Barr’s saucy first cover for *Amra*; the July, 1959 issue.

George Barr—a cover artist for Amra, DAW Books, Amazing and Weird Tales—turned eighty-five today. While his art could rarely be categorized as ‘savage’ or ‘dynamic’, Barr could—at the top of his game—paint covers with a sensuous or ethereal beauty, often in glorious colors. There is something to be said for that.

Much like his contemporary, Jack Gaughan, Barr is often labeled as a 'fan artist'. He made his first big splash in George H. Scithers' legendary fanzine, Amra, in 1959. He went on to do covers for Fantastic, New Frontiers and Locus. From 1967 through 1977, George was nominated for some variation of 'pro artist' or 'fan artist' every single year by the Hugo or Locus awards. He flat-out won a Hugo in 1968—back when that meant something. The first editor to put a Barr painting on a paperback was--you guessed it--Donald A. Wollheim. The cover was for the Ace edition of Alan Garner's Elidor.

Barr, like Jack Gaughan, would follow Wollheim over to DAW Books when Don formed his own SFF publishing company. Barr did plenty of covers for DAW during the '70s, but he also did some quality work for Donald M. Grant and Underwood-Miller.

His covers for DAW dwindled to almost nothing by the early 1980s, but Barr soon jumped over to George Scithers' Amazing with alacrity. Scithers would remain George's primary patron for the next two decades. Scithers left Amazing and then fired up a new incarnation of Weird Tales in 1987. Who was the cover artist for the debut issue? George Barr. Barr would continue to paint covers for Scithers' WT until the July 2005 issue. He, apparently, retired around that point.

Barr's artistic influences have been said to be Hannes Bok, Virgil Finlay, Maxfield Parrish and Arthur Rackham. I can see strong influences from the first three. Less so from Rackham. I would add Kelly Freas in there, at least on some paintings. The same goes for Mucha. Whomever George's influences are, he could--at his best--evoke a lush whimsicality that is worth honoring.

Happy birthday, George, and thanks for some fine artwork.

Feel free to check out the gallery of Barr's art below.