Skyhigh 21 Cover Cruise

Cover Cruise




COVERCRUISE
COVERCRUISE
hosted by Chaotic/Atlantis/N*P

DEAR READERS,
returning from the CeBIT '96 in Hannover and the
Symposium '96 near Hamburg,I'm back here
again to deliver my chapter,the chapter all about
covers,designers and similar gossip. Right,it's time
for another issue of Skyhigh,and therefore also
time for a new edition of COVERCRUISE.
After the big list of important coverdesigners last
time,you'll find again the usual mixture of what the
idea of this chapter was...
So why not starting this chapter with some

NEWS:
NEWS:
* the famous paperartist COP is active again.
Returning to the scene,he joined ATLANTIS.
He's currently working on some old and new
covers,one of them for Electric/EXTEND.
He also has just finished another one
for F4CG,and he said that soon one or two more
covers will  be released.
In real life,he's busy with his school and does
also work as a DJ;he has his own tekno group,too.
He sometimes does ad-graphics or graffities for
money.  He asked me to spread his address to
designers,and I think that this forum is the right
one to publish it here,here we go:

COP/ATLANTIS (noe)
XXXXXXXXXXXXX

He's interested in any kind of Coverstuff
including coverreviews,new talents,copies and
charts.

* DUCE of EXTEND is currently working on a finish
magazine,together with ELECTRIC.
Furthermore,he is currently drawing a cover for
Bren/pushkin' ink productions. He also works on a
Votesheet for the Atlantis-mag "Immortal Flash".

* FX of DOOM PATROL and PALACE is currently in the
finish army. So that's why we probably won't see
any new covers done by him for a while.
AFter the army,he plans to go to a graphic
designer school,and all his spare time goes to
making the works required for applying. He states
that those works are quite awful.
He also sent me me more covers done by him that
he missed in my last chapter,and he also wrote a
fine reaction to this chapter which will be
published now..

REACTIONS:
REACTIONS:

You are always welcome to write -any- kind of
reactions for this fhapter,be it constructive hints
or additional informations,or... what you like!
This time I have a reaction from FX/DP/PALACE:

"Greetings,mortal!
It's FX/Doom Patrol/Palace here contacting you.
I saw your cover designer-report yesterday and
you said you wanted reactions. (Ed.:right! He's
referring to last issue's List of most-important
coverdesigners,btw!)
Well,I thought it was a good idea. People need to
get some more information about coverdesigners.
There are some good coverdesigners that hang out
in the rear end of the charts only because their
work isn't spread widely enough.
It also came clear that I'm also suffering from
insufficient spreading,and delay in sending ('cos
Junkie does that for me and he's plaqued with
delay). The newest cover mentioned in that report
was Unlight and it was made a year ago! I have made
4 covers since (Ed.:Uuups..!) and I consider these
four the start of a new,better era in my work.
These include:Alpha Flight,Amnesia,Megastyle
Production (which I consider my best work to date)
and F4CG (again!). I included these four in this
letter. (Ed.:Thanks! Real masterpieces,the newest
one will probably get reviewed this time...)
So,that's rt.  Yours,FX.

Well,I really think this letter points out the main
problem of us coverdesigners:Our works aren't
spread massive enough,and they ofcourse can't
live up to spreading rates of 'real' diskstuff...
But perhaps it's possible to spread them in a
'different' way soon... wait and.. well,let's say:wait!

Oh well,that's the only reaction I got this time..
Come on guys,don't leave me alone here,it's also
your chapter and I'm a bit in need of yer feedback.

REVIEWS:
REVIEWS:

Okay,let's see what I have for you this time... ;)

"BLAC0 AND WHITE" by FLASH/SCHN
"  BLACK AND WHITE"      FLASH/SCHN

You all now the smashing ChristmasCompo Winner,
"Mathematica" by the dudes in REFLEX,right ?!
Those of you who've been at the Party,or perhaps
also contacts of REFLEX probably also got the
original spreaddisk from REFLEX,containing the
demodisk plus the original logo-sticker plus the
purple cover which contained copies from a german
mathematics-book. Why do I tell all this to you ?!
Because the cover "Black and White" by Flash is
therefore already the second "Mathematica"-
Cover! To be honest,I've never heard of a guy
called FLASH,nor of the group SCHN. I even don't
know what that means.. Probably another one of
those popping-up,promising eastern country
artists...

This is another one of these typical chaotic
covers.. The Cover itself isn't devided into front-
side and backside. It's more or less one huge
picture.. Things to spot are:
ancient/futuristic looking knights,
a futuristic-looking girl,
a skeletton,
different faces with different expressions upon,
a nice-styled REFLEX-Logo,
A well-looking MATHEMATICA-Logo,
branches and trees,
grids,plasma and these usual filling-elements,
two plain chars ("R" and "E" probably) drifting out
of the cover,a countdown "3.2.1" above the MATHE-
MATICA-Logo and some words saying "Idea..",
"Design","Vote","Nice","fast" and "better" in
unfilled logostyles. A Very detailed cover,and
really hard to describe,you have to watch it on
your own to get that "I see.." effect..
Beneath the cover Flash wrote:"Prepare for my
next covers"... I'll definitely do that,and so should
you,too.. A really promising artist!

THE LEADER TEAM done by DREADNAUGHT
THE LEADER TEAM         DREADNAUGHT

FRONTSIDE:

The background of this cover is filled with a
(bended) chessboard. A "The Leader Team" Logo
has been layed upon this,in a way you might know
from different demos ("Mathematica",for example)
that looks like this "EOR"-Routine..
Whenever a Char of the logo hits the white square,
it has been turned black and vice-versa. The idea
is not bad (although it has been seen before),but
the way in which it was painted isn't very nice:
The styles of the logo aren't very precisely drawn
and look rather poor. And it somehow seems to me
that there are some logical errors in the structure
of the background/surface.. Anyway,in the right
lower corner you can spot a kind of soldier,or
maybe also a police officer,drawn with pencils..
Looks quite okay,although there's always the
problem to reproduce pencil-drawings..
A small scribble at the bottom says "Dreadnaught!"

BACKSIDE:

Nearly the whole backside is filled with a pencil-
drawn image of a weird-looking muscleman.. He's
probably a kind of a mutant,it looks atleast as if
he's got four arms.. And his chest does also look
"different".. maybe a taste of the creator,who
knows... The man is nearly bald-headed,but a tail
of hair (??) can be spotted. If that should be hair,
I'm not 100% sure... He's wearing a jing-jang-belt
and is looking quite angry.. on the right side of
the backside you can spot vertically "Dreadnaught
/LEADER",while LEADER is again drawn in bigger
styles.. work on the proportions! The rest of the
backside has been blacked,but quite bad,the
lines of the marker are still visible.. anyway.. a
typical average polish cover,I'd say. It's not very
impressing,but okay in its way. Let's see what we
can await from Dreadnaught/LEADER next time.

NEOPLASIA by SOULHUNTER/NEOPLASIA
NEOPLASIA       SOULHUNTER/NEOPLASIA

This is a cover which was spread at THE PARTY 1995
by the new-founded group NEOPLASIA.. I myself
got it from Ernie/NPL,who also contributed at the
GFX-Compo with an (unreleased) picture,that
should be part of a "soon-coming" (..) Demo by NPL.
Up to know,I haven't heard anything from NPL.

FRONTSIDE:

The central image of the frontside is a skull in
front of two crossed spears. The skull is probably
of animal's origin. It is rising from a sea of flames,
atleast that is what it looks like. The skull carries
a little NPL Logo,and above the skull you can spot
a bigger (quite uncentered,by the way) Neoplasia-
logo,made out of single,fantasy looking thin
characters. The whole cover is probably painted
using a mixture of pencils and harder painters.
One of the flaps carries the slogan:
"neoplasia ... when you leave your reality..."
This frontside looks quite good to be,an
interesting way of painting,I'd call that tribal-art.

BACKSIDE:

On the backside you can spot a warrior (Do you
remember the old game Barbarian ?! The Warrior
looks similar to the warriors in that game). He's
holding a double-axe in his left hand. with the right
hand he's pointing into the direction of the viewer.
Obviously a storm blows;his hair flyes around,also
infront of his face. You can spot flashes in the
background. At the left downer corner of this side
we notice a skull,pinched onto a pole. This side
does fit quite well to the frontside. Soulhunter is
another designer I've never heard of,but we might
see some more of his arts in the future,if NPL will
continue their works.. Anyway,for those who have
never heard of Neoplasia:members are for example
Viscid,Ernie and ..right,Soulhunter.. The members
have gone through a group-bonanza and now
finally agreed to work under the name Neoplasia.
If I remember right,PLEBS was one of the former
groups. Anyway... the cover is okay,nothing that is
overwhelming,but for a newcomer it's okay.


EL BANDITOS by ARGO
EL BANDITOS    ARGO

Hmm Hmm... a really strange cover.. It seems to be
designed for a guy called ASCRAEUS from a group
called TUBULAR JOBS. Haven't ever heard of sth.
like that.. But all over the cover (and the rest of
the sheet) you can find a phrase which says:
"EL BANDITOS". Strange,but anyway... we are here
to judge the design..

FRONTSIDE:

The central motiv seems to be a crown cap (in
german:Kronenkorken),you know,this flat plate of
metal that is attached to every bottle of beer to
keep it closed.. anyway,this crown cap carries two
large dotty styles,an "E" and a "B",underneath it
says "El Banditos". Above the EB-Logo you find a
kangaroo and a ostrich,who frame a C= Logo..
A cool idea and effect was to paint some kind of
fluid drops onto the crown cap,looks cewl!
Now,if you regard the kangaroo and the ostrich,
you might think that this cover has something to do
with Australia,but I don't see the link,somehow..
Anyway,the rest of the frontside is filled with
plasma stuff,different (mainly plain black)
ornaments (which build up the handle Argo in white
styles,if you take a closer look),and the
obviously polish phrase "Czas na Swapp".. Hmm,what
is the meaning,perhaps "Let's swap ?!" I don't
know.. anyway,this side looks strange,but okay..

BACKSIDE:

The main reason for the backside seems to be
displaying the addy of ASCRAEUS/TUBULAR JOBS,who
seems to be an (unknown) polish swapper,living in
Warsaw. Beside this addy (and the usual phrases
beneath it),we can spot a fireblowing dragon,in-
serting (with a hand?! strange) a disk into a disk-
drive.. Again we find the phrase "El Banditos" on
this side.. Hmm,nothing more to tell about it,except
that you can find the phrase "El Banditos" again
on the paper surrounding the cover. If somebody
could explain the meaning of this cover to me,I'd
be thankful. Altogether I'd say the artist has some
possibilities,but the backside could have been done
bett er.. Anyway,one of these covers which have
b een done to display (and spread) an addy.

Well,that's it for this time;I have alot more covers
here,but I don't have the time this time to enlarge
The chapter... A lot to do for school.. Furthermore,
I just returned from the "Symposium '96",
and at it was really great.. Very good and
personal atmosphere,a good amount of C64 guys
although there had been the X96 at the same date,
no major troubles and a fine pile of releases.
Anyway,I don't have the time to write a party-
report now,but you'll probably can find the results
somewhere in this mag.. But let me do a bit of
advertising:Wait for the latest issue of the
"Vandalism News" by ONSLAUGHT;there you'll find a
partyreport done by my mate TMM/(o),also
featuring a list done by me,containing all the C64
dudes and their groups that have shown up there!
For now I leave you again with my Addy,so if there's
something you can add to this chapter,feel free to
do so...

Chaotic/Atlantis/N*P (noe)
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX