Cosplayers, science fiction fans, the latex faithful to film buffs to book lovers; so many people appreciate fantasy-based illustrations. Be they in Heavy Metal magazine, as the very backbone of our comics, or inspirations for or from upcoming movies like The Fantastic Four: First Steps or the Superman reboot, there’s no denying the power of drawing and painting in our fanciful arts.
One fantasy illustrator who has risen high above the rest (as has his son) is Luis Royo.
Born in 1954 in Olalla, Teruel, Spain, Luis started exhibiting his paintings in the early 1970s and by the beginning of the next decade began publishing his comics in magazines. These included publications well known to the fandom, “1984,” “Rambla,” and “Heavy Metal,” to name a few. Three years later, Luis began to focus on illustration, the area in which he was to be most successful, and went on to illustrate book covers for Tor Book, Avon, Warner Books, and Batman Books (again to name but a few). He continued to publish in National Lampoon, Cómic Art, Ere Comprime, and Total Metal and even designed video cases for the video games Game Over, Turbo Girl, and Navy Moves.
Luis has exhibited and published his work at art shows and galleries, and across varied publications in France, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Russia, and the USA, and has been awarded numerous prizes, including the Spectrum Silver Award (The Best in Contemporary, Fantastic Art) the Peregrino Fantasy Prize in CTPAHHNK, and Fumetto Cartoomics Millenium award.
Luis’s son Romulo’s work has been exhibited in various private collections, through foundations and museums, like Art Forum Berlin, FIAC, Los Angeles Art Show, CIGE Beijing China, ART International Istanbul, magazines, and books. In 2009, Romulo collaborated with his father on the large-format paintings for the Oriental-tinged Dead Moon book, published worldwide, along with an I-Ching deck featuring his images, among other multimedia products.
These two master illustrators have had an exhibit at the Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas since August of 2023. That exhibition moved to its own “Royo Gallery,” space at the EHM a year later, and now has just been granted an open-ended residency. What’s more, visitors can now buy any piece of Royo art when they visit the exhibition with a point of purchase sale.
