Chris Foss

Christopher Frank Foss (born 1946) is a British artist and science fiction illustrator. He is best known for his science fiction book covers and the black and white illustrations for the original editions of The Joy of Sex. Career Early work Born in 1946 in Guernsey, Channel Islands, Foss started working there as an artist in his teens, creating signage for local companies. He went to a boarding school in Dorset; his master encouraged him to train for an art scholarship. While studying at Magdalene College, Cambridge, he started pursuing professional magazine commissions, including the then recently launched Penthouse magazine. Science-fiction illustrations Books featuring Foss illustrations include the 1970s British paperback covers for Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, several of Edmund Cooper novels, and E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman and Skylark series. Some of the art he did produce was specific to the stories and some examples of this are the covers he did for the Grafton publications of the Demon Princes novels by Jack Vance in the late 1980s, Star King, The Killing Machine, The Palace of Love, The Face and The Book of Dreams.