controlled Ballistic Missiles described in this book are entirely imaginary and bear no relation to any living person."

DAW Books had an excellent track record of using many different artists multiple times throughout their tenure (they are no longer an independent company), but Holmes produced just one cover illustration for them, on British writer Michael G. Coney's 1973 science-fiction novel Friends Come in Boxes. It was the 56th paperback that DAW published since its inception in 1971 by Elsie and Donald A. Wollheim. DAW has since published over 2000 titles while featuring hundreds of artists, but never again did they court our Mr. Holmes.

"The problem of Immortality was solved in the 21st Century. It was a matter of successful brain transference. When you reached forty, your brain was removed and transferred to the head of a six-months-old infant. In that way, you got another forty years of life, until you could do it all over again. All you had to do was obey the laws and make no trouble. Besides, it solved the population crisis-- who wanted to have a baby that would soon become a total adult stranger mentally? So there was a growing waiting period between transfers-- and in the interim the disembodied brains were conscious in special boxes known as Friendship Boxes. If you would be companion to such a box you would be truly charitable. But, as the old saying might have it, if you had a Friend in a Box, you didn't need any enemies."

Vintage Books, a paperback division of Random House, published a science-fiction anthology titled Human-Machines in 1975. It was edited by Thomas N. Scortia and George Zebrowski. The cover art is not credited but it sure looks to me like it's more brainy work by Holmes.

"In this collection, eleven top authors imagine what the experience of a cyborg would be like. A Cyborg is a self-regulating human-machine whose mechanical and biological parts function as an integral whole. The cyborg idea is not new to man, who already modifies his biological parts with glasses, false limbs, hearing aids, iron lungs, pacemakers and artificial heart valves. In fact, technology has advanced so rapidly that it is already possible to think of the cyborg as a not-too-distant future reality."

Picador was launched in 1972 as a literary imprint of Pan Books, with the aim of publishing only paperback editions from outstanding international authors, yet by 1990 they were publishing hardcovers. So much for commitment. Their commitment to outstanding authors nearly went the distance though and it wasn't until just recently that they announced they will no longer be publishing original titles, just reprints, marked as Macmillan, their parent company. Oh well, nothing lasts forever, nothing that is except world-class authors and interesting cover art by John Holmes.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (Picador, 1973).
More Pricks Than Kicks by Samuel Beckett (Picador, 1974).
Murphy by Samuel Beckett (Picador, 1974).

 

For years I had no idea that John Holmes produced the cover art on Pan's 1975 paperback edition of Peter Benchley's Jaws. Looking at it now, it makes sense that he did. I can see his characteristic tone painted all over it.

"Pick up Jaws before midnight, read the first five pages, and I guarantee you'll be putting it down, breathless and stunned---the final climax is even better that the beginning---as dawn is breaking the next day." -- Peter Grosvenor, Daily Express

Holmes produced the cover art on The Swapping Game (Everest Books, U.K., 1976), Peter Roberts journalistic insight into married swingers, and of course it's naturally brilliant given the subject matter, but I give anything to see some of his alternative sketches that didn't meet with the editor's approval. Ha!

"Thousands of couples advertise for swapping partners in contact magazines. Who are they? Why do they go in for swapping? What are they like? What happens when they get together? In this eye-opening study, eight couples who place adverts in a contact magazine talk candidly about their experiences; what kind of people answered their ads; how they felt the first time the went to the home of a strange couple to swap bed-partners, the good times and the bad; what swapping did to their own marriages; and how it changed their lives."

Yet another outstanding horror anthology series edited by the always discerning Peter Haining, and more outstanding monster faces by John Holmes, the master maker of such things.

The Evil People edited by Peter Haining (Everest, 1975).
The Midnight People edited by Peter Haining (Everest, 1975).
The Unspeakable People edited by Peter Haining (Everest, 1975).

I just love the tagline on The Sleep Walk Killers: "The Startling Facts of Death by Nightmare." This non-fiction exploration of somnambulistic violence by Leslie Watkins was published by Everest Books in 1976. The cover art has not been credited to Holmes that I know of, but its arrangement and tone leads me to believe that it should be.

"Simon Fraser, a Scottish millworker, was a quiet and gentle man who adored his baby son. One night he got up a 3 am and battered the 18-month-old baby to death. A jury found him Not Guilty of murder--because he had been asleep at the time. In Covington, Kentucky, teenager Jo Ann Kiger fought a running gun battle with a burglar. Her father and brother died of bullet wounds. Twenty-four hours later she was arrested and charged with double murder. The intruder had existed only in her nightmare--and her own shots had killed the two men. Millions of people walk in their sleep. For a few of them, nightmare and reality became confused, and the result is tragedy. They are the Sleep Walk Killers."

Fact: Nearly 70 killings involving sleep walkers have reached courtrooms.

Yes, I'm pretty sure that there are more Corgi paperbacks out there with Holmes' cover art besides these three (which have been confirmed), but man alive, what dark gems these three are. Wow!

THE RIVALS OF DRACULA, edited by Michel Parry (Corgi, 1977):  "Vampires---those toothy denizens of darkness with their deathly-pale faces and hot-coal eyes and their craving for rich, warm, red blood---have been scaring hell out of people for centuries. Visions of abject terror---of satin-lined opera cloaks and polished black hair, of long twisty fingers beckoning beautiful virgins and turreted castles shrouded in mist and moonlight, of creaking coffins and garlic garlands, of flapping bats' wings and stakes through the heart---have stirred the imaginations of millions down through the ages. Now, in this brilliantly original collection, you are invited to meet some of the very best vampires ever...'

THE RIVALS OF FRANKENSTEIN, edited by Michel Parry (Corgi, 1977):  "Monsters! Following faithfully, frighteningly, in the footsteps of Frankenstein's celebrated creation come a host of monsters to haunt the innermost recesses of your mind..."

THE RIVALS OF KING KONG, edited by Michel Parry (Corgi, 1977):  "Having escaped from the bondage of their creators' wildest imaginings a motley crew of giant creatures are poised within the pages of this magnificent collection of shivery tales of terror, claws, paws and jaws at the ready... Are you ready to be frightened out of your gorilla skin?"

The Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories series was begun in 1966 and continued until 1984 with the publication of its seventeenth and final volume. Holmes didn't get tapped for action until 1977. He then produced cover art for all of the previous volumes as they were being reprinted (excepting V.5, with art by Les Edwards), as well as covers for the all of the forthcoming volumes until 1982 (excepting V.10, again with art by Les Edwards, and V.17, a photo construct). The nice thing about this series was Holmes was able to continue his love affair with monster faces well into the 1980's, keeping horror fans like me enthralled for that much longer.

"...blood-curdling tales of torment..."

This 1980 Bantam reprint paperback edition of Fredrick Brown's collection of short stories, Space On My Hands, is rather rare in my estimation. I found it in a used bookstore a few years back, and so far it's the only copy I've ever seen for sale in the Denver area. I didn't hesitate to buy it. It wasn't until much later that I learned the cover artist was John Holmes. Did I ever suspect it was him? No, not really (now I would), but I did begin to check off the names of potential artists as I thought of them. The Fredric Brown collection Honeymoon in Hell came afterward in 1982 (seen below), and it too is a rare creature in my neck of the woods.

"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door..."

"Journey to lands where reason and sanity do not belong. There are no maps. No transportation. And very little hope of return. Lend your mind to Fred Brown as he guides you to lands of fantasy, terror and confusion. Worlds where reason stops, insanity begins, and screams fall on alien ears."

Bantam published Thomas M. Disch's science-fiction short story collection The Man Who Had No Idea in 1982. Holmes was seemingly taking advantage of a new American outlet for his cover art although I've struggled to find additional examples from this publisher besides what's already been featured here. However, there is another Bantam paperback from 1976 that I think could be Holmes' (see immediately below). What do you think?

"Listen. You and I both know that most fiction is mind-candy; a pleasant way to waste time. Tom Disch is different. His prose bristles with ferocious intelligence and outrageous imagination. He shakes you up; sets time bombs off in your head. He tells terrific stories. Stories that can make you sigh, or scream, or laugh out loud. Disch writes so well, he shouldn't need clever copy to get you to read him. So what are you waiting for. Enjoy!"

 

O Master Caliban by Phyllis Gotlieb was published by Bantam in the year 1976. Is this also the work of Holmes?

"It's all-out combat, Man & Mutant vs. Machine in a gigantic battle for survival and control of GalFed's trash planet, Barrazan V. Years ago, Dahlgren, the genetic scientist, arrived with 100 humans and 1,000 ergs. Then, their intelligence expanded by Dahlgren's experiments, the robot-ergs took over. They rebelled and slaughtered their masters. Now, it's a war for possession of Dahlgren's World, the brutally hot, highly radioactive and barely habitable jungle in space. The ERGS, sophisticated man-serving machines VS. THE MUTANTS, including a talking goat, a mothering gibbon and a four-armed youth & THE HUMANS, Dahlgren & others including Shirvanian, a crybaby boy prodigy who is telepathic with machines, man's last hope for regaining the planet."

 

 

These seven surrealistic paintings reveal Holmes' progression throughout the years, from his early, perhaps less rigidly painted book covers, which I believe the two top images were produced as, to the sharp alacrity of the two bottom images (no pun intended), which I'm guessing were made during the latter half of his career.

I've only found a few book covers attributed to Holmes from the mid to late 1980's (Collins, Leisure), and only one from 1990 (Arrow) and nothing beyond that. But I suspect there may be more. Finding them online can be a tedious process but certainly fun when success is realized. I did discover that his cover art on Slugs (Leisure, 1987), a horror novel by Sean Hutson, was also used as a poster for the film adaptation, so is it possible Holmes produced additional movie posters during his career? I'd like to think yes without actually knowing.

In preparing this post I went through my reference books to see if I could find any more book covers by Holmes that I wasn't aware of, and I came up with nada. He's not even listed in Jane Frank's 2009 biographical dictionary SFF artists of the Twentieth Century, which to be frank (no pun intended) is less than all encompassing. The British Fantasy Awards have had a category for best artist since 1977, honoring folks such as Stephen Fabian, Rowena Morrill, J. K. Potter, Josh Kirby, Jim Burns and Les Edwards, among others-- but not Holmes. And that's a shame because John Holmes was a major factor in making British horror and fantasy cover art resonate for more than two decades.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

  [© October, 2022, Jeffersen]