The English artist, Jim Pitts, turned seventy-five today. He can look back in pride on a long and creative career in the British fantasy/horror market.

Jim was born in Blackburn, Lancashire in 1950, just south of the Scottish border. He studied at the Shadsworth secondary school and paid the bills by working at the local brewery. Then came his first break, as told in a 2017 interview:

“I was invited to an interview at The Radio Times in London and they were happy with the idea of me working for them but were unprepared to offer it to me because I lived too far away in Lancashire. Back in those days drawing could take nearly week to get to London from Lancashire. It was like a snail trail.” Despite the setbacks, Jim was first given an opportunity to work in the art industry with an art editor from Accrington, David Riley, in 1970 and went on to become an award winning artist.

Despite some long interludes here and there, Pitts continues to work with Riley up to the present day.

As his ISFDB entry demonstrates, Jim first broke into the fantasy/horror art market in 1971 in an issue of Balthus, a fanzine with a pulp fantasy slant. In 1973, he began drawing covers for Dark Horizons, which was edited by none other than Adrian Cole. Cole and Pitts would continue to collaborate from then until now. By 1977, Jim was doing work for Fantasy Tales, which was a serious small-press magazine. Fantasy Tales was edited by Stephen Jones, one of the top British editors/anthologists of fantasy and horror of the past half-century.

Mr. Pitts' career arc up to this point reminds me a little bit of Stephen Fabian and Tim Kirk here in the US. All three produced quality work in the '70s, primarily for fanzines and small presses.

Jim's fantasy/horror work tapered off by the mid-1980s, then there was a resurgence in the mid-'90s, followed by an eleven-year gap in the 2000s. In 2014, Pitts was back with a vengeance, creating art for the publishing efforts of David A. Sutton and David Riley. He had worked with both editors in the early '70s. His latest covers hit the market just last year.

While, in sheer volume, Pitts might've created more art in the horror field these past fifty years, his work in the realm of heroic fantasy/sword-and-sorcery is notable. He was possibly the first artist to limn the dread outlines of Adrian Cole's The Voidal. He has since drawn the likenesses of Wagner's Kane and Kuttner's Elak, among others.

I want to take a moment to talk about Jim Pitts the man. I've been Facebook friends with Jim these past few years and I can say that he is what we would call in the Midwest 'a good ol' boy'. A humble guy who has remained in the town he was born in because he loves it, despite opportunities elsewhere. A man who could work hard in a brewery and then turn around and earn his pay creating cool art for some book or magazine. A man who can go--and has gone--the distance.

Jim has said he is an admirer of Virgil Finlay. A sign of good taste, to be sure. I would also compare some of his work to other pulp greats like Hannes Bok, Boris Dolgov and Lee Brown Coye. However, at the end of the day, Jim's work is uniquely his own. Fans of horror and fantasy art should raise a pint in celebration.

Happy birthday, Jim!

Feel free to enjoy the gallery of Jim Pitts artwork below.

One of Jim Pitts’ first renditions of Adrian Cole’s The Voidal, circa 1979.

Jim’s first depiction of Wagner’s Kane. This cover is from 1981, but the first publication was in 1977.

Below are three more illustrations of Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane by Jim Pitts.