Mark Zug

Mark Zug is an artist and illustrator who is known for his work with the Septimus Heap series and Harlan Ellison's adaption of I, Robot. He has illustrated many collectible card games, including Magic: The Gathering and Dune, as well as books and magazines. He lives in Pennsylvania.

Biography
Artist Mark Zug has been drawing from his childhood. He discovered his passion for painting to bring to life things not available to the senses - dinosaurs, superheroes, Jules-Vernean submarines, imaginary cars, races of ancient astronauts, starships inspired by then-fresh Star Trek etc. Turning continuously to fiction for inspiration, he discovered the authors Frank Herbert and Tolkien as a teen. Then giving his art a perhaps-needed break after high school, he started working as a class-A machinist at a nearby factory while experimenting with a musical career.

Rise to prominence
He returned to art, inspired by Frank Frazetta and illustrators of the Brandywine School. In 1985 he returned to art and started painting in oil, and attended art school for 2.5 years (no diploma). He capped his tutorial by ghost-painting western novel covers and penciling historical comic strips on the side. His first big break came in 1992 illustrating Harlan Ellison's I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay, for which he also did 160 pages of fully painted comics. He fulfilled a long-held dream illustrating Frank Herbert's Dune universe - in the form of Last Unicorn's collectible card game of the same name, which proved a springboard into game illustration.

Present
His works have appeared on the covers of famous novels by famous authors like Tanith Lee, Diana Wynne Jones, Hilari Bell, the Dragonlance series, Star Wars comics, the magazines Popular Science, Dragon, Dungeon, Duelist, Inquest, Star Wars Gamer, Amazing Stories, and graced many fantasy game products and brands like Shadowrun, Battletech, Dune, and Magic: The Gathering. His work is included in the book Masters of Dragonlance Art.

His first work with children's novels was illustrating the cover art and the inside pictures for the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage. He has illustrated all five released novels.

Critical acclaim
Mark Zug has received quite a few accolades for his visually stunning artwork. His work in the Nancy Yi Fan novel Swordbird was acclaimed, saying that "Mark Zug's black-and-white drawings repeat strategically, offering a visual underpinning to the characters and story line." He was nominated for a Chesley and received the Jack Gaughan Award for Best Emerging Artist in 2001.

Awards
Mark Zug has won a few awards for his outstanding works
 * 2001 - Jack Gaughan Award for Best Emerging Artist
 * 2005 - Chesley Award for Best Gaming Related Illustration (2005)
 * 2010 - Illie Award for "Helium" presented at IlluXCon