Gamebook Friday: The Magma Beast

This is an interesting story (at least I think so) and one I've been meaning to tell for a while...

Every once in a while (being the slightly vain, slightly insecure writer that I am) I search the internet for things relating to my books. Sometimes these are pictures. So anyway, a while ago I stumbled on this beautiful painting of the Eye of the Storm from my Fighting Fantasy gamebook Stormslayer.

Out of curiosity I then started looking for pictures of other things people might have illustrated based on Stormslayer. I came across this...

And these...

And finally this.

To me this last painting absolutely had to be the Magma Beast that appears during the course of the adventure, as the hero's exploring the heart of an active volcano. The composition, the way the Magma Beast was looming from the lava river, the inclusion of the templar character... It was too much of a coincidence.

So I searched for more Magma Beasts... and came up with loads!

Some of them again looked like they could have been based on Stormslayer. If this was the case, why the sudden glut of images, I wondered.

Well I did a little digging and it turns out that it wasn't a coincidence and many of these images were based on my gamebook, because Stephen Player (who originally illustrated Stormslayer) teaches a sci-fi/fantasy illustration class somewhere in the US of A. He had used that particular encounter from the book as inspiration for his students.

It's a funny old world, isn't it.

By the way, if any of you stumble across/know of/have illustrated scenes, characters or monsters from any of my books/short stories I'd love to see them. Maybe I could display them in a gallery a la Tony Hart.