Martin Ansin illustrated the cover of Library Journal with a portrait of John Scalzi, a popular sci-fi writer. His new book is called “Fuzzy Nation,” featuring a sci-fi character, Fuzzy, that’s been retooled from a 1960s book that was in the public domain. 

“We want to get in the sci-fi genre vibe, but not go so heavy duty painterly to ape sci-fi book cover art too much,” explains the art director. “Ansin’s work is a good blend of graphic novel realism with a simpler punchy energy. He’s also adept at rendering real-life people—and  we’ve got to present Scalzi and his character Fuzzy with enough similarity to what they really look like. Getting a sense of the sci-fi realm in without being too specific will also come into play in an interesting way."