STEPHENSON, Neal; PODEVIN, Jean-Francois (illus.).

£175,000 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Original cover artwork for Snow Crash. The original artwork for a science fiction classic, one of Podevin's earliest attempts at digital illustration, with painstakingly hand-painted details. Podevin has signed the verso in addition to his three signature ink stamps, and inscribed the front for the attention of Bantam Books's art director, Jamie Warren, dated "10/25/1991" next to his printed return address. Also included is an autograph letter signed by the artist and the original packing materials, hand-titled and with Podevin's embossed signature stickers. Stephenson's novel invented the "Metaverse" and popularized the term "avatar" in reference to digital beings. It is a Silicon Valley favourite which prophesied, inspired, and critiqued a staggering array of modern technology. Podevin planned for the cover artwork to be an entirely digital illustration. He scanned his initial sketches and digitally altered them using very early AT&T Rio graphics software. However, the sharp definition of the digital images did not carry through to the printed version, so Podevin retouched the entire artwork by hand, heightening the details of Ashera's attire and picking out the edges of each individual "pixel". The subsequent work is a suitably cyberpunk product of man and machine.

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