[Image - Kurt Miller]

Interview with artist Kurt Miller Conducted by Toni Weisskopf, 11/04

TW: How did you get started illustrating SF? Any specific influences?
KM: Well, all of my life I had this passion for SF. My first staff job started me with military art, which was my second favorite. Then slowly the game company I was working for would introduce me with a new SF project and the sales began to climb. So I went from military to SF, and I think my military art background helped a whole lot with my new serious venture into SF.
TW: What are some of the best perks of being a science fiction artist?
KM: There is much more room for creativity. It's never a dry moment when illustrating SF and a lot of fun. Also illustrating for Baen Books I get to read all these exciting novels a year before they’re released. As busy as I am, I have no time to read on my free time, whereas here it's part of the job. How cool is that? Gosh, I love this job of mine.
TW: Do you have any favorites among your paintings?
KM: Difficult to answer, I love a little bits and parts of each painting. I keep finding myself nit-picking each one over all. Well, I tend to favor the up close, central focus ones like Outlive, The Hero, Into the Looking Glass and my new one due to release next year, The Weapon by Mike Williamson.
TW: What was the first sf story you ever read?
KM: Gosh, I was very young I guess, because I was so scared I took my bedroom chair to jam my closet door and put all kinds of stuff underneath my bed so no ugly alien would lurk from. The book was Alien from the movie Alien and then Aliens. The first Alien was more like a horror story than an SF one.
TW: Who are some of your favorite non-sf authors?
KM: I read a lot of WWI, WWII and modern military books. The ones I found that made me proud of our troops fighting overseas were the books The Hunt for Bin Laden and Hunting Down Saddam, both by Robin Moore, a true patriot. My other favorite is Stephen King; I love to scare myself silly.
TW: If you could go back to one incident in all of history to watch as a spectator what would it be?
KM: The war of our independence, to watch our brave General George Washington, fighting for the beginning of our great nation. God bless our troops.
For more information go to: www.kmistudio.com.