Steve Luxton is an artist and illustrator whose work has appeared in a number of Fighting Fantasy related publications including four Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, Advanced Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World, and other related publications.
Biography[]
Steve was born in Woking, Surrey in 1956 and attended Woking County Grammar Scool until relocating to Wimbledon in 1971. After leaving school Steve qualified in display design at St Martin's School of Art and started in poster advertising. Producing layouts, signs, construction drawings, technical illustrations, street plans and City Guide maps developed a drawing style with tight linework which reproduced well.
As a freelance and contract worker Steve has been involved in various projects as a draughtsman and technical illustrator, including the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, Wandle Heritage, and architectural and environmental design guides. All these projects meant developing cartographic skills and insights which helped create the Fighting Fantasy style.
None of this would have happened at all if I hadn't been an experienced AD&D player and met some helpful people in the right order. The story starts with Barney Sloane. I met him at the Games Workshop store in Hammersmith where he worked. I had my portfolio with me and Barney asked for a look at it. Luckily, I had a couple of fantasy pictures amongst the slick poster ads and he got me an interview with Mary Common, then art editor at White Dwarf. Mary gave me my first commission for White Dwarf, which might have been issue 67. Over the next year or so, I produced illustrated maps for AD&D scenarios. Issues 72, 75, 76, and maybe a few more. Through DW I met Marc Gascoigne, who commissioned most of my work for Fighting Fantasy.
Most of my freelance artwork now is for independent music companies and, like the FF work, a paid hobby that gives me a big fat buzz both as a fan and a published artist. I also have a FE tutors cert, teach music skills, and occasionally get involved in projects with music and mental health groups.
Bibliography[]
In relation to Fighting Fantasy, Steve Luxton's work is amongst the most familiar to readers of Fighting Fantasy, because it is Luxton who created the first continental scale maps of Allansia, the Old World, Khul and also the complete global map of Titan itself. All of these appearing in the book Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World. He also created the detailed maps of Port Blacksand and the district maps of the same city. The maps of Irritaria are also his. Luxton went beyond just combining the various maps of subregions into the whole. He also added a number of features as well, many of which were necessary gaps to fill. He is also documented as having had the odd indulgence as well such as the creation of the Isles of the Dawn. These had not featured in any book prior to his creation of the map of Titan. The author, Paul Mason noted in an interview that Steve Luxton had essentially drawn in Titan's equivalent of Japan as an indulgence (Isles of the Dawn being the equivalent of "Land of the Rising Sun"[1]). This caused a problem, however, because the land of Hachiman already existed and this had a pre-existing Japanese theme. For this reason, Paul Mason, set books on the Isles of the Dawn, and reversed the equivalence with the real world by making the Isles have a Chinese-like feel, whilst the mainland was like Japan.[2]
Steve's response re: the Isles of the Dawn. If you look at the map "Atlantis Before Its Destruction" the Isles of the Dawn are clearly shown as a landmass connected to Irritaria by a land-bridge. They are also shown as islands after the break-up of the continent.
Interior Illustrator
Prior to FF. AD&D scenario maps in White Dwarf. Issues #67, A Murder at Flaxton; #72, The Necklace of Brisingamen; #75, A Nightmare in Green; #76, Castle In The Wind; #??, A Nightmare in Surrey (CoC).
Other Fighting Fantasy[]
- Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World (Puffin, 1986)
- The Fighting Fantasy 10th Anniversary Yearbook (Puffin, 1992)
Map Illustrator
- (#29) Midnight Rogue (Puffin, 1987)
- (#30) Chasms of Malice (Puffin, 1987)
- (#38) Vault of the Vampire (Puffin, 1989)
- (#39) Fangs of Fury (Puffin, 1989)
Advanced Fighting Fantasy[]
- Blacksand! (Puffin, 1990)
- Allansia (Puffin, 1994)
Other Fighting Fantasy[]
- Titan: The Fighting Fantasy World
- The Fighting Fantasy 10th Anniversary Yearbook