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Frederik Pohl Remembers the illustrator Hannes Bok

Filed under Found on the Web

Hannes Bok Rocket Ship

In the middle of his reminiscences of the pulp magazines of the ’30s and ’40s, Frederik Pohl has started to tell us about his memories of the illustrator Hannes Bok – and I have to admit that although I like his work, till now I knew practically nothing about him.

Bok was a contemporary of the inhumanly skilful Virgil Finlay; but while their rendering styles had something in common there was no commonality at all in their very different visual imaginations. Bok is strange and stylized and curious; Finlay is elegant and, I suppose, more accessible.

This comes at an appropriate time for me: I’ve just finished a greyscale illustration for a tale in Starship Sofa Stories #3. Working to greyscale was challenging, much as shooting a film in black and white is challenging – I had to make even more persnickety adjustments to my lights and materials than I usually do. But I found that I loved the result.

I keep looking at that picture and wondering whether I’ve found the solution (or part of one) for a project that’s been going in and out of the Idea Closet for years now. Grey is…. tasty. I’d forgotten.

Anyhow, here’s to the mysterious Hannes Bok. I think now that every time I recall my days of hitch-hiking to the art shows at science fiction conventions, I’ll think about him, too – some things never change!

Now continued in Part Two.

[tags]hannes bok, frederik pohl, pulp art, illustration, golden age[/tags]

 
 
One response to “Frederik Pohl Remembers the illustrator Hannes Bok
S Jones says:
September 5th, 2011 at 4:16 pm

Whenever I see Bok’s stunning, textural images in B & W, I can’t help but think they left a legacy to artists like Chris van Allsburg (Jimanji, Polar Express, etc.) whose work is also vividly monochrome:

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