Don Ivan Punchatz: The Realistic Look of Magic
If you came of age reading science fiction in the late 60s, 70s or 80s you may have come across the illustrations of Don Ivan Punchatz who sadly just passed away. Punchatz’s illustrations were best known in the fantasy and science fiction genres and graced quite a few paperbacks, although his work covered other genres and he even did a cover or two for Time magazine (which is as good as you can get). Videogame fanboys however might best know him for his package art for the original Doom game (shown above), although his paperback cover art for the Isaac Asimov Foundation triology was my first encounter with his artwork:
Illustration for the cover of Switch Bitch by Roald Dahl:
Illustration for The Moon Pool by A. Merritt, 1968:
Illustration for The Fully Automated Love Life of Henry Keanridge by edited by Playboy, 1971:
Illustration for The Man In the Maze by Robert Silverberg, 1969:
Illustration for Nightwalk by Bob Shaw, 1970:
You’ll notice that Don’s style changes a bit over time, his work in the 80s starts to become more realistic and less abstract which also reflects the fashions of the time. Although what I admire about Punchatz is that he works in a wide range of styles and does them all well. Here’s an illustration for The Green Brain by Frank Herbert, 1979:
Illustration for The Magic Labyrinth by Philip Jose Farmer, 1981:
Illustration for The Fabulous Riverboat by Philip Jose Farmer, 1983:
Detail of an illustration from The Gods of Riverworld, by Philip Jose Farmer:
Illustrations for Harlan Ellison’s “Repent, Harlequin” Said the Ticktockman, 1978:
Editorial illustration for Crisis in Psychoananlyis:
