Word got out last weekend that the highly-respected SFF artist, Stephen Hickman, had died of natural causes. Various causes, natural and otherwise, have prevented me posting until now. When it comes to Steve Hickman, respects must be paid. His professional career spanned five decades, which was exemplified by a consistently high level of quality.

As I recall, I first became aware of Hickman as an artist during the 1980s, due to his covers for the Taltos/Dragaeran novels. That said, I think I'd seen some of his stellar paintings based on The Lord of the Rings before that.

Check out his ISFDB entry. Hickman, from the mid-1970s until just a few years ago, was painting at least four covers for major publishers every year, along with magazine covers, paintings for U.S. postal stamps etc. For decades and decades. Stephen was the epitome—along with Michael Whelan and very few others—of a lifelong, working artist within the SFF field. He lived the dream.

Stephen Hickman--along with the likes of Don Maitz and Ken Kelly--was able to jump the Great Divide of 1980 and keep on rollin'. Hickman's art always had a 'classic' look that transcended the petty agendas of TradPub art directors. It was a ‘look’ that moved units.

As a teenager, Stephen attended art school at the Richmond Professional Institute (Virginia Commonwealth University) alongside Michael Kaluta. Stephen and Kaluta attended the 1967 New York Comics Convention, where both artists met Frank Frazetta and Roy G. Krenkel. Getting to meet Krenkel had to be a high point for Steve, since he still considered one of Roy’s covers his favorite over thirty years later:

“I think my favorite of all time is the Krenkel cover for [Burroughs’] The Mastermind of Mars [Ace edition].”.

The advice of Krenkel and Frazetta encouraged the youthful Hickman, but it was Neal Adams who got him real work, as Stephen stated in 2003:

"While I was doing T-shirt designs for a firm in Maryland, The Shirt Explosion, I was doing up some paintings to use as portfolio pieces. I took these around for awhile, until Neal Adams, a well-known Marvel Comics artist, was good enough to take the time to look through the work I had then, and recommend me to Charles Volpe at Ace Books, the outfit that published the Burroughs books with the outstanding covers by Roy Krenkel and Frank Frazetta.
Charles bought the rights to one painting which was used on the cover of... Lady of the Bees by Thomas Burnett Swann. Then [there] was a second one which had some green in it which was used on The Green Millennium. But my big break was an actual reprint which I got to read and do a cover for specially — The Brain Stealers, by Murray Leinster. I must have worked on that for months."

Hickman would go on to paint over three hundred covers, leaping the Great Divide of 1980. I guarantee you, you've seen Hickman's art. Many of his covers over the last twenty years have been for Baen Books, especially for David Drake. Drake has always been quite effusive in his praise of Hickman’s work, as he should well be.

One thing is indisputable: Hickman’s art has a timeless quality that would look equally at home on a pulp from 1921 or on a Baen paperback in 2021. His official website can be found here.

A few examples of Stephen Hickman's classic art:

Rest in peace, Stephen.