On the left, a 1970 cover by Frank Kelly Freas for Ace Books. On the right, a 1972 cover by the same artist for the same book for the same publisher… but with different art. Presumably the publisher wanted more lightning bolts and cleavage.
Frank Kelly Freas’s cover for “She,” which is one of the few illustrations that not only doesn’t blow the “She in a Pillar of Flame” finale, but also gets across the mood of adventure, horror, and the miraculous.
Freas said that he based the appearance of Ayesha, She herself, supposedly the most beautiful woman who ever lived, on his beloved wife.