Year: 1997
Publisher: Friedlander
ISBN: 1887569138
Content: 126 pages with mostly colour illustrations
Back in the early 90´s I made my first orders with Bud Plant, and over the years (and before the internet boom) it became my primary source for artbooks. I don´t know, if they had any other customers over here, probably they did, but for sure I spent a few Thousand Dollars on books throughout that decade. Sometimes it was on their bargain stuff, most notably the portfolios :)
Not being a rich man, it seemed for me most of the time some sort of luxury buying portfolios. But when it came to SQP products, those hugely oversized colour (and b/w) sets with an initial price range of 8-25 Bucks for at least 6 images, well... that was already bargain. And now imagine my happiness with a sale of 50-80% off... :D
It was through these portfolios, that I first became aware of Keith Parkinson. Together with Larry Elmore and some other folks starting from the TSR role playing community (Dungeons and Dragons) they made the biggest impression on me. Parkinson´s dragon´s were always extremely convincing, his - mostly female - characters beautifully crafted and the backgrounds became over the years more and more detailed and rich. When I later saw the first wraparound covers on Tor hardcovers I thought to myself: wow, Keith Parkinson is the new Michael Whelan, regarding quality standards in fantasy illustrations...
Soon he became more and more popular with book publishers, a few artbooks came out, he kept travelling and painting, and then... in 2005, I read with great sorrow the obituary in Locus. He died of leukemia :( Again, somebody left this planet much too early - he was only 47.
If you want to explore his rich, tremendous heritage, Knightsbridge is a good start. You can find the book over at Amazon or Abebooks, and if you like, pay Keith an honouring visit at his homepage.
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