Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Mexican Menu Darkover


In 1979 I illustrated frontispieces for a series of hardcover reprints of Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Darkover" series for Gregg Press in Boston. This was one of the ways I became familiar with Bradley and the world of the Red Sun. So by the time I got to working at Paco's Tacos, I had read a lot of the Darkover books and made not only black and white frontispieces but color illustrations, though my first Darkover book cover would not happen until 1980.

Naturally I wanted to make a Darkover Mexican menu board so this is what I came up with. "Flautas" are really good snacking bits. They are a thin cylindrical roll made with a tortilla rolled around shredded barbecue meat and then deep fried. You drop some avocado sauce or runny guacamole over it and enjoy. They're called "Flautas" because they look vaguely like flutes.

The girl in the picture was one of the people in the fan club that I did miniature portraits for. I attended a costumed event with them and took pictures of them, which are still in my archive somewhere.

"Darkover" menu is markers on posterboard, 21" x 13", winter 1979. Restored to its charming original look with a heaping helping of guacamole/I mean, Photoshop.

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