I originally attempted this cover in early 2000 at the request of John Cullen, who runs Clocktower Fiction. He sometimes writes under the name John Argo, and Lantern Road was published under the Argo nom de plume. It now lends its title to a collection of Argo fiction.

I consulted reference works on ukiyo-e artwork (primarily that of the peripatetic master Hokusai, long a favorite of mine), and tried to capture something of the flavor of ukiyo-e (primarily woodblock prints) to go with the quasi-Japanese civilization John had created for Ramy's people.

After scanning my original pencil sketch into my computer, I pulled the image into Photoshop and began altering the color curves. I wanted the piece to look as though it had been done with conte crayon on colored paper. After a little experimentation, I ended up with a color scheme of dark red or maroon lines on tan. The result looked good to me but was a bit cold. After some thought I realized that I needed to include images of the characters -- especially seeing as how the other figures in the drawing were all facing away from the viewer! I resorted again to Hokusai, but ended up using as reference a theatre poster by another ukiyo-e artist. I also opted for the flat coloring of the poster, as opposed to the more painterly approach I usually adopt.

I sought to show something of the life and color of the Lantern Road, as well as the three central characters: human Jory, with the odd horn-like bumps on his temples, his alien lover Ramy with her big, strange eyes, and Ramy's sister, Ramy-baba, the third sex of Ramy's race and the repository for the eggs produced by the females and fertilized by the males.

In March 0f 2002 I edited this image to some extent,removing a malformed figure on the left and replacing it with a better one, and making some other cosmetic changes. I think the piece came out rather well. It certainly represents an interesting departure in style for me.