Another curiosity, this was the first time I was published as well as had art on a cover
I was 17 in 1991 and I believe this magazine was only distributed in schools. Maybe English classes, I can’t exactly remember. I was in high school anyway, and won a contest, I know that.
The original art project included a haiku I wrote in my own blood . which hung in the front hall of Maine East High school for weeks in a trophy case. At the the time I thought it was funny no one knew or noticed I had written the poem blood, but it was a big high school and it seemed like a lot of things could go unnoticed in retrospect. It started with something like “stagnant water still…”
This image was inspired by reading H.P. Lovecraft and a place in the woods we used to go to drink and hang out. I remember a friend of mine ,who had also read a bunch of Lovecraft, did a drawing of Cthulhu for the same project . At the time I recall thinking similar to I do now; the beauty of Lovecraft is NOT in overt images of Cthulhu, it is in what is unseen. Of coarse this is much harder to illustrate and is why everyone draws Cthulhu. The fact that some folks who use the image of Cthulhu now days have read no Lovecraft at all should no longer be a surprise.
I was published in other minor stuff and won other small contests here and there before getting any serious gaming related jobs. I think it would be another 9 or 10 years before I had another cover though.
