Letter Interview with George Barr

2/03/01

Q: How did you meet Fred and Paul?

A: I don't honestly recall the occasion, only that it was through Jon Freeman whom I'd met years before when I lived in Los Angeles. We'd maintained sporadic contact over the years and I did a couple of pieces of computer art for two of his games, the names of which I cannot immediately recall. They were the only two pieces I have ever done directly on the computer.

If I remember correctly - and I probably don't - John introduced me to Paul who later introduced me to Fred. We had contact a number of times for various projects they were working on and I was always impressed by their enthusiasm, their confidence, their skill, and their friendly respect. They always treated me like I was a lot more famous and accomplished than I'd ever really felt I was.

Q: How did they approach you for creating art in Star Control 2?

A: On bended knee, with hat in hand, of course. No, actually Paul called me, explained a lot about the game, and asked if I would be willing to do work for it. I was hesitant, not trusting my skill at creating anything worth looking at directly into the computer, but Paul assured me I didn't have to. I could do paintings and they would be scanned into the game. The only real limitations were the size (which had to be pretty close to the dimensions of the screen on which they would be seen), and the amount of detail I could include. I couldn't do things that would not readily translate to pixels.

We decided to do a test piece just to see how well my work would stand the transition. He asked me to do the Siren pilot.

We discussed almost every aspect of the piece, what had to be included, the color of her skin and hair, etc. We decided to try deliberately for a bright, hard-edged, almost thirties-pulp look. Paul left a great deal of it up to me, saying that he didn't want to be so specific in the details as to leave my imagination out of it entirely. . . that it was as much my ideas they wanted as my painting skills.

So a great deal of the overall look of the piece, the setting and the costume, were my concepts. I did a black and white preliminary (on coquill board so that it would FAX well), and sent it to him within a few hours to get his suggestions.

(If you're not familiar with coquill, it's a heavily textured board designed specifically for inexpensive reproduction. The pencil (in my case a black Prismacolor) just hits the top of the bumps producing a pattern of dots or minute squiggles, depending on the texture pattern of the board, and gives the look of a half-tone but reproduces as a much less expensive line-cut. It was used extensively during the pulp era by such as J.Alan St.John, Hannes Bok, Virgil Finlay, and Kelly Freas. It's still being used today by myself and Steve Fabian, the all-time master of the medium. Unfortunately, as half-tones aren't nearly as costly as they used to be, the paper is no longer being manufactured. We're using up the last scraps of what will too soon become a forgotten technique.)

As I recall, Paul recommended very little in the way of changes in that first picture, accepting my ideas and layout, and said he very much looked forward to seeing the finished piece.

Deadlines throughout the project were tight and I worked faster than ever before in my life. For the sake of speed and brightness of color I used a combination of watercolor and colored pencil: a basic wash to set the color and tone, then pencils to provide a lot of the shading and most of the detail. It was very different from my usual way of working, and has greatly influenced almost everything I've done since (including the cover painting I have just completed for the next issue of WEIRD TALES.)

Paul liked that first painting well enough that he purchased the original immediately and used it on his business card.

Q: Who drew the front box art of the Star Control 2 box?

A: I don't know. It was assigned by the people who packaged and marketed the game. And the artist did a beautiful piece; I envied his skill and his technique.

I remember Paul saying that he was disappointed - not in the art; it was excellent - but in the fact that it did away with a bit of ambiguity he and Fred had hoped to keep in the game. I had been instructed to portray the protagonist in such a way. . . choosing angles and details carefully. . . so that the character's gender was never quite clear. It was hoped that players, male and female, would be able to identify with that character, imagining themselves in that role. The cover made it very obvious that it was a man's game. There was no doubting the sex of the handsome, square-jawed hero portrayed on that box cover.

Understanding that disappointment, I think we all agreed that it was a piece of artwork which would sell the game. And that is, after all, what the cover illustration is for. Nothing I could have done - especially in the style I was using - would have served nearly so well, and we all knew it.

Q:What is your current relationship with Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III?

A: I haven't seen them in some time, but have every confidence that when our paths cross again we'll be just as good friends as we were.

Q: You are listed in the credits of Star Control 2 for "Art" and "Manual Illustrations." Can you please tell us more about what you did for these?

A: The "Art" was, I presume, the pieces I did that were included within the game itself. I also did a number of black and white pieces to be published in the manual and in the (I think it's called) "Cheat Book?" These were mostly small portrait-type pictures of the various aliens.

Q: Did you do all of the Star Control "aliens" artwork?

A: No. Several people worked on them. I have no idea who actually did what. I was shown a few of the other paintings, and worked from them to do the black and white "portraits" for the books.

Q: Is there any way that you can give us a complete list of what you created in the game?

A: At this point in time, no, I really can't. The list you have is of the pieces I still own. Many have been sold, especially of the black and white work, and I can't recall all of them. For each of my color pieces contained in the game, there was a black and white preliminary on coquill board which I Faxed to Paul and Fred for their suggestions and approval. In some cases two or three were required to get everything to the point of acceptability. Those sold fairly quickly at convention artshows, and a number were gifts to various friends.

In addition to the color works you have in the list were, as I recall, the Supox (a flower-like alien), and a piece depicting the ship warping into hyperspace. That one was so strange that I couldn't really imagine anyone wanting to own the original. But the black and white version was purchased by none other than Forrest J. Ackerman (of FAMOUS MONSTERS fame), and the color version went quickly also, though I don't recall who bought it.

There was a close-up portrait of the beautiful Siren as seen by the hero as he emerged from a state of unconsciousness. And there was one, close to the end of the game, depicting the hero - now an old white-haired man (painted after the box cover had been done, making it useless to try hiding the character's gender) telling tales of adventure to a young boy and girl on Unzervalt. Paul borrowed those two pieces from me when the game first came out, in order to use them in some kind of advertising. He still has them. I expect I'll probably get them back very soon after this interview is aired. (It's all right, Paul. If I'd been worried about them, I could have contacted you at any time.)

Q: Did Fred and Paul give you rough sketches and you drew the art, or did you have some freedom in what the characters would look like?

A: As I said, we discussed each character quite thoroughly. They described them to me in detail, and - if the concept had already been established by some other artist (as was the case with the Thraddash Captain and the Spathis) - they showed me the art so that I could be consistent. But there was very little actual control. They wanted my input, so I was never constrained by anything like rough sketches where I simply finished someone else's picture.

Q: How did they animate the aliens?

A: That, I can't really say. I'm not very much of a game player so, even though I have a copy packed away somewhere, I've never actually played it. I downloaded it, saw the intro, and was immediately killed in my first alien encounter. Every time. So I actually have never seen the animation. I've never had the opportunity to watch over the shoulder of someone who really knew what he was doing. I wish I could.

Q: Do you have a favorite piece of Star Control 2 art? What is your favorite alien?

A: My favorite piece of artwork is the crystal Chmmr. I reluctantly sold it a year or so ago when I really needed the money. It has a very good home, but I do regret parting with it. It was a fairly accurate representation of a piece of (I think) Art Deco glass I picked up over thirty years ago when M.G.M. was selling off all of its costumes and props. It was something used in some movie, too big to be the decanter stopper it looked like it ought to have been, but - because of the cork and metal base on it - couldn't have been part of a light fixture, either. I don't know what it was, but I liked it. And when Paul told me what the Chmmr was supposed to look like, I knew immediately that it had been living in my house for several years.

My favorite alien is, I think, the Umgah. I liked the concept of the living ship, and had fun painting all of those controls that aren't quite breasts and penises. They were my idea, and Fred and Paul let me get away with it.

Q: What other art have you done that you would say is "famous and well known"?

A: If it's really famous and well known, I shouldn't have to tell you. The things that have been seen most widely are probably a series of cover paintings I did for DAW BOOKS back in the seventies, and perhaps the poster for the X-rated cult classic movie FLESH GORDON. That can still be seen on the video tape box.

I did a lot of illustrating (all black and white) for TSR, the DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS company, was in nearly every issue of AMAZING STORIES Magazine for almost ten years, and am still very much involved in magazine illustration for WEIRD TALES, ADVENTURES OF SWORD & SORCERY, ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE, and TERRA INCOGNITA. During the approximately ten years that Marion Zimmer Bradley's FANTASY Magazine was published, I painted eleven covers and did an ungodly number of interior illustrations.

Q: Have you done art for any other computer/video games?

A: I did quite a few character paintings for ARCHON ULTRA by Jon Freeman and Ann Westfall, some work for THE HORDE (another game by Paul and Fred), and some for one entitled ALIEN LOGIC. Back in the days when computer games were pretty much text-based, I did a number of box designs. But I really doubt many of those still exist outside the libraries of the people who created them.

Q: Anything else that you would like to say or comment on?

A: Only that I am amazed to learn that STAR CONTROL 2 is still remembered at all, let alone the center of its own fandom. I was under the impression that, like the computers themselves, the games were outdated by the time you got them home. From the few times I was in the stores with friends and saw the sale bins filled with games that a few weeks before had been the latest and the greatest, I sincerely doubted that anything I'd done for that market would be remembered by anyone other than the people who'd paid me to do them. I enjoyed the work and was glad of the opportunity, but I was hardly anticipating immortality.

Paul and Fred believed in me (though I'm sure a good part of my value was that I could work fast and cheap), and I'm very gratified to find that I had a part in something that has evidently given a large number of people a great deal of pleasure. Thanks for letting me know.

George Barr