NIGHTMARE IN RED (1981)
Acrylic over pastels - 25 ½” x 20”
TALES FROM THE NIGHTSIDE is a collection of macabre stories by Charles L. Grant.
I accepted a commission to do the cover art in the gloomy winter of 1980-81. There had been recent deaths in my family and among friends; the weather was bleak; John Lennon had been shot, and so on. 1/3
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Book cover for TALES FROM THE NIGHTSIDE by Charles L. Grant, published by Arkham House

Angled view down on a horror montage set upon a red tinted, textured skull topped by a trio of rose blooms. Low in the immediate foreground one orbital reflects the glint of light on an eyeball. Nested low on the forehead a bat opens its maw wide in a scream. Set to the side is a tile with the number 3 and a creeping spider. Opposite rests a small stack of coins, the topmost decorated with a triangle. Smoke wafts out of a crack at the top back of the skull while tendrils of roots grow off the opposite side.