Richard Clifton-Dey was a British paperback cover artist that I discovered in a book store in Oklahoma City in the 1970s. Among other things, “A Points North,” carried British versions of science fiction and fantasy books. I remember the proprietor as pompous, but knowledgeable and endlessly patient. I was determined to have all of Richard Clifton-Dey’s Edgar Rice Burroughs covers. It took three or four years to get them all, but he’d order them and send me a postcard when a new one was available. No cell phones in those days and I didn’t have an answering machine.

 Richard Clifton-Dey was known mostly for his Western and Science Fiction subjects. Richard almost never signed his book covers and verification of which covers were actually drawn by the artist have been verified by his widow. While his best most known work of art may be Behemoth's World, an illustration for the rock music album cover  Cultösaurus Erectus by Blue Oyster Cult, this article will focus on his illustrations for Edgar Rice Burroughs’ British editions, including the Venus novels, The Cave Girl, and all of the Barsoom novels.

He was very prolific and worked for several publishers and his work was always in high demand. The New English Library, Panther,  Mayflower, Sphere, are a few of his customers. His first cover sale took place in 1970 at the age of 40, and he didn’t slow down for the next three decades, illustrating  well over 160 individual book covers. There were 20 unique covers in 1972 alone.

He illustrated covers for books by Andre Norton, Philip K. Dick, Robert E. Howard, Michael Moorcock, Kenneth Bulmer, John Wyndham, Norman Spinrad, and Ray Bradbury.  His work wasn’t limited to science fiction and fantasy, his covers included romances, war sagas, westerns, and even the occasional gothic. His range was beyond legendary, he illustrated Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Jane Eyre, and All Creatures Great and Small.

Clifton-Dey started painting in the 1960s and was a well-respected and successful artist for over twenty years.  Much of his work was for book covers, science fiction, fantasy, action-adventure war books, romances, and  gothic horror. Related to his Edgar Rice Burroughs covers, was his cover artwork for the novel, Lord Tyger by Philip José Farmer in 1974. His realistic artwork graced a British edition of Doc SAVAGE: His Apocalyptic Life, also by Philip Jose Farmer.

His Burroughs’ covers frequently featured nudity, that while faithful to ERB’s vision, would never have been allowed on a book cover in America. Lost on Venus is a perfect example. It’s my personal favorite of his Burroughs’ illustrations. It featured a frontal view of a beautiful woman clad only in a bikini type bottom.  (Think Ursala Adress emerging from the ocean in Dr. No, but without a top.) His women, clothed or unclothed, and his men are of normal dimensions. No gigantic breasts or wasp-waisted heroines. The males, while muscular, aren’t comic book heroes.

His cover for  Fighting Man of Mars features complete female nudity with some cleverly placed shadows. John Carrter of Mars, Mastermind of Mars, Synthetic Men of Mars, Llana of Gathol, and Escape on Venus have a bare breasted woman of the covers. I don’t know how well these sold in Great Britain, but if they’d have flown off the shelves in the United States in the 1970s.

The only criticism I have any of his Burroughs’ covers is that the great white ape on Fighting Man of Mars only has two arms and a facial expression that looks confused, almost comical, rather than threatening.

Some sources question crediting the Tandem cover of The Cave Girl to Richard. The woman on the cover has a bare breast and the cave man’s mouth looks eerily similar to the cyclops’s mouth on Swords of Mars. I’d say it's certainly Richard’s work.

Less titillating, his illustrations almost always included mountains and a lizard, large or small, was frequently in plain sight or hidden somewhere. These features were almost signatures of Richard’s work. Often a battle or confrontation of some sort was in the background, rendered in shadows so as not to detract from the primary image.

Richard got the men and women right. Burroughs would give him  a thumbs up, both for accuracy and for his courage to illustrate them the way he did. He didn’t always get the other creatures right, too few arms and legs being a common issue.

     

Lost on Venus was the first Clifton-Dey cover I found. Somehow the image downplays the nudity of the female, while emphasizing her strength. Note the trademark lizard and mountains. As I mentioned earlier, I expect that the artist had watched the film, Dr. No, and like most of us, had been captivated by the visual of Ursala Andress in a white bikini.

The Wizard of Venus doesn’t have a female image, which is unusual for Clifton-Dey, but it is a nightmarish iillustration complete with a zombie-like horse, lizards, and moutains of what appear to be bones rising from the sea.

       

Escape on Venus features a nude cleverly garbed by lighting and shadow. No lizard in sight, but there are distant mountains under the clouds The visual of the female hanging from a rope in the sky is a strong. Her strength is obvious, but not overstated.

The design of his  Cason of Venus cover resembles Richard’s cover for Lost on Venus, or maybe it’s the other way around. I can’t look at it without thinking of the Colossus of Rhodes.

      

Pirates of Venus features a semi-nude female kneeling in prayer or supplication, mountains of course, and even a small lizard back there somewhere. The detail in her sandals and loincloth are amazing. Richard frequently includes a small tabloid scene, often a battle in his backgrounds. This one is no exception, an armed man, possibly Carson Napier, is preparing to confront  several men.

His painting for Philip Jose Farmer’s novel, Lord Tyger cover is an interesting combination of the primitive and the advanced, but in all fairness so was the novel. I included it in this article for two reasons, the obvious ERB reference and the fact that I like the cover. The Tarzan-like character wears an animal skin loincloth, but carries a modern-day bow and arrow – not much use without a quiver. The scantily clad female, who reminds me of Raquel Welch,  in the background is fleeing barefooted over the rocky ground while helicopters pursue the couple. That arrows not going to be much use against a helicopter.

The Cave Girl cover has not always been attributed to Clifton-Dey, but I don’t think there’s any question. Mountains in the background and a small lizard hidden in the foliage. This cover was once nominated for the worst paperback cover ever, but I think that’s a little harsh. The cave man in the picture has an expression of confused rage that I’ve only ever seen once, on a fellow writer defending his crimes against the English language. A perfect example of the phrase, “Anger is the last refuge of the incompetent.” The female, unlike the protagonist of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel is not particularly attractive, nor is she well endowed. The expression of fear on her face is not the behavior we’d expect from Nadara. She was of made of sterner stuff.

    

A Princess of Mars features a bare breasted female being carried by a two-armed Green Man who is riding a two-legged mount. Great artwork, but not accurate. The Green Men of Mars have an intermediate set of arms. (That’s taught in Burroughs 101 and the mount of choice, a thoat has more than two legs.)  Gods of Mars has a woman clad in what looks like a chastity belt and a spiked collar. A troop of monkeys, two-legged and two=armed are in the background. And the third Barsoomian book cover, Warlord of Mars is of a Bronzed man with armbands and a tunic stolen from the set of a Gordon Scott sword and sandal epic or maybe it was re-purposed from a Doc Savage cover. I’m not a fan of these three covers because of their lack of accuracy to the novels, but they are beautifully rendered.

   

The next three Barsoom covers by Clifton-Dey are an interesting grouping. The cover for Thuvia, Maid of Mars, features a genie-like woman standing above the bodies of Green Martian warriors. Made me think of The Birth of Venus. The picture is faithful to the novel and the woman is beautiful.

His cover for The Chessmen of Mars has nothing to do wit the novel. Flying saucers and monk-like men with tridents certainly weren’t in the novel. I expect this cover was painted for something else and used because of a publishing deadline. For obvious reasons, I like this the least of any of his ERB covers, even less than The Cave Girl. One could make the argument that the men are the “grotesque statuettes of men” lining the entrance to the city of Manator, but I don’t agree. The dress in purple robes isn’t consistent with Barsoomian clothing and for the life of me, I don’t recall any use of tridents as a Martain weapon. With Jetan scenes, Tara of Helium, and Kaldanes and Rykors to choose from, I don’t believe that Richard would have chosen this as an illustration for The Chessmen of Mars. It belongs on something like A Canticle for Lebowitz.

Richard’s cover for Mastermind of Mars is a classic. An ominous image of the scientist, Ras Thavas, in the sky reaching for an almost naked female standing on the edge of a lake. A lake on Barsoom? Predominately a painting in blue and tan, it manages to evoke the woman’s helplessness and the evil scientist’s glee-like satisfaction with his power.

  

Covers seven, eight, and nine are beautifully rendered, as is always the case with Clifton-Dey’s work. Fighting Man of Mars features total female nudity with artfully placed shadows. The Great White Ape is missing a set of arms had has that vacuous expression which previously appeared on Richard’s The Cave Girl cover. I’d swear that I know that face.

Swords of Mars, a study in orange and shadows is incredibly detailed. Taking place on a Barsoomian moon, the red planet fills the sky. I questioned the cyclops at first, but it’s an accurate rendition of inhabitants of Thuria, one of the moons of Barsoom.

Synthetic Men of Mars, a study in purple is amazing. A bound bare-breasted woman hangs her head in the foreground. The muscles on her back are detailed and show the tension of having her arms restrained. Her head is turned toward the viewer and she makes eye contact, perhaps in fear or perhaps in a silent plea for a help. A man with a sword is preparing to defend her against a squadron of opponents moving toward her. Two malagors strive to take flight at the base of a cliff. The two moons of Barsoom, one orange and one yellow fill the sky. I love this one.

 

    

 Llana of Gathol and John Carter of Mars both feature female nudity. Again, Clifton-Dey revisits the orange and purple cover themes. For Llana of Gathol, he has a female, presumably Llana, threatened by Ras Thavas, a villain making his second cover appearance. Richard has illustrated Thavas as bone thin, he liked to draw ribs apparently.

John Carter of Mars uses two colors, not counting black and white, purple and yellow. The zombie-like humanoid in the foreground painfully presents an unconscious female to persons or a fate unknown. Powerful images, both of them.

Richard Clifton-Dey didn’t always illustrate his Burroughs covers true to the stories, but with the exception of the garish The Cave Girl cover, he always drew beautiful illustrations using shadows and color to evoke the desired response. Menace and power, he drew both masterfully. 

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