It is said the cover artist Michael Weaver began this painting at the start of the initial Gulf War [I remember watching CNN at midnight on my little TV in the dorm at I.U. when this went down] and completed it the day the war was over. So, roughly the 17th of January 1991 to the 28th of February 1991. Not bad for a months worth of work, and although I could never fully figure out what the deal was with floating two-handed sword, I did love it.
The magazine itself is are rather dull issue with a short story, some computer game reviews, and a bit on dwarves, but the bulk is really made up as a promo for GenCon that year. As I can't attend that particular GenCon, the issues lags in the middle, but nonetheless it was fun to see some glossy color pages of just what gamers were looking like circa 1991.
Artist Jim Holloway also gets to take a now familiar shot at artist Larry Elmore as a dwarf [haha, we get it, he's short!] and otherwise there are some so-so illustrations which neither made me turn away or set my creative mind afire.
Also, there might be a picture of a young Wolfgang Baur or maybe even Dave Gross in the GenCon section, but I can't be sure... oh, and the cosplay ladies are gorgeous, especially for the time period!
Artistic Rating: 2.5 [out of 5]
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Josh: I’ve thought about that, and you are probably right, but it still made me go hmmmmm… :)
I always assumed this cover was frozen right at the moment the wyvern did a sudden backwing after getting startled by the birds and the warrior lost his grip on his sword and it flew out of his hand. It’s a nifty image.