Friday 7 September 2018

The Edifying Art of Les Edwards

Anyone who remembers Fighting Fantasy gamebooks from their original run with Puffin Books in the 1980s will already be familiar with the work of fantasy artist extraordinaire Les Edwards.

Les produced the cover art for no fewer than eleven titles, including such classics as Demons of the Deep, Daggers of Darkness and Return to Firetop Mountain.

He also produced the cover art for Keith Martin's two blood-sucker adventures, Vault of the Vampire and Revenge of the Vampire.


When Wizard Books republished the Fighting Fantasy series in the new millennium, Les was asked to produce a new piece of cover art for Steve Jackson's House of Hell and Creature of Havoc.


He even got to revisit the artwork he originally produced for both Ian Livingstone's Caverns of the Snow Witch and Crypt of the Sorcerer.



“I enjoyed doing them,” Les said, when asked how his work for Fighting Fantasy differed from other illustration jobs. “I always liked using that kind of material as it wasn’t anywhere as commonplace as it is now. We seem to have Fantasy-like material wherever you look now.”

Les sold the original paintings of his FF art long ago, but you can still purchase prints of said pieces direct from his website.


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