After the Coup
John Harris: “This was the very first of the illustrations for John’s online short stories, and again I was working completely blind without even a title. I had had an image in my mind for some time, of a predatory warship, hovering over a spaceport, like a shark in the shallows. I used a light palate to create a mood of interrupted normality, with slanting figures and black smoke to suggest a mood of alarm and panic. The whole image suggested an unexpected coup.”
John Scalzi: “My story is called ‘After the Coup’ because John named his artwork ‘After the Coup’ — which is to say I looked at the art, completed before my story was even begun, and when I saw it major plot elements fell into place. I like very much that John spurs my imagination as much as he does. He’s become a part of the Old Man’s War series DNA.”
