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Michael Whelan (born June 29, 1950) is a multiple-award-winning American artist of imaginative realism, formerly working for over 30 years as an illustrator specializing in science fiction and fantasy, before devoting all his work to his fine art career. His art has appeared on over 350 book and magazine covers, including many Stephen King novels, most of the Del Rey editions of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series and Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series, Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince and Dragon Star series, the DAW editions of Michael Moorcock's Elric books, numerous DAW editions of C. J. Cherryh's work, the Ace editions of H. Beam Piper's Fuzzy novels, and Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Otherland, and Shadowmarch series. Whelan provided covers and interior illustrations for Stephen King's The Gunslinger and The Dark Tower, the first and last of his Dark Tower books. Whelan's work can also be seen on the cover of the Jacksons' "Victory" album, Sepultura's Beneath the Remains, Arise, Chaos A.D. and Roots albums, Soulfly's Dark Ages, and Obituary's landmark album Cause of Death, and every album by Elric-influenced metal band Cirith Ungol. Since the mid-1990's he has pursued a successful career as a gallery artist, selling his non-commissioned paintings in galleries in the US as well as privately through his website.
BiographyMichael Whelan was born in Culver City, California, the son of William and Nancy Whelan. As a child, he had a nomadic existence, moving nearly every other year due to the demands of his father's aerospace industry career. He thus attended eight elementary schools, three junior high schools and four high schools, and often lived for only the duration of the summer in other locations. He grew up in Colorado, several cities along the California coast, and in New Mexico (near the White Sands Proving Ground). Whelan's time near White Sands and Vandenberg Air Force Base proved a lasting influence; in a 2000 interview, he noted that he couldn't "deny that living near to missile launching sites and Air Force bases had an impact. It was always thrilling to watch them go up...and sometimes blow up" (AudioBookCafe.com). By the time Whelan was a sophomore in high school, his family had moved to Denver. It was there that he began his formal training in art, taking summer classes at Denver's Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. By his final year of high school, his family had moved again; this time to San Jose, California, where he graduated from Oak Grove High School (San Jose, California) in 1968. He attended college at San Jose State University, initially as a Biology major, (pre-med). While at SJSU, he worked in the Anatomy and Physiology Department, gaining a first-hand knowledge of human anatomy. According to Whelan, his job "involved all sorts of tasks related to the anatomy department, such as preparing cadavers for the classes, stringing bones together to make complete skeletons, making models of body parts, some medical illustration, etc." (Delos). Some of Whelan's college medical drawings appeared in The Journal Of Bone And Joint Surgery. Over time, however, he became disenchanted with the limited creative possibilities in medical illustration and during the middle of his junior year, Whelan changed his major to Art. After graduating from SJSU in 1973 with a BA in Painting (as a "President's Scholar"), Whelan studied briefly at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California for nine months from 1973–1974. In 1974 Whelan exhibited his work at the World Science Fiction Convention in Washington D.C., where it was seen by Thomas Schluck, who first discovered his work and contracted to use it in European publications shortly afterwards. Donald A. Wollheim of DAW Books gave Whelan his first American professional assignment—the cover to Lin Carter's fantasy novel, The Enchantress of World's End, after seeing Whelan's artwork in a set of slides Whelan submitted in August 1974. Since he was already receiving offers for assignments Whelan left the Art Center College of Design to pursue illustration full-time. In 1975, he moved to Connecticut so as to be near the New York City hub of the publishing industry. There he met Audrey Price, whom he was eventually to marry. Shortly after arriving on the East Coast he exhibited some of his student works in the Lunacon convention art show in New York, where it was seen by Harlan Ellison. Ellison kindly obtained Whelan's first magazine illustration assignment for Ellison's story "Croatoan" which appeared in Gallery magazine. At Lunacon Michael also met Rick Bryant, who subsequently introduced Michael to Neal Adams. Mr. Adams graciously called the art director of Ace Books and paved the way for Whelan's first assignment at Ace. Quick to take advantage of these opportunities, Whelan soon gained a reputation as a talented, imaginative, and dependable cover artist, working for science fiction and fantasy publishers such as DAW Books, Del Rey, and Ace. Whelan credits the 1979 publication of Anne McCaffrey's best-selling The White Dragon featuring his cover art as a turning point in his career. He won his first Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist in 1980 at the Noreascon II Worldcon in Boston. In his career to date, Whelan has won fifteen Hugos—more than any other artist. When commissioned,Whelan made a practice of reading the entire book that he sought to illustrate, usually twice. "I try to let the book I'm illustrating determine the approach and subject matter," he stated (Delos). Not surprisingly, Whelan's close attention to the work he illustrates has made him popular with writers and fans alike. Fantasist Michael Moorcock wrote of Whelan, "I am more than usually grateful for an artist who not only depicts him [Elric] as I imagine (and describe him) but who also manages to capture some of the appropriate atmosphere" (Wonderworks, p. 36). Science fiction writer Anne McCaffrey praised him, declaring, "Fortunate indeed is the author who has Michael Whelan for an illustrator" (Wonderworks, p. 55). He illustrated the cover for Meat Loaf's 1993 album Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell. He also provided several illustrations for the insert booklet, which were also used for the single releases such as "I'd Do Anything for Love (but I Won't Do That)". Larger versions of his artwork were featured in the album's 2002 special edition release. He has since gone on to paint album cover artwork for many other recording artists, from Michael Jackson to Sepultura to Jonn Serrie. Whelan currently lives in Danbury, Connecticut. Since 1996 he has stopped accepting commissioned work, devoting his efforts to his gallery pieces and "self-commissioned" works. He has mounted several one-man and group shows at a number of galleries in the U.S., but his imaginative and engaging work still finds it's way onto published projects such as the SPECTRUM annuals. He and Audrey Price have two children, Alexa and Adrian. Whelan was successfully treated for Lyme disease in 1999 and prostate cancer in 2000. His hobbies include the martial arts (he has a second degree black belt in Chinese-Okinawan Kempo), electronic music, and travel. 
Alleged plagiarism of Whelan's work
In 2003, a Flash animation slideshow titled Family Art Corner was released anonymously, alleging that a woman named Jan McRae had plagiarized the work of many artists, including Whelan, for reproduction in proselytization tracts printed by the Children of God cult.[1] Whelan's works, White Wolf and Swords Against Nehwon were compared. After the slideshow was released, Karen Zerby, leader of the Children of God acknowledged that McRae had copied the work of others, as did McRae herself, and McRae admitted wrongdoing.[2] HonorsWhelan's work has been widely honored both inside the science fiction and fantasy field and beyond. His honors and awards include:
Published Art collections
References
External links
Categories: Fantasy artists | American artists | Contemporary artists | Irish-Americans | Hugo Award winning artists | Medical illustrators | People from the Greater Los Angeles Area | People from Danbury, Connecticut | People from Denver, Colorado | San José State University alumni | Science fiction artists | American SubGenii | Worldcon Guests of Honor | Colorado artists | 1950 births | Living people CommentsNo comments have been added. |
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