Wayne Douglas Barlowe (born January 6, 1958) is an American science fiction and fantasy painter and writer with an abiding love of Starfish Aliens. He was employed as a designer on Avatar and Pacific Rim, and his style is all over Pandoran fauna and Kaiju. His homepage is here.
Works include:
- The Pop-Up Book of Star Wars (1978)
- Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials (1979): Contains his visualizations of different alien life forms from various works of science fiction, with information on their planetary location or range, biology, and behaviors, in the style of a real field guide for animals.
- Empire Strikes Back: Mix or Match Story Book (1980)
- Expedition — Being an Account in Words and Artwork of the 2358 A.D. Voyage to Darwin IV (1990): An alien life field journal in a setting thought up by the author himself.
- An Alphabet of Dinosaurs (1995): In which paleontologist Peter Dodson lists a dinosaur for each letter of the alphabet, with basic information on each.
- The Alien Life of Wayne Barlowe (1995)
- The Horned Dinosaurs (1996): Another collaboration with Peter Dodson, this one focused on ceratopsian biology and evolution.
- Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy (1996): A similar book to Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials covering races and individuals from fantasy books and legends.
- Barlowe's Inferno (1998): An illustrated book depicting Barlowe's vision of Hell. Inspired by Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy.
- Brushfire: Illuminations from the Inferno (2001)
- God's Demon: A sequel to Barlowe's Inferno, telling the story of a demon who seeks God's forgiveness. Inspired by John Milton's Paradise Lost.
- The Heart of Hell (2019): A sequel to God's Demon.
- Psychopomp (2021): A collection of his hell based art.
Works with their own pages:
Works that he designed for:
- Babylon 5: Thirdspace (1998)
- Galaxy Quest (1999)
- Titan A.E. (2000)
- Blade II (2002)
- Hellboy (2004)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
- Alien Planet (2005) — based on his Expedition
- Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)
- [PROTOTYPE] (2009)
- Avatar (2009)
- Dante's Inferno: Divine Edition (2010)
- John Carter (2012)
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
- R.I.P.D. (2013)
- Pacific Rim (2013)
Other works contain examples of:
- Eldritch Abomination: Barlowe's Inferno has the Abyssals, the native inhabitants of hell... yes, demons were not the first living there, they were cast there and hell already had a natural fauna.
- Our Gryphons Are Different: In Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy, griffins are fancifully portrayed as a species of real, albeit extinct, creatures native to Central Asia, which endured until at least the first century AD before dying out for unknown causes. In a nod to speculation that the griffon myth arose from early discovery of Protoceratops fossils, they are portrayed as literally being descended from a mutant strain of the actual dinosaurs, and consequently depicted as Protoceratops with avian wings and long, feather-tipped tails. Female griffins excavated extensive tunnel systems in which to brood their eggs, often bringing gold to the surface as they did, but only a very brave or very foolish person would have risked delving into a griffin's nest to get it.
- Our Souls Are Different: Barlowe's Inferno has a rather terrifying prospect for all human souls who go to Hell. Apparently, the underworld does have a food chain, but humans are at the bottom of it. Humans are also the main building materials for demons; their livestock, vehicles, and war machines all made out of souls.
- Two Beings, One Body: In Barlowe's Inferno, Hell is full of this sort of Body Horror. For example, there are vehicles made up of lots of people who've been mashed together so that they now consist of a big mash of flesh walking around on a collection of human legs.