The Sentry
- THE SENTRY - A spare-time Computer painting. It appears here for the first time. A few years ago I did a half-tone drawing that appeared in a convention program book. It also appears now in my Stephen E. Fabian Collection, No.6, as Plate 11. What you see here is my new computer modified color version of that drawing.
In my comments for picture number 105 I referred to the only painting of mine that was ever rejected by an editor/publisher. I'm going to write about it here. It was really, the only bad episode I ever had in my dealings with a professional publisher. It was truly embarrassing.
It came about in the New York office of Donald Wollheim, owner and editor of DAW books. His wife Elsie was also present. I was there because I had accepted a commission from Mr. Wollheim to do the cover painting for a forthcoming DAW paperback, "The Beasts of Gor," by John Norman. I was asked to include a girl and a beast in the painting. Elsie said to me, "Please, Steve, put a pretty face on the girl". So I went home and worked at that painting doing my best to put a "pretty face" on the girl.
When I delivered the painting about ten days later, Elsie looked at it and went into an emotional fit, she could not stand looking at such an ugly thing. I took the painting home, reworked the face and brought it back to Mr Wollheim. This time Elsie was not there and Donald accepted the painting. But, it was not used, it was mailed back to me with a check and a note attached to it from Mr. Wollheim which read, "Sorry, I think the painting is OK, but Elsie just hates the face on the girl, won't let me use it!"
So there you are . . . I am still amazed at Mrs. Wollheim's emotional tirade. Surely, wouldn't a professional and polite, "Sorry, Steve, I just don't like it," suffice?
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