#Richard Bober

[driveintheaterofthemind]

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Scream Along With Me (1967)

Art by Richard Bober

[sci-fi-fantasy-art-collection]

War of the Worlds

Art by Richard Bober

[judgeitbyitscover]

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Top: 1962 Ariel Books first edition dust jacket cover art by Ellen Raskin

Bottom: 1976 Dell Laurel-Leaf mass market paperback cover art by Richard Bober

It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger. “Wild nights are my glory,” the unearthly stranger told them. “I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me be on my way. Speaking of way, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract”. Meg’s father had been experimenting with this fifth dimension of time travel when he mysteriously disappeared. Now the time has come for Meg, her friend Calvin, and Charles Wallace to rescue him. But can they outwit the forces of evil they will encounter on their heart-stopping journey through space?

When I first decided to post the cover of A Wrinkle in Time, I knew I would be posting the nightmare fuel of the 1976 edition I plucked off my mom's shelf as an unsuspecting kid. It turns out that I'm not the only person interested in knowing who made the red eyed face that haunted so many childhood dreams. The answer (Richard Bober) was a lot more difficult to find than you'd expect of such a popular book.

But then I saw the original and loved it and knew not including it too would be a disservice to Ellen Raskin

[art-of-illlustration]

Richard Bober, Adieu Nanny Gray.

[pulpsandcomics2]

Richard Bober

[laboratoryrats]

Who was the artist behind the iconic Wrinkle in Time? Newly identified!

“The artist who painted that terrifying centaur-pegasus is Richard Bober. Sadly, no one seems to know what happened to the original painting. But at least Bober can now get the credit he’s long deserved.”

From his collection website:

Bober studied at the Art Students League in the early 1970s and began a successful career in commercial art around the same time. He started as a freelance medical illustrator but soon turned to creating highly detailed, heavily embellished compositions in a romantic 19th-century style that was superbly suited to mythological themes and literary fantasy.

Bober paints the old-fashioned way, using traditional techniques: multi-layers of oil paint and alkyd or acrylics glazes, on fine linen canvas or masonite, for visual effect and surface texture.

He sadly passed away in 2022, so here is a celebration of his art

[sandmandaddy69]

Richard Bober

[trevsplace]

Mystery solved! The artist behind this long uncredited A Wrinkle In Time cover has finally been identified thanks to sleuthing by writer Sarah Elizabeth and NPR's self-proclaimed "processional pain-in-the-ass" Amory Sivertson. Thanks to their tenacious efforts, illustrator Richard Bober can posthumously have his day in the sun (or dark and stormy night, as the case may be). Their tale of unraveling this decades old mystery can be heard/read here: https://www.wbur.org/endlessthread/2023/09/01/artist-known-wrinkle

[artfulusername]

I've given credit where credit is due.

Finally!!!

So complex, this hunt. But it's worth knowing at last who the artist was. :) (Via Michael Whelan on Twitter, who helped in the search...)

[70sscifiart]

Any idea if the artist for A Wrinkle in Time is the same as A Wind in the Door?

Yeah, I actually asked the podcast host about it, and she asked the Bober family -- they were very sure that it looks like his work, but they didn't have a slide of that particular artwork in his files to prove it. I agree that it's probably by Richard Bober too, though!

[talonabraxas]

Cover for Lake of the Long Sun The Book of the Long Sun Two by Gene Wolfe, 1987 art by Richard Bober

[fernthewhimsical]

Fern's Cernunnos Masterpost

Part 1: Names and intro Part 2: Aspects Part 3: Correspondences, how to honour, and prayers

Sources:

Cernunnos wikipedia page Cernunnos: Looking a Different Way - David Fickett-Wilbar Cernunnos: Origin and Transformation of a Celtic Divinity - P. Bober Not your Mother's Horned God: the Cernunnos Primer - Jess South Cernunnos; an in depth look - Jo Forest

Horns of Power - Sorita d'Este In Search of Herne the Hunter - Eric L. Finch Hoofprints in the Wildwood - Richard Derks Masks of Misrule: the Horned God, his cult in Europe - Nigel Jackson the Horned God of the Witches - Jason Mankey Celtic Culture: a historic encyclopedia - John T. Koch Gods of the Celts - Miranda Green

[judgeitbyitscover]

The Invisible Man (1897) / The War of the Worlds (1898) by H. G. Wells

Cover art by Richard Bober

Pocket Books, August 1972

The Invisible Man (1897)

A curious man, wearing a long coat, a wide-brimmed hat, and whose face is entirely swathed in bandages save for an obvious fake pink nose, walks into an English inn to the shock and horror of many of the townspeople. Beakers and chemicals in tow, the man demands his solitude. It’s strange enough as it is until his money begins to run out and mysterious burglaries occur all over town. This masterpiece of science fiction is the fascinating story of Griffin, a scientist who creates a serum to render himself invisible, and his descent into madness that follows.

Read The Invisible Man Here

The War of the Worlds (1898)

When an army of invading Martians lands in England, panic and terror seize the population. As the aliens traverse the country in huge three-legged machines, incinerating all in their path with a heat ray and spreading noxious toxic gases, the people of the Earth must come to terms with the prospect of the end of human civilization and the beginning of Martian rule.

Read The War of the Worlds Here

[ghoulnextdoor]

Full Circle Lady Vampire – Unquiet Things

In September of 2017, I posted a fancy lady vampire painting to my various social medias. opining that surely my friends had it in their hearts to pool their resources and purchase it for me to hang in my boudoir for all eternity, to the tune of a cool 14K. As it happened, no one loved me enough for that! Regardless, I never forgot her lovely, spoiled little face, and I continued the tradition of posting the painting every now and again over the ensuing years. I loved her so much that I wanted to include her in The Art of Darkness, but alas, Richard Bober, the artist, never answered even one of my approximate 90 billion emails. it was not to be.

Sometime in the year 2021, Handsome Devils Puppets and I started plotting and scheming on the idea of coaxing her off the canvas and transferring her soul into the floopy-limbed, fabulously attired vessel of a custom marionette, as a sister puppet for Sei Shōnagon and Maria Germaova.

The project began in earnest in June of 2023, a month after I had written a blog post that blew up everywhere and got a lot of attention, inquiring about the mysteriously unknown artist of an iconic book cover for a certain edition of a much-beloved book. I was privy to a lot of speculation and chatted quite frequently with the podcaster who was eventually to report on it; I’d pass along more guesses and suggestions that I was receiving from blog commenters and emails, and she’d share industry tidbits and whispers that she was amassing in her detective work. A name eventually emerged that one or two people seemed quite certain about, and though it was a bit of a wild ride getting there–it was eventually revealed that those eagle-eyed individuals were correct. Y’ALL. Richard freaking Bober –the artist responsible for my favorite gorgeous goldilocked vampire mean girl– was the artist who created THAT cover art for Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time!!

That cover was something I wanted to include in The Art of Fantasy, but I thought, “Why bother? no one knows who the artist is; who would I even ask for permission?” But isn’t it funny that both these pieces of art caught my eye for various reasons, and without even realizing they were the same artist, I was hoping to have them in the pages of separate books?

I later learned through interviews with Richard Bober’s family and nephews that he was a bit of a recluse, and I don’t think he emailed much, so chances are, I was never going to receive a response to my inquiries anyway! And sadly, he died in late 2022, so he never lived to get proper credit for that book cover. From everything I’ve heard, though, I’m not sure he would have even cared!

So in a very roundabout way, this feels like it has come round full circle. Or looped around several times and tangled confusingly because I do tell a rambling story.

Anyway, isn’t she beautiful? She’s totally gonna steal my soul tonight. Worth it.

[cosmicanger]

Illustration by Richard Bober titled "Lake of the Long Sun"

[barbariankingdom]

Richard Bober