For the covers of the books, sometimes they will use an actual photo of a person to represent the character. In this regard, I am not referring to images manipulated from any show or film. I am referring to things like images of a living, breathing Mackenzie Calhoun. I am curious as to who these people are? Who are the models?
I know that Ben Gage, who played Akaar in TOS' "Friday's Child", was used as the "model" for his son, Leonard James Akaar. (I used to think it was Victor Garber, but I've since been told that it was indeed Gage.) As for others, I have no idea, although I strongly suspect that Joe Flanigan from Stargate: Atlantis was the model for Calhoun, in both physical appearance and character identity. (And the cover image for Elias Vaughn looks suspiciously like Sean Connery...)
That's what I wonder. Are these real people? Are they sometimes real people? Or do they do something like brush blurring a photo or taking a nose from here, ears from here, eyes from here, etc, and make a new never-born person?
I've heard that the model for at least some of the images of Calhoun was the artist's neighbor. It seems unlikely to me that Joe Flanigan would have been a model for Calhoun. First of all I don't really see enough resemblance in the images for to it to be him, and I find it hard to believe that someone with those kinds of sci-fi credentials could have been involved with such a popular character and we haven't heard about it by now.
I also don't really see any Sean Connery in Vaughn. They both have a salt and pepper beard, but that's about all the resemblance I see between the two. You don't have Connery without those eyebrows, Vaughn's are basically nothing compared to his.
Yeah, and also Stargate: Atlantis was seven years in the future when the first four New Frontier books came out, and before that, I don't see anything on IMDb that would make Keith Birdsong sit up and start painting this guy as a Starfleet captain. According to Curt Danhauser (and this accords with what I remember from Psi Phi back in the day), "The face used for Captain Calhoun on the covers of the New Frontier books belongs to a friend of cover artist Keith Birdsong. The model for Calhoun's appearance lives in Arizona and he is not an actor." Calhoun's appearance is a little off on the cover of No Limits, which is the only NF book to use a photomanip of Calhoun rather than a painting; I assume it's because Birdsong tweaked the face a bit when he painted his neighbor. Looking at the covers over time, I sure miss the old style. Similiarly, I think Vaughn is a model photographed by Cliff Nielsen (the greatest of Photoshop cover artists).
If your trying to say that is Sean Connery as Vaughn, I think you're mistaken too. I can't see them paying to use Sean Connery's likeness just for a book cover that has no connection to any role he's played. If it were a James Bond book I could see it, but not for Trek. I'm pretty sure pretty much every character we've seen who isn't from the shows and movies was just "played" by an unknown model. The thing to keep in mind with this is that I'm pretty sure you have to pay for the rights to use a name actor's appearance, so it's not like they're going to just grab a picture of an actor and use that to represent one of the characters. You can get sued if the actor or their people find out you did that, and I just can't see the CBS going through that kind of trouble just for Star Trek book covers. Just to give an example, Lindsey Lohan sued Rockstar Games, or at least tried to sue them, a few years ago because a character in one of the Grand Theft Auto games looked like her.
No, I was saying Vaughn doesn't look like Sean Connery to me; I was responding to MLB's comment about it. Though the Lohan thing actually kind of goes against that, since part of the court opinion issued when the case was dismissed explicitly said that even if they had used Lohan as design inspiration, it would have been legal since they were fictitious characters. Even the box art character she claimed was based on herself. It's like how the Ultimate Universe blatantly made Nick Fury's appearance based on Sam Jackson without prior approval, or made Norman Osborn's appearance based on Tommy Lee Jones.
Oh, I missed that last bit of MLBs post, sorry about the misunderstanding. Although I do stand by what I said, it should be directed at MLB instead of you.
Just saw the second part of your post. I actually wasn't aware of how the court ruled, I just knew it happened. Although I would think using an actual picture of a person on a book cover would be a bit different from a digital character who artists designed who looks like that person. One is inspired by the person's image, one is the person's image.
Oh yeah, that's a good point; I was thinking more in the sense of some kind of celebrity mashup photoshop like Emperor Norton was talking about? But even that yeah you've got a point there.
Personally, I got a bit of a young Alec Baldwin vibe from the early depictions of Calhoun. Amy Grant's management once sued Marvel Comics when her likeness was used on a Dr. Strange cover without her consent. You can read more details about it here. Samuel L. Jackson eventually gave approval for his likeness to be used as long as he got to play Nick Fury in the movies. Considering his lucrative Marvel Studios contract for multiple films, I'd say that worked out pretty well for him.
I didn't realize they made Ultimate Nick Fury look like Samuel L. Jackson before he gave his approval, I had assumed they got it before hand. I'd never heard about Jones and Osborn before, but I did find an image of Jones as Osborn on the Marvel WIki.
I never heard if it was officially confirmed as intentional or not, but there was a character in a series of prequel-era middle-reader Star Wars bookswho tended to bear a resemblance to Britney Spears in the cover art.
I don't see it except in the one image from The New Essential Chronology. That one is clearly using Britney, however. The Jedi Apprentice covers are by Cliff Nielsen-- same as the early DS9 relaunch covers, fact fans.
It's more just one or two artists who "cast" Jones in the role. Mike Deodato, who drew the infamous Spider-Man "Sins Past" storyline (where Norman Osborn sleeps with Gwen Stacy), was one artist who used Jones as Osborn. It's not like Marvel editorial sends out a memo to all of its artists saying: "From now on, draw this character like THIS person!" It really just comes down to that artist's personal preference. As long as the company doesn't end up getting sued, I doubt they care that much.
As long as we're throwing these things out there, young Liz Taylor was the inspiration for Carol Ferris in the Green Lantern comics, Ann Margaret for Mary Jane Watson, and Fred (The Hammer) Williamson for the LSH character Tyroc.