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| This is from a post that BMV made in 2007? "Michael Whelan, the artist who created the Bat II and Very Best of Meatloaf covers, is in Denver this weekend for a Fantasy Art convention. I took off a few hours of work today to go meet with him. I spent about 3 hours talking to him about his work. One on one. It was great! I've been a fan of his ever since Bat II. I asked a lot of questions about his work with Jim and Meat and here are some of the points he made: Joe Stefko (drummer touring with Meat at the time) recommended Whelan's work when Meat was looking for the Bat II artist. Meat and Jim conceptualized the cover, but had various disagreements (with Michael caught in the middle!). One of them wanted the view looking down into the city, the other wanted a view looking up. The end result is the bizarre perspective of NYC skyscrapers on the album cover. Apparently, Jim demanded an angel on the cover, but Meat told Whelan "ah, forget all that angel shit." But, Jim was adamant about having an angel on the cover. (Reminds me of "Todd...where's my motorcycle??? from Bat I). The idea was the biker going back into Hell, but this time the Bat was dominating and in charge. Regarding the Very Best of Meatloaf cover: Michael really wasn't interested in doing this piece. He had a great idea for the biker standing along a ruined highway. From the impression he gave, neither Jim nor Meat were directly involved with this concept, so it was left to the ad execs for the record label. They wanted the motorcycle in the sky. Michael did several versions (he estimated about 12) before they found one they liked. Michael had other commitments at the time and was finding himself increasingly behind schedule for these other projects. He was getting irritated with the record folks. After all their demands, he finished the painting by putting in a kitchen sink in the lower corner of the cover. He said he wasn't sure you could see it in the album cover, but when you view the full-size painting, it's there. Regarding Bat III: Meatloaf approached Michael about doing this cover. Meat's original idea was having the biker riding across the cover, with the girl/angel on the back of the bike, holding a samurai sword, and slicing the head off the bat. According to Michael the head was to be almost completely decapitated with large amounts of blood oozing all over the place. Michael turned down the conceptual sketch, knowing that the ad execs would never approve it for release. Eventually, the project went to Julie Bell. Michael mentioned that the original painting to Bat II was purchased by Meatloaf. Michael keeps his original concepts/sketches and occasionally brings them to shows for quick, cheaper sales to fans. I asked him about the Bat II concept work and he said he still had them, and that he'd run into them just a few weeks back. He and I exchanged information, so I'm going to try to buy a few off him. These will be the original pencil/charcoal/acrylic sketches. I'll keep you all updated! All in all, I've wanted to meet Michael Whelan for 13 years. Nice to say I finally did. Guess I can check him off my list. --BMV" And I also have this version of the artwork:
> Hey here's something kinda cool. > > Below is an image comparing the Artwork Whelan did for The > Very Best of Meat Loaf: on the left is as it appears on > his website, right is as it appears on the final album > cover. > > Meat must have asked him to redo the Bat/Monster, but I > guess he prefers the original. I do too. That bat is much > more part of the image in the first one, instead of quite > literally floating, and in the final version its hard to > tell how far back into the image he's actually intended to > be. > > And he appears to be a in staring match with the guy in > the first version! I really don't think this painting > works as an album cover at all, but I do prefer Whelan's > original over the final! | |
