The
original Tor cover for High Aztech was
good, but I also considered it a little bland. The colorful
razzle-dazzle of my Aztecan future was muted into the the sort of
military-industrial sci-fi that's supposed to be do damn commercial.
Folks expecting nerd lit were confused. Seekers of postcolonial gonzo
splendor had no way of knowing.
The
Mandarin cover was better, though the gold breast plate is
actually Mixtec, not Aztec, but most folks probably can't tell the
difference.
I was
tempted to do the cover for the ebook myself, but wasn't sure what to
do – then I saw Dell Harris' painting Scorpio.
It's
like a scene form High Aztech
come to life. I couldn't think of another image as the cover. So I
bought the rights from Dell.
I
must admit, it's better than anything I could have done.
And
from the copyright notice, it was painted in 1990 – when I was
working on High Aztech.
Dell and I must have been thinking along the same lines.
Dell
and I also go way back together. We both broke into science fiction
in the March, 1982 issue of Amazing Stories
thanks to editor Elinor Mavor, who had the courage to buy my
outrageous story and the vision have Dell illustrate it. Dell,
Elinor, and I were pioneers of Afrofuturism.
That
table of contents not only includes my first published short story
and a detail of Dell's illustration, but Harlan Ellison, A.E. Van
Vogt, and Barry N. Malzberg.
The
Rape of Things to Come is probably too much for today's tender
sensibilities and politically-correct doctrines – and it did offend
people at the time.
Dell's
reaction was:
"This
is Wild!" This wasn't like the science fiction I grew up
reading. This had a different vibe to it that was refreshing. I
totally enjoyed trying to translate the characters from Ernest's
text, hoping that I captured its raw tone. I couldn't have asked for
a better baptism into the world of science fiction illustration.
Looking
back, I stand by it – what I was doing was groping for Afrofuturism
and postcolonialism, and punching back at the alarms and defense
mechanisms that go off whenever I set foot in territories that some
some fools still in 2013 think are the domain of white people.
That has
been a major theme in my work – and life. In the next few months,
stories of mine will be in Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond, We See a Different Frontier, and one
featuring a Chicano superhero in Super Stories of Heroes and Villains.
The
struggle goes on.
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