Young Asimov illustration by Duncan Long for Amazing Stories Magazine

Here’s an illustration I did for Michael A. Burstein’s “Cosmic Corkscrew.” The tale deals with the missing story written by a young Issac Asimov — and the time traveler who goes searching for it. (You can read the story for free at Amazing Stories Magazine.)

I had a lot of fun creating the illustration for this story. But it was a little tricky since no photos were available of the young Asimov, so I had to sort of “guesstimate” his features from various photos of the elder author.

Hopefully I was close to the mark — though I guess most readers will have no way to determine whether that’s the case. Possibly that’s one of the things that makes illustrating science fiction stories a bit safer for the artist than is the case with other projects that may be well-known to readers.

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Duncan Long is a writer/illustrator who has created artwork for Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, HarperColins, and many small presses and indie writers. You can see more of his science fiction illustrations at Duncan Long’s Science Fiction Art Gallery.