Artwork
Over the years many of Shaun's books have been published with different cover illustrations. I have been in contact with most of the artists responsible for the artwork and they have allowed me to display them in their original form along with any details the artist gave me.
Mark Taylor
Most of the cover-illustrations featured on Shaun Hutson's best-selling books were painted by Mark Taylor. Mark has very kindly allowed us to display the covers on the site, and also some of the original sketches that he did for the covers.
"...I was first commissioned to do a Hutson cover when they were being published by W.H. Allen. The cover design had recently been re-worked by Mike Brett, the art director at W.H. Allen, and 'Assassins' had already been commissioned. This was the first of the covers with the black background and gold type, and the only one that I didn't paint. There were previous versions done by other people before this re-design, but I don't know who did those. The artist who painted 'Assassins' couldn't do any more so I got the job as I'd previously done covers for Mike Brett. I think I did 3 or 4 and then Macdonalds Publishing bought the rights to the Hutson titles. The art director there, Peter Cotton, liked the covers that I'd done and asked me to re-cover all of the Hutson titles that hadn't been done yet. I was lucky enough to get the new covers to do as well, as the new manuscripts became available. Macdonalds Publishing was bought up by Little Brown/Time Warner with Peter Cotton still acting as art director, so I've managed to carry on doing the Hutson covers...
"...Basically I was given the book to read and from that would work out a few rough sketches of what I thought would work as a cover. The art director and the marketing dept. at the publishers decide which one they like best, and then I sit down and paint it..."
Click here to open Mark's gallery
Graham Potts
"I only met Shaun Hutson once, and briefly, on a W.H. Allen book evening which I was invited to. I still have the cover artwork for 'Slugs' which I remember doing very well. The art director at the time was Michael Brett and I remember taking the artwork to him in their London office. He was happy with it, but thought that more gore was needed. So, he gave me a tube of red gouache, sat me down in the corner and made me add more blood until he was happy!"
Click here to open Graham's gallery.
Danny Flynn
"I was given only ONE evening to come up with and produce the image for Erebus, back in the days of when Mike Brett was the Art Director of Star Books. Awful, both the image and my painting. Bluey sky with a screaming bloodied girl's face, head in hands...
"I was at Star one particular day when Mike mentioned that Shaun had just been at the publishers. He suggested I ran out into the lobby to say hello to Shaun, so I did - not exactly knowing what I would have said to Shaun had I spoken to him...
"Still, I chased after Shaun like some starstruck fan, only to see him him climbing into a cab, but I still shouted after him, 'Mr Hutson, Mr Hutson', then felt such a prat as the cab pulled away. I saw Shaun looking out of the window as if thinking 'Who the f*** was that?'"
Click here to open Danny's gallery.
Larry Rostant
Click here to open Larry's gallery.
Mark 'Wills' Williams
Click here to open Mark's gallery.
Michael Knight
"I have been a fan of Shaun Hutson since the beginning. After reading The Skull in fact. I craved more, but horror wise there was nothing. A few years later I heard about some of his pseudonyms and got some war and western books, by that time Slugs, Spawn and Erebus were bought and read. I was just hooked. No one wrote like Shaun. So, moving forward a little to the early 90's, I was living in Northern Ireland working for Microsoft. I was walking passed the Library in Derry and I walked passed this guy that looked the spitting image of Shaun. Later that year Renegades came out. I quickly snapped it up and read it in a day. It mentioned where I lived and places I had been, it was great, and then I remembered the time I thought I saw Shaun, so he must have been there for research. Anyway, last year (2017) I spoke to Shaun and asked him was he in Derry. He told me he was in Belfast but doesn't remember being in Derry but he must have been to have been so precise with the locations within Renegades, so the jury is still out on whether it was actually him or not.
"I create Visual Effects and Poster artwork for Film, TV and Games and I decided to create some promo videos for Shaun's books. I started with Deathday. I then got talking to Shaun's Current Publisher whom asked us would we be interested in designing the cover for Chase, Shaun's new book. Naturally I jumped at the chance, so in March 2017 I got the manuscript and got to work. The concept came quickly from one short chapter (Page 27 of Chase, THE HOUSE) and even when I had finished the book, I knew what I would be using page 27 as one of the concepts (I did 3 different versions.) Both Shaun and Darren (Shaun's Publisher) Immediately loved it and stated that this is the one they love and want to use. It gives nothing away about the story, which is what I wanted and it gave a foreboding and eerie feel and I sort of kept with a tradition of using a shadow or silhouette which is a concept that many of his books have. The back cover concept was taken from Chapters 49 and 50 and if you hold the cover towards the light, you'll see a child on fire and burning. After 3 months of rehab, I'm now fine (just kidding, how can anyone be fine after reading a Hutson book?)
"I was honoured and humbled to have worked with Shaun and Darren. Not many people can say they worked with their favourite author and it was a privilege. If I do more designs for them, great, if not, it was still something that I'm immensely proud of."
Click here to open Mike's gallery.
Willie Rushton
The English cartoonist, satirist, comedian and co-founder of satirical magazine Private Eye, Willie Rushton, did an illustration in pen and ink of White Ghost in 1994 for Private Eye.
The artwork is available to buy from the Chris Beetles gallery.
Click here to see the illustration.