Gold and dreams of unbounded wealth being ever constant with me, I chose, without much responsible argument, to produce a cover that was simply typographical (actually Hand Lettered, an art which was once all but lost and is now gaining new ground in the genius hands of such as Michael Doret and Tom Camasie) and gold embossed to boot, which I gladly thought to be in direct contrast to other comic art "sketchbooks" like Kirby Unleashed, Gray Morrow's Dark Domain and The Art of Neal Adams. The cover was printed by hand and cut that way too (when was the last time you saw an overhang on a commercial book or magazine?) And although there was doubt present, fearing that if the cover didn't depict Conan battling Supergirl with Spiderman and Stan Lee as mediators it wouldn't sell, it proved yet another remarkable success. If you're interested, although I designed the title lettering, it was Linda's deft and graceful hand that finished and fully realized the cover lettering. The article in the back was written by our good friend Lewis Shiner. Hastily composed, as I recall we gave him all of three minutes and twenty five seconds to write, type and mail it to us.

 

This may seem like a peculiar digression .... however; we had been seeing a lot of our accountant during the late summer of ' 75 due to our wanton indifference to reality, to wit: our taxes hadn't been paid in two years. There were reports from confidantes of groans issuing from his office whilst undertaking the straightening of GbP accounts. As we liked the man (as one does those who look after our well being—doctors, lawyers, friendly policemen etc,—) we thought to cheer him with a gift. As The Devil's Lake had just arrived here at GbP, and we were impressed with it (though the blue seemed awfully radical, at the time, as I'd never done a blue picture before ) we decided to give him a copy of it. I thought to myself that it would also eradicate another problem—that of his white and desperately naked walls, which I always find offensive.

During the next visit, finding the opportune moment to present him with the gift, and with smiles and hopes of immediate acceptance taking me, I unrolled and placed before him our present. He took it up, peered deeply into it from three inches, squinted at me from over the top and said "Haven't you got anything more cheerful to show me?!"