Cover Art Reveal for Issue 3!

Issue 3 Announcement time Realmers!

We announced the theme in the closing letter of Issue 2 Banished but for those folks that are behind in the times or perhaps are waiting to see if they wake up with a wonderful gift of Aphotic Realm in their stocking or under their tree, here it is:

Release Date: March/April 2018

Theme: Clandestine Government experiment escapes. Deep inside S4, the dormant spacecraft awakes. In the Montauk Facilities, children disappear and experiments begin. Secret Moonbase occupants slaughtered by a malevolent spirit. Let your imagination run wild but it must be a story worth being CLASSIFIED!

So there you have it. CLASSIFIED is the theme if you didn't already know and as you can tell, our cover art fits perfectly.

The piece is by Gancheng Li and was a fantastic find! We are so glad he agreed to contribute his work to our magazine.

For those that follow Adrian and I on Twitter, you may have seen our excited posts recently about all the great things happening that we couldn't talk about. Part of that excitement has to do with the art announcement but part has to do with things we are saving to announce in the coming weeks.

If you are submitting to this issue, trust me, this issue is going to be huge and you don't want to miss out. Make SURE your name and story make it into this one!

Submissions are open now and will close February 1st, 2018.

Get to submitting!

-Dustin

Aphotic Realm Team

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Aphotic Realm is Growing Again! Introducing…

Here we grow again!

Adrian and I [Dustin] had big dreams for Aphotic Realm from the very beginning. As we see those dreams come to fruition, the bigger Aphotic Realm is going to get. Chris has been a fantastic addition to the team, a truly invaluable asset that we have come to rely on since we brought him on board and we see big things on the way for our newest addition.

Without further ado, we'd like to introduce the newest member of Aphotic Realm!

Gunnar Larsen
Gunnar Larsen

Meet Gunnar Larsen! You may recognize his name. That's because he is the artist behind the gorgeous the covers of Apparitions and the upcoming Grimdark Grimiores Anthology.

Apparitions
Grimdark_promo_cover

Gunnar Larsen has been drawing for as long as he can remember. He started out trying to draw the box art for old Sega Genesis and Nintendo games. As he grew up, he slowly started getting more and more into drawing demons, fantasy characters, and ideas he got from reading horror novels and old occult books he stumbled across on the internet.

After sketching swords and monstrosities throughout high school and his life as a young adult, Gunnar decided to pursue a Bachelor's of Science degree in Game Art at Full Sail University. He realized about halfway through the program that it wasn't what he wanted to do, but still finished his courses, graduating as Salutatorian of his class in August of 2014. He decided to focus on illustration after this, as it was the art form he always had a passion for.

When Gunnar isn't drooling over other people's art or illustrating Void & Valor, you can usually find him hanging out with his cat, googling weird things, or trying to further educate himself.

We've received such positive feedback on his work it felt foolish not to bring him on board. Gunnar will be filling the role of Art Director here at Aphotic Realm. His duties will include scouting for potential art, reviewing artwork submitted to Aphotic Realm, and securing any pieces/artists of interest.

Gunnar is constantly studying his craft and as a result, pours through tons and tons of artwork/pieces daily. His artistic eye and existing immersion into that community will be an invaluable asset to Adrian and I as it will free us up to further the Aphotic Realm brand and reach--just as we envisioned.

Please take a moment to welcome Gunnar to the Aphotic Realm team!

-Dustin

Aphotic Realm Editors

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