Artist Behind Sweet Valley High Covers Takes Commissions, Makes Our Wildest Dreams Come True

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I don’t know how I missed this earlier this week, but now that I’ve seen it, IT’S ALL I WANT. If you’re like me, and devoured Sweet Valley High books when you were a kid, you probably will, too.

James L. Mathewuse, the illustrator behind the covers of not only the Sweet Valley High books, but other classics like Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and Black Beauty, takes commissions!

According to his website, he’ll consult with you and do a custom portrait with rates starting at $200 for one person’s head and shoulders. If you want to get more specific (with additional subjects, poses, full-body, or “Hey, can you draw me and my friends posed in the same pose as the cover of Sweet Valley High #89, Elizabeth Betrayed?“), it might cost you more.

Totally a propos of nothing, who remembers the Sweet Valley High TV show?

Whew! Glad to have gotten that out of my system. Now, since the fact of these commissions popped up on Twitter a couple of days ago, I’m wondering if Mathewuse has already been bombarded with requests and is sick of geeks fulfilling their nostalgia with his artwork. Then again, artists have to pay the bills. He may well be riding this geek nostalgia train as far as it will take him, and more power to him if he is!

Meanwhile, I’m deciding on what kind of portrait I’d want. I was always an Elizabeth growing up, but now that I’m older, I’m definitely more of a Jessica. Actually, maybe I’m an Elizabeth who’s tapping into her Inner Jessica.

How about you? What’s your cover?

(via Babble)

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Teresa Jusino
Teresa Jusino (she/her) is a native New Yorker and a proud Puerto Rican, Jewish, bisexual woman with ADHD. She's been writing professionally since 2010 and was a former TMS assistant editor from 2015-18. Now, she's back as a contributing writer. When not writing about pop culture, she's writing screenplays and is the creator of your future favorite genre show. Teresa lives in L.A. with her brilliant wife. Her other great loves include: Star Trek, The Last of Us, anything by Brian K. Vaughan, and her Level 5 android Paladin named Lal.