Skyhigh 20 Covercruise

Covercruise




COVERCRUISE
COVERCRUISE
- SPECIAL EDITION -

hosted by Chaotic/ATLANTIS/N*P

Coming to the 20th issue of SKYHiGH,I thought about
giving this chapter another face this time!
So let me present to you my (ofcourse subjective)

INDEX OF MOST-IMPORTANT COVERDESIGNERS
INDEX OF MOST-IMPORTANT COVERDESIGNERS

This list is sorted alphabetically after handle and
doesn't represent any kind of rankings. If possible
for me,informations about the coverdesigner are
given. This list may be ofcourse incomplete. A choice
of representative artworks is given. But now let's
start with the list,and first in the line is

ASTAROTH (AVANTGARDE,AGONY)
ASTAROTH Poland
This guy is more and more known and liked in the
scene. Besides drawing on paper,he's also a
talented computergraphican. Check out the AGONY-
Demo "Love" for examples of his screen-work.
Originally coming from pencil-based drawings,he's
now more and more precising his technics and draws
nearly in the way e.g. >ELECTRIC does.
Having joined up with the dudes in AVANTGARDE
recently,he'Ll probably get more support for his
works and will climb in the charts for shure,if he
doesn't do it already! He's known (and liked) for his
gloomy style and objects.
Works worth to be checked out:
"Tea without Tea" for AGONY,"Greenpeace Cover" for
AGONY,The old pencilbased covers for AGONY (93/94),
"Woodcover" ('94) for REBELS,"Pink Paranoyd" ('94)
4 EQUINOXE,"Ehe Bleeding" 4 ALBION ('94) ,"Preludium"
for the EXTEND GRAPHICS COMPETITION ('94,9th Place).

BEAST,THE (former X-RATED)
BEAST,THE
I have only seen one cover drawn by this dude,and
that wasn't even very impressive,but still he is one
of the first guys I ever got a cover from,and,with
his style,stands for the past. The one I got here
from him was drawn for X-RATED in quite clean style.

BIZ KID (CAMELOT)
BIZ KID Denmark

"Ha",you think,"Chaotic made an error,BIZ KID's only
doing computergraphics!".. Well,he doesn't,although
I haven't seen an actual cover drawn by him (hint!).
As some of you might know,Bizzie's coming from the
Graffiti-based background,and that's also what his
covers look like:Fat outlines and stuff... Well,I
thought it'd be a nice idea to take ya into this list,
Bizzie! Get Active :)! Anyway,a representative cover
would be for example the one he did for his former
group BLAZE back in 1992.

BRADY (ex- X-FACTOR?)
BRADY
I don't have concrete informations about this dude,
but I heard he was originally coming from the
comicscene,just doing some guest-starring. If you
have any deeper informations,tell me please!
Anyway,I have a,for that time very stylish,cover
drawn by him back in 1990,and it's looking somehow
futuristic. It was drawn for X-FACTOR.

COP (FACES,CHROMANCE)
COP HUNGARY
Well Well,one of the most-expirenced cover-
designers,drawing in the meanwhile common pointilism
style. -> ELECTRIC made this style known in th scene,
and many artists are using it these days.
The latest work I got from him was a cover for my
old crew REBELS ('95). Nowadays,COP isn't very active
anymore,you can say,out of the scene! The REBELS-
Cover took nearly a year to get finished.
Another cover worth mentioning is the TOPAZ-Cover,
which was drawn in 1992. Also the onepage-comic,
drawn for the F4CG-Papermag "PIRATES",deserves
attention.

CONDOR (REFLEX)
CONDOR Germany
It wouldn't say he's really a "milestone" in the
coverscene,but his covers represent a style that
was more famous in the past,and nowadays isn't
anylonger:Graffiti-styled covers.
His best one so far was the one for THE EASTGANG,
spread at The Party 1993 in Denmark.
Other remarkable covers are the ones for INSIDER/
RFX ('93),(where's the third issue ?!) and the one for
Happymaker/RFX ('93),which looks nevertheless a bit
poor". Earlier ones like the Co-Op between him and
Tenor can be regared as "first tries" and are un-
important.

CRUISE (ELYSIUM,TABOO)
CRUISE Poland
As so many computergraphicans do,also CRUISE tried
himself out in the coverbusiness. You can compare
his style a bit (but only little) with the former style
of ->ASTAROTH,atleast a quite gloomy one,indeed.
Take a look at the "ANKH" cover done in 1994,and you
know what I mean. Nowadays it is quite "beloved" to
use satanic symbols and such things if you draw.
Also the DinA4-Picture for the EXTEND-
Competition ('94, 5th place) deserves attention.

DANNY (ex. PUBLIC)
DANNY Germany
This dude did a lot of small graphics,logos and that
kind of stuff for the german pd-mag called PUBLIC
(Stonysoft,dead by now). But he also did a nice cover
for the crew GIANTS ('93),and that's what I'm talking
about. Danny was a typical Coverdesigner of the
past,using the graffiti-style for his drawings,and,
believe me,he was one of the best in the scene
using this style. The previously-mentioned cover
should be a part of every collector's ...collection!

DAVE (ATLANTIS)
DAVE    Germany
Finally one of the really "important" designers in
the scene,who also did quite a lot covers. He's also
known for varying his style quite a lot. If you take
a look at his earlier works,you'll find it out soon.
The CLIMAX-Covers (his former group) aren't that
great;apart from the fact that he was using nude
women with big tits to draw attention to his covers..
Well,he succeeded,humm.. ;). Checking out the next
"generation" of his covers,one can clearly see that
he improoved quite a lot,especially his characters
were really cool,Check out the covers for THE ROGUE
('93),DAVE,TSR ('93),MEGAUNIT  ('93),MANIAX ('93)
and NEOTEC/REBELS ('93),
where he constantly used his graffiti-based style....
Also on the votesheets he did for the papermag by
Mike/Sunrise,the beloved MILESTONE!
The next "generation" began,when Dave released his
Cover for INDIGENTS ('93),using the pointilism-style.
The TOPAZ-Cover ('93/'94) was the follow-up for this
one.The last cover I got from him was drawn for our
former group REBELS,already being a very fine piece
of Art. Apart from doing some Rebels-Stickers ('94),
this was his last cover he did for quite a while.. and
we are currently waiting for him to get active again!

DEATH (ex.TOPAZ,former HITMEN)
DEATH Germany
The first covers Death did were quite comic-based
('92),until he more and more found his way to the
graffiti-style. Meanwhile,he isn't active anymore...
Check out the early covers for VISION,TOPAZ and the
more stylish ones for TALENT ('93),OXYRON ('93),
ATFH/TOPAZ ('93),PADUA ('93)and GB3/TOPAZ ('93).
I wonder what he's doing nowadays... Well,really
one of the great painters in coverdesign-history...

DOOM (ONSLAUGHT)
DOOM Denmark
A quite new but talented dude.. He was the one who
did that fine new votesheet for the Onslaught-mag
VANDALISM NEWS. And he also did a nice cover for the
dudes in (O) ('95)... I expect something from him in the
future,and I hope I'm not wrong in that case... ;)
Anyway,he's a graffiti-related dude,no doubt!

DRAZ (NOICE)
DRAZ Sweden
Again one of those famous dudes.. Also known for
really fine cbmgraphics.. He seems to be devoted to
TRIAD,atleast I've three covers drawn by him for
that group. DRAZ's known for his logos,and they are
always well-styled,nice outlines and ideas.
Not that active,but if he releases something,it's
usually cool! Try to check out the cover he did for
MANIAX when he was still a member...

D-SIGNA (ex-2PAC,ex-MANIAX))
D-SIGNA Germany
One of these pop-up/pop-down guys... I never knew
much about him,and he's out of the scene by now.
He was also one of those guys who prefered drawing
covers in the graffiti-style,and he was good.
Try to check out the covers for 2PAC ('93),EQUINOXE,
PADUA and MANIAX. They represent his souvereign
style.  He also did a couple of logos if I remember
right.. Well,I would have liked to see more of his
art,but.. So it goes!

DUCE (ex-EXTEND,DOMINE LILITH)
DUCE FINLAND
Huh... Finally a biiig star,eh ?! Now really,Duce re-
presents a great coverdesigner and allround-
papergraphican. Furthermore he and Electric finally
did something to give more competition to the cover-
scene..They invented their GRAPHIC COMPETITION
which really was a big success in my eyes and should
be continued... I love the resultmag! ;)
Anyhow,talking about DUCE's covers is more or less
unimportant,everybody who's atleast a bit into the
coverscene knows about his great works..
To get an impression of his work,check out the
covers he did for GIANTS ('93),EXTEND ('93,'94,'95),
REBELS('95) ,SKYHIGH('94),MAYHEM('94) and the works
in the resultmag ('95) .He's using a very high-quality
pointilism style.Ari,you're a hell of a coverdesigner!
Keep on going strong!

EARTHQUAKE (COSMIC STYLE)
EARTHQUAKE Germany
Talking about Daniel,I must admit that I personally
think he's better with computergraphics,check for
example the really coool graffiti-logos he did for
BASS etc.. But talking about him as a coverdesigner,
I think he's changed his style quite a lot:If you take
a look at older Covers (e.g. the '92 one for XENTAX or
TRINOMIC) you'll see what I mean. But watching the
cover for Skyhigh #10 ('94) you get an impression of
the change of his style... Yeah,pointilism,what else! :)
Also take a look at the cover he did for the EXTEND
Competiton (ANTIC,'94)  .. Complicate one!
I'm looking forward for further covers by EQ!

ELECTRIC (ex-EXTEND,DOMINE LILITH)
ELECTRIC Finland
MR.COVERDESIGNER himself! Tommi,today probably
the scene's most-favourite Coverdesigner,has also
shown to be one of the best cbmgraphicans around.
I think he was one,if not:The! first in the scene to
use the nowadays standard-technic,pointilism,where
a bunch of small dots are put together to form the
objects and words. He's also one of the most-active
designers around,while always presenting quality
releases. Together with ->Duce,he produces graphics
under their lable DOMINE LILITH.
He's probably the most important papergraphican in
the scene,and a lot of other guys tried and try to
copy his style. All of his covers are worth seeing,so
take a lot at his ancient EXTEND-Covers ('92),his
cover for BREGO/TRIAD ('91),the PADUA-Cover('93),the
TOPAZ-Cover ('93),the FACES-Cover ('93),the ASSEMBLY
'93 COMPETITION-COVER (EXTEND),the newer EXTEND-
Covers('93),the stylish TRANCE('94),the weird PALACE-
Cover('94),PANIC-Cover('94),the gloomy REBELS-
-Cover('94),the XEROX-works('93),NEOPHYTECover('93),
MAYHEM-Cover('94) and ofcourse his great works and
effort for the EXTEND GRAPHICS COMPETITION-
Resultmagazine ('95)

(A small veto from me, Biz Kid. I believe that Electric
is still a member of Extend. At least that's what he
told me to inform the scene about. So I repeat what
he informed me :

EXTEND and TOPAZ BEERLINE is NOT dead!!)


ELEGANCE,THE (ex-ENIGMA,X-RAY)
ELEGANCE,THE Germany
Here we have another great guy,but from the past.
He was the top-Coverdesigner in acient times,and a
drawer to look up to. He was 'the' person when it
came to graffiti-styled covers. He was known for his
cool-looking characters. He kept his style all the
time through. Check out these covers:
OXYRON ('92),TRIAD,VAGABONDS ('92),WOW ('92)
and the last cover I got from him which was already
done under his tag-name ARNE in 1992,the cover for
X-FACTOR.
btw:can someone from the 'oldies' that may drop by
here supply me with his address or # ?! I only know
that he lived in Hamburg! Thanks in advance.

EXULT (former ACRISE)
EXULT Germany
Like ->ELEGANCE,a painter from the past,back in
1992. I think I can say that his work was inspired a
lot by ElEGANCE,at least the graffiti-covers I saw.
Check out his works for Trinomic ('92,GENETIC
DREAMS), X-TRO/TRINOMIC and TBB/CHROMANCE.

FATHER DAGON (ex-DIGITAL DESIGNS)
FATHER DAGON Norway
Not much to tell about him as a coverdesigner,
except that he did a very cool cover for
DIGITAl DESIGNS (8 BITS IS ENOUGH),and that's why he
is in this list. The cover was done back in '92,too,
and it seems that this really was a year for cover-
designers,quite a boom there.

FX (DOOM PATROL,PALACE)
FX Finland
Again one of these designers that deserve higher
attention. FX has constantly prooved himself with
quality-covers,representing a gloomy style. He's one
of nowadays "big four" from Finland,being Electric,
Duce,Junkie and FX. His works can be checked while
watching his efforts for:TRIAD ('93),JAM ('93),
EPIC+DEViCE ('93,together with Junkie),OXYRON ('94),
F4CG (?),PALACE/DOOM PATROL ('94),AVANTGARDE ('94),
EXTEND ('94),GENLOG ('94),PANIC ('94),UNLIGHT ('95,for
the EXTEND Competition.).
Quality and Quantity,that's how it should be,keep it
up,man!

HANGMAN (ex-ACCURACY)
HANGMAN TURKEY
..is just listed because he got a totally-weird style
of presenting his covers.. Together with the main-
cover,a lot of stickers,pictures etc. come along.
Check JAM,HANGMAN/ACCURACY ('93) and ACCURACY to
see what I mean..

JUNKIE (DOOM PATROL,PALACE)
JUNKIE Finland
Again one of the 'big' artists in the scene. His style
can be described as a mixture of pointilism and
straight,clear objects.
Check out these ones to get an impression of his
'old' style:ASTRAL ('92),BRUTAL ('92),INTRUDERS ('92),
MANIACS ('92) and DOMINATORS ('92). Covers with his
newer,improved style that stands for today are:
REBELS ('94),FLASH INC. ('94,done for the EXTEND
EXTEND Graphics Competition,Place 1),SINISTER ('95)
and the new one for this issue of SKYHIGH ('95)!

SDI (ex-SECTION 8)
SDI
Style from the past.. For an example,try to get your
hands on the SECTION 8 Cover he did. Nothing more to
say,means:I don't know much about this dude,sorry.

SILVER (former HITMEN)
SILVER Germany
This is again one of these old and known dudes...
who kept his style until the end.. (and I only got
three covers by him,and I'm quite sure he didn't do
more,anyway!). He was a master in the graffiti-style,
too. He mostly used styles to express his ideas.
Check out these wares:HITMEN ('92),JAM ('92?),
RITCHIE/TRINOMIC ('92). As a graffiti-dude,he was
known under the name SHOCK.

STONE (ex-CHARGED)
STONE Poland
Another polish quality designer,I say quality
because there's really a bunch of rubbish coming
from that scene,being a result of the extreme
developement it took there.. Well what should I say,
yeah,gloomy pointilism-style everywhere nowadays.
Check out his covers for BRONX,CHARGED ('94) and
STONE'S GFX COLLECTION ('94). I think I need more of
his works.

STYLA (ex-2PAC)
STYLA Germany
This was the partner of the more famous ->D-SIGNA.
His work wasn't that cool as D-SIGNA's,but still nice
graffiti-art.. To be checked out:TRIAD,3RD BASS ('92)
and NO NAME ('93). Art from Berlin,Germany.
SUICIDAL (ex-MEN AT WORK)
SUICIDAL Finland?
Hmm,his name stands for his style... really,suicidal,
a lot of skulls etc.. Check out:MEN AT WORK,
EXTEND ("ALTARS OF MADNESS, '94). I need more
informations on this dude... He also did a great
picture for the EXTEND Graphics Competition,Place 2!

ZAPOTEK (ALPHA FLIGHT '70)
ZAPOTEK Norway
A guy who constantly made his name known by
releasing a lot of covers... for example these ones:
P7P,('93),A-HEAD/TRANCE,REBELS ('93),ACCURACY ('93),
THE RULING COMPANY ('94),REBELS ('94),ATLANTIS ('95),
MEGASTYLE ('95). His style really doesn't change that
much,some changes are nevertheless always
visible.. Check the works out,it's quite an own style!
He also did some votesheets,for example the last
NEWS PRESS/REBELS Votesheet was done by him.

ALSO CHECK OUT:
ALSO CHECK OUT:
EXILE Cover by INSIDE/EXILE '94......wild graffitystyle
ORiGO Cover by WILDSTYLE '92..................................... - " -
ANTIC Cover by JOE+INCUBUS..................just interesting
REGINA Cover by KBS/ex.(O) '95..impressing,show more!
X-FACTOR Cover by NECROMANCER............clean and cool
TOPAZ BEERLINE Sheet by HTD.Did he ever do a cover?
COLLISION Cover by PALLADIN '91.................cool and old
ANTIC Cover by PRI/OXYRON '92.......Graffiti at its best!
EASTGANG Covers by PVT/TEG '93.not only a pixelman!
GIANTS Cover by SHOGUN/GIANTS '91.........interesting  ;)
SUNRISE Cover by SPLIT...............another graffiti-dude!
NOICE Cover by STASI/NOICE '93....... ....should do more!
SYSTEM TWISTER Cover by STOMPER '93...huh! complex..
FAIRLIGHT Cover by TRISTAR '94.....Pointilism-rip-off...
JABOLE Covers by WACEK '95....Maybe future talent......
DIGITAL DESIGNS Cover by WIZ-ART......Yeah,clear+well
AMNESIA Cover by ZORC/ELYSIUM '93...Wow,cool graff.
MUFFBUSTERS TM by JEVAS ? ...chicks are always ok ;)
ISTARI DESIGN Cover by NAZGUL ('94)..............EXTEND #3
TOWER POWER ('93) by ROB/CAMELOT......nice idea+style
COMPO-PICTURE ('95) for Extend by ROB/CML.....Place 9
COMPO-COVER ('94-'95) for Ext. by BREN/MAYHEM, #7

So that's it for this SKYHIGH's Special COVERCRUISE,
next time I think I'll be back with some 'normal'
cover-reviews again. I hope you enjoyed this kind of
'report',and I hope I haven't missed any real
important person.. If so,or if you have any further
suggestions for this chapter or you can supply me
with something (covers,competitions,news,reports
etc..) that is of interest,you can adress to BiZ KiD or
directly to me:

Chaotic/Atlantis/N*P (noe)

COVERCRUISE
XXXXXXXXXXXXX

now I'd like to get some reactions on this and meet
you again in the next Issue of COVERCRUISE....bye!



/Chaotic