“You may not know the name off the top of your head but if you’ve been reading Marvel comics, or SF and fantasy paperbacks, for any length of time at all then you’ve seen Bob Larkin’s work…. Once I learned to recognize the style it seemed as though I saw it everywhere. At some point Bob Larkin was doing covers for everything cool I liked.”—Greg Hatcher, Comic Book Resources
If you’re a fan of comic books, or movies, or pulp fiction heroes, Bob Larkin is a painter whose work you recognize immediately; he’s provided covers and movie posters for just about every publishing house and film studio for more than five decades.
Cover art for Doc Savage, Star Wars, Star Trek, and The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, and movie posters for Piranha, Night of the Creeps, and The Toxic Avenger II are just some of the painted images you’re already familiar with, even if you didn’t know they were Larkin’s work.
Probably his most famous piece of art is, of all things, the iconic disco-inspired cover for Marvel’s Dazzler #1, first published in 1980. It’s everywhere on the Internet—if there’s an article about a potential movie, it’s the art used at the top; if there’s an article about Taylor Swift possibly playing Dazzler in a movie, it’s the art used at the top. Numerous artists and publishers have done homage covers referencing it, and comic fans recognize his cover immediately, even if they don’t always know his name.
To top it off, last month Marvel not only released the cover as an oversized poster ready to hang on your wall, but they also announced the launch of a new Dazzler comic series, with a truckload of variant disco-themed covers all no doubt inspired by Bob’s painting.
He’s also been an inspiration to artists like Joe Jusko and Alex Ross. He’s worked behind the scenes on such movies as Star Trek V, providing concept artwork (that planet where “God” was hanging out, in need of a starship? That was Bob’s). If you’re a fan of StarWarp Concepts’ projects, then you know him as the cover artist of the Saga of Pandora Zwieback novels Blood Feud and Blood Reign, and the the frontispiece artist for my nonfiction comics history From the Stars…a Vampiress: An Unauthorized History of Vampirella’s Classic Horror Adventures.
And today is his 75th birthday!
“Larkin’s importance in his field can be judged by the fact that Joe Jusko provided the introduction to [The Savage Art of Bob Larkin] and Alex Ross wrote the afterword. His paintings were very influential on the current generation of cover artists.”—ICV2
“Throughout the’ 70s and ’80s, if you saw Bob Larkin’s name on the cover to a magazine or comic, you simply had to have it. This is a guy that’s never truly received the credit for being one of the best all-time cover artists.”—Shotgun Reviews
I’ve known Bob since 1998, when as a fiction editor I hired him to paint the covers for the novels X-Men: Law of the Jungle and Gen 13: Version 2.0 (the latter written by another friend of mine, Sholly Fisch), then again when I needed covers for my own X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy. But long before that I was a fan of his work, most of which I saw on the covers of 1970s magazines like Haunt of Horror, Tomb of Dracula, The Rook, Vampirella, and Crazy, among many others. And then when I learned he also did T-shirt art for World Wrestling Entertainment (Drew Barrymore wore his Stone Cold Steve Austin T-shirt in Charlie’s Angels), not to mention designed the meat-hook tattoos for wrestler (later MMA fighter) Brock Lesner…well, could he be any cooler?
It didn’t take long before my fandom turned into a friendship that’s still going on to this day!
“A prolific and accomplished painter, Bob Larkin ‘owned’ the Marvel magazine format. If you’ve ever seen a circa Bronze/Modern large-sized Marvel painted cover that just took your breath away, you were probably admiring the work of Bob Larkin.”—Gotham City Art
“With Larkin’s vibrant movie-poster style, ferocious barbarians, sci-fi and fantasy icons, classic monsters and buxom beauties burst from the page, caught in breathtaking action.”—Bookspan
When I relaunched StarWarp Concepts in 2010, Bob was the first artist I approached to get involved. I wanted painted covers for the Pandora Zwieback novels, and Bob was the artist I wanted for them. And not only did he create three cover paintings for the series, he also painted the flames and woodcut reproduction that adorn the real-world Pan Zwieback leather jacket, created sculptures of the bat ornament and demon-faced belt buckle Pan wears, and provided the final artwork for the demon-girl T-shirt that we sell in the SWC Store! And if you attend a convention that StarWarp Concepts is at, that’s Bob’s art on full display on the Pan banner that hangs in the back of our booth.
“With his vibrant, movie-poster style, Larkin was one of the most sought-after artists of his time.”—Science Fiction Book Club
If you’re unfamiliar with Bob’s stunning work, pay a visit to his art blog, Bob Larkin: The Illustrated Man. Yes, it hasn’t been updated in quite a while, but you’ll still find a wealth of imagery on display—and a lot of what he’s done will probably surprise you!
So, happy birthday, Bob! You’re a legend and an inspiration and a good friend, and all the best wishes to you on this special occasion!
