The Art of Daniel R. Horne
Legends cover artist
adapted from www.middleearthtoys.com by Gavin Gallot

In the past fifteen years Daniel has painted fantasy paperback covers for every publisher in New York. His first love is fantasy, but he has also painted covers for young adult, romance and adventure books. Daniel painted the covers for the five Legends of Lone Wolf books published in the US.

Some of the many paperback covers he's done also include: (by Christopher Rowley) Bazil Broketail, Battledragon, Dragons Of War, A Sword For A Dragon, A Dragon At World's End, The Dragons Of Argonath; (by Raymond E. Feist) Rise Of A Merchant Prince, Shards Of A Broken Crown, Rage Of A Demon King; (by Don Callander) Pyromancer, Acromancer, Aquamancer; Young Merlin by Robert D. San Souci; King Midas And the Golden Touch by Freyer Littledale; The List Of Seven by Mark Frost; and Dreamseeker's Road by Tom Deitz. He's also done covers for Raiders Of Cardolan by Jeffrey McKeage, The Barbed Coil by J.V. Jones, My Son, The Wizard by Christopher Stasheff and The City of Exile by Deborah Turner Harris.

In the over 200 paperback and 138 hard cover book covers Daniel has painted, it has been the fantasy creatures that have stood out as his trademark work. From the creatures painted for Dragon Magazine [example issues #119, 156, 128], to super hero posters for Marvel Comics; from blister card art for the Batman Forever, Congo, and Jurassic Park action figure lines, to the box art for many of the recent G.I.Joe action figure dolls; it has always been the characters that came first to Daniel.

"I studied with noted western and historical painter Ken Lagger, a 7th generation Howard Pyle student," said Daniel in an interview recently. "He instilled in me the importance of making the characters ring true, and to breath life into them. This is what I've tried to do."

After many years of creating fantasy characters in two dimensions, last year Daniel made the decision to turn his focus to sculpture. This focus is currently in creating the majority of the Middle-earth Action Figure line, and a line of one of a kind limited edition fantasy art dolls. His work can be seen in Spectrum 2, and has recently won "Best Professional Artist" at the Philadelphia Science Fiction Convention Philcon '97.

Daniel lives in Cherry Hill, New Jersey with his wife Joy and their children Jennifer and Andrew, and works for Middle-earth toys. 

Related links:

• Middle Earth Action Figures (look around for Daniel's art work, especially at the control art drawings for the figures)
• Middle Earth Toys
• My Glorious Lone Wolf Page (Chris Gerstle has larger images of the Legends Covers)
• Cover Art for The Barbed Coil
• Cover Art for Rise of a Merchant Prince
• Raymond E. Feist Cover-art Gallery