The cover painting for Hard Magic

The Grimnoir Chronicles: Hard Magic by Alan Pollack
I just got the cover painting for Hard Magic. Alan Pollack is the same fellow that did the covers for both Monster Hunter novels. He’s an extremely talented artist.  http://www.alanpollack.com/ He was going for a very ’30s big pulp vibe, and I believe that it came out great. I’m feeling so much better about this one now that I know the cover on Amazon was a rough draft stub that shouldn’t have ever gone out.  This one feels kind of retro-swanky-cool.  I’m really excited.

Strangely, all three of my novels feature covers of an attractive/dangerous women and a man with a gun… I don’t really know what that says about me as an author. Oh, hell, who am I kidding?  🙂

Here is the Hard Magic final cover art
New podcast interview with me, from Dungeon Crawler's Radio

26 thoughts on “The cover painting for Hard Magic”

    1. Hey, I have of those! I was lucky enough to run across the discussion on THR and recognize the writing as the genius it is. I’m too much of a book hoarder to ever sell it. I may send it to Larry and beg for it to be signed.

      As for the cover, very nice. I feel better now. The other almost gave me pause on pre-ordering it. Almost.

  1. Love it. Seriously, that’s a cool cover.
    Now, the Tommy… it has a side charging handle like a 1943 Tommy… and a Top Charger like a 1927 Tommy? Interesting.

    1. I believe what you are seeing on top is actually supposed to be the front sight.
      May not have been painted by a gun nut.

      Other than that, HOW FRIGGIN COOL is that cover!

      1. yea, and the Rules Violation of “FINGER ON THE TRIGGER” hints at a non-gunny designer….

        other than that (which just sticks out to me and urks the hell out of me) its a great lookin cover.

    1. You know, that is actually kind of interesting. On the cover, Alan is not a gun guy at all. He wouldn’t even think of it.

      But for historical purposes, ’32 predates the Four Rules being spread around. Gun safety was different back then. People tended to be safe, because they had a lot of familiarity, but you didn’t have the the rules like we do now. It was pretty common to see pictures of really hard core shooters with their fingers on the trigger. I even read a book on pistol shooting from the 20s where it was recommended that you always keep your finger on the trigger, so your reaction time would be better. 🙂

      I really like our way better. 🙂

  2. That’s cause your a BAEN writer. Check the rest of BAEN’s covers you’ll see the curvy babe/big gun motif is well known there.

    Like all BAEN writers you’ll need to get used to the Barflies call,
    “WRITE FASTER LARRY”

  3. “Strangely, all three of my novels feature covers of an attractive/dangerous women and a man with a gun… I don’t really know what that says about me as an author. Oh, hell, who am I kidding?”

    It means you actually recognize your readers and cater to the market 😀

  4. While awesome, ( and I do think he captured what you were going for theme wise), Shouldn’t that be a Lewis Gun?

  5. I like it — and this time, the artist actually made an attempt at depicting a (somewhat) realistic firearm. Why do so many talented artists paint guns like a third-grader does? (Pet peeve of mine.)

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