Earlier than he can remember, Mark Zug discovered the power of pencil and paper to bring to life things not available to the senses. He was flummoxed by the riddle of profession until the age of twenty-five, when under the fresh inspiration of Frank Frazetta and Jan Vermeer, he set aside rock music to attend art school. At Pennsylvania School of Art and Design he discovered and was transfixed by the luminaries N.C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle. Mark set about painting his portfolio, as well as penciling historical comic strips for cartoonist Pat Reynolds and assisting painting western novel covers for Illustrator Ken Laager. In 1992 he quit a 13-year career as a machinist and embarked on the unpredictable life of a freelance artist. His own work was first published in 1994 with I Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay by Harlan Ellison. Since then, his work has appeared on the covers of novels by Tanith Lee, Diana Wynne-Jones, Hilari Bell, the Dragonlance series, Star Wars comics, the magazines Popular Science, Dragon, Dungeon, Duelist, Inquest, Star Wars Gamer, and too many fantasy game products to name, mostly under the Shadowrun, Battletech, Dune and Magic: The Gathering brands. In recent years he has garnered a Jack Gaughan award, a Chesley award and is the illustrator of the best-selling Septimus Heap series of fantasy novels by Angie Sage. Like so much American heavy industry, the company of his former "stable" career has sadly gone out of business, but Mark carries on feeding himself with his horn, and in years ahead aims to create his own world of the future out of the rejected treasures of science fiction and fact. He invites all to visit MarkZug.com with eternal wishes of peace and a great view.