Best Professional Artist Hugo: Eligible Works from 2020

By JJ: To assist Hugo nominators, this post provides information on the artists and designers of more than 800 works which appeared in a professional publication in the field of science fiction or fantasy for the first time in 2020.

These credits have been accumulated over the course of the year from dust jackets, Acknowledgments sections and copyright pages in works, cover reveal blog posts, and other sources on the internet. This year, Filers Martin Pyne and Karen B. also collected this information, and though we had a lot of overlap, their extra entries have greatly increased the information we are able to provide you. My profound thanks go to Martin and Karen for all of their hard work.

You can see the full combined spreadsheet of Editor and Artist credits here (I will be continuing to update this as I get more information).

In this post I will display up to 8 images of artworks for each artist for whom I have identified 3 or more works which appeared in a professional publication in the field of science fiction or fantasy for the first time in 2020. Clicking on the thumbnail will open a full-screen version of each work; where I could find a version of the work without titles, that is the image which is linked.

Please note carefully the eligibility criteria according to the WSFS Constitution:


Professional Artist

3.3.12: Best Professional Artist. An illustrator whose work has appeared in a professional publication in the field of science fiction or fantasy during the previous calendar year.

3.2.11: A Professional Publication is one which meets at least one of the following two criteria:
(1) it provided at least a quarter the income of any one person or,
(2) was owned or published by any entity which provided at least a quarter the income of any of its staff and/or owner.

3.10.2: In the Best Professional Artist category, the acceptance should include citations of at least three (3) works first published in the eligible year.


Under the current rules, artwork for semiprozines and fanzines is not eligible in this category. You can check whether a publication is a prozine or a semiprozine in this directory (the semiprozine list is at the top of the page, and the prozine directory is at the bottom).

Please be sure to check the spreadsheet first; but then, if you are able to confirm credits missing 2020-original works and the names of their artists from Acknowledgments sections, copyright pages, or by contacting authors and/or artists, go ahead and add them in comments, and I will get them included in the spreadsheet, and if the artist is credited with at least 3 works, in this post. If you have questions or corrections, please add those also. Please note that works may or may not be added to the list at my discretion.

PLEASE DON’T ADD GUESSES.

Artists, Authors, Editors and Publishers are welcome to post in comments here, or to send their lists to jjfile770 [at] gmail [dot] com.


(warning: this post is heavily image-intensive, and will probably not work well on mobile devices: flee now, or prepare to meet your doom extremely slow page download)

Only those bying stoute of heyrte and riche in bandwydthe shouldst click hither to proce’d…

Wendy Aldiss Launches Kickstarter for “My Father’s Things” Photobook

“Brian Aldiss was my Dad and I have produced a photographic book which is a selection of the images I made after he died. I photographed all of his possessions,” writes Wendy Aldiss. “I’m crowdfunding the printing of the book.” : “My Father’s Things – A beautifully designed photobook”.    

His shaving brush, his books, a handful of ties, his Hugo Awards … these are amongst the things my father left behind him when he died.

This book, beautifully designed and ready to print, contains a selection from the 9,000+ images I took of all my father’s things. There is a foreword by celebrated British novelist Christopher Priest and an essay by cultural sociologist Dr Margaret Gibson.

With more than 250 pages of full colour images, including 8 fold-outs, it is at once a depiction of one person’s property, a record of design across the decades and a meditation on the extraordinary nature of ordinary things.

Wendy Aldiss also quoted the encouraging words of people who have seen it:

On seeing the draft Philip Pullman said, “This is a book to pore over and marvel at, beautiful and funny and moving. I loved it”.

Elizabeth Edwards, Visual Anthropologist, says; “..the camera transfigures these ordinary traces, makes them appear luminous with interest, even exotic.”

Margaret Gibson says to me: “There are real generational and intergenerational resonances in your book that will speak to many people in many places around the world”. 

Neil Gaiman said: “Now we have a chance to see into his [Brian Aldiss] rich and varied life, through the lens of his daughter Wendy, whose inspired idea it was to photograph pretty well everything that was in his possession when he died”.

The appeal has raised $5,046 of its $8,862 goal on the first day.

Those who pledge £35 or more will receive a first edition of the book, and there are other incentives for larger donations.

By pledging money towards the funding goal you will receive a reward of your choice. Most of the rewards include the book itself (£35, or £40 for a signed copy), but you could additionally get a 2021 calendar featuring 13 additional images, a signed print from a selection of ten, or a copy of my limited edition artist’s book.

Each book includes a unique page marker previously a page marker from one of the books in my Dad’s library. Everyone who contributes will get a mention in the book’s separate Thank You letter. Books should arrive in time for Christmas.    

She asks in closing –

Remember, it’s all or nothing. If I don’t manage to raise the required funds by November 27th I don’t get any of the money for printing (and everyone who made a pledge will get their money back).

Brian Aldiss being serenaded with “Happy Birthday” at LonCon 3 in 2014. Photo by Francis Hamit. (Not part of book.)

Spectrum 28 Delayed

Cathy and Arnie Fenner

Cathy and Arnie Fenner have announced that although Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art #27 has just been released by Fleskes Publications and this is traditionally the time of year when the Call For Entries for Spectrum 28 would normally open for submissions, they are postponing the submission window until 2021.

They explained in a press release:

But as we all know, 2020 has not been a normal year for anyone…and we’re not out of it yet. As announced previously, after seven great years as editor and publisher John Fleskes decided to step away from Spectrum to pursue other projects and interests; as we began work on transitioning the competition and book back to our leadership, the pandemic simultaneously began to spread around the globe. Needless to say, since March of 2020 COVID-19 has taken a toll on everyone emotionally—particularly to those that have lost family or friends to the virus—thrown a monkey wrench into logistics and planning, shuttered businesses, cost millions of jobs, and had an enormously negative financial impact on the world. And that of course all translates to a negative impact on the publishing and entertainment industries, on the arts community, on the readers and fans—on literally everyone who make Spectrum possible. Factor in social, civil, and political upheavals and it’s safe to say that everybody has struggled or been hurt or in some way experienced unhappiness in 2020 and it would be tone-deaf for us to pretend otherwise.

With all that in mind, we believe the responsible thing for us to do is to delay opening Spectrum 28 for submissions until after the first of the year. A revised website is in the works as well as updates to the social media platforms. Though we know everyone has come to expect the Call For Entries to roll around at the same time each year like clockwork, we’ve actually been talking with our Advisory Board for some weeks about changing the dates (among other things) as a way to better serve the arts community going forward: there will be more announcements forthcoming, including our Call For Entries poster artist and jury.

…To paraphrase Mark Twain, any reports of Spectrum’s demise are greatly exaggerated. Watch for the announcement and we’ll hope to see everyone’s work when Spectrum 28 opens for entries. If you have any questions or concerns, ask us: we’re not going anywhere.

New Logo for Pórtico, Spain’s SFF&H Association

Pórtico, Spain’s Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Association, has just launched its new visual image. They also shared the cover art for Visiones 2020, their annual collection of stories.

Blanca Rodríguez, President, and Isa J. González, Member of the Board unveiled the new logo through the association’s  YouTube channel The team in charge of the new identity – Laura Soriano, graphic designer, and L. J. Salart, publicist- also took part in the presentation. 

The change is aimed at boosting the historical name of the association, Pórtico, fallen into disuse in recent years. The objective is to instrumentalize a name that is catchy, easy to remember, as well as full of history, aligning it with a visual identity adapted to the times. A new logo resembling a portal has been created as a symbol of all literary genres grouped in the association: fantasy, science fiction and horror. 

From a technical point of view, this new identity lends itself to different digital and printing uses, not only for publications (the collections Visiones, Fabricantes de Sueños and Sólo para Socios), but also for events (HispaCon), and for the different awards granted by the association (Ignotus, Domingo Santos, Gabriel, and the recently created Matilde Horne). 

According to Blanca Rodríguez, President of Pórtico, “The new logo strengthens the association’s image, offering a unified, easy to remember and modern visual concept. It clearly transmits the idea of a collaborative community in the current world, one characterized by its great diversity. With this logo, we want all the literary genres embedded in our association to feel represented”.

Pórtico, the Spanish Association of Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror, is a non-profit organization focused on the promotion of fantasy, science fiction and horror in Spain. For more information, visit  their website.

[Based on a press release.]

What Fred Said

By John Hertz:  I’ve been trying to give Cat Eldridge a hand with birthday notices.  As an SF character whose name rhymes with grok used to say, fascinating.

A few weeks ago was the birthday of a graphic artist who gave us Cheech Wizard and lizards.

What a genius. 

What was his name?

How should we pronounce it?  How should we write it?

How did he?

Another man who strained our orthoepy promised to teach us about his own name at a Lunacon once.  For a while I was able to attend this New York convention (hosted by local club the Lunarians) so regularly that some thought I lived in New York.  I had, but not then.  I was obliged to say I do not have that honor.  I was even Fan Guest of Honor one year.

Anyhow, at Lunacon XXXVIII Poul Anderson was Writer Guest of Honor.  Our Gracious Host was Fan Guest of Honor.  Mark Blackman, who now and then appears here, was Chairman.  As he has elsewhere remarked, this year silvers the memory of that weekend.

Mr. Anderson (or in Danish Hr. for Herre), addressing a crowd of us, graciously said “I’ll teach you all how to pronounce my name.”

We waited eagerly.

He said, slowly and distinctly, “ANN-der-son.”

Some time after I met the Wizard and lizards I happened to be re-reading Heinlein’s Space Cadet.  I was told, as its readers are, of Tex Jarman’s Uncle Bodie.  Must be the same name! I thought.  

The spelling was different.  That happens in English, particularly with names.

I still didn’t know what to say.

The unassisted letters for this Wizard artist are VAUGHN BODE.  I felt sure his surname was bisyllabic; it didn’t rhyme with showed or hoed or Mr. Toad.

In a birthday notice here I wrote Bodé and explained,

The equipment won’t show his name as he wrote it; over the “e” shouldn’t be an accent acute (which is what you see), but a macron (horizontal line), i.e. indicating a long vowel, not emphasis: it doesn’t rhyme with “okay”.  I never heard him say it; I spent years thinking it was like body, but maybe it’s like Commando Cody

This drew comment.  I replied,

You probably know Wikipedia, the great and terrible, says

As explained by Bod?’s friend Fred A. Levy Haskell, in the collection Vaughn Bod?’s Poem Toons (Tundra Publishing, 1989),”the line over the ‘e’ in Vaughn’s signature is not an acute accent, it is a long mark.  That is, it is not part of the family name, and is not pronounced as if it were a long ‘a’ – he added it to his signature to indicate that you are supposed to pronounce the long ‘e’ at the end of his name.”

I wrote to Fred today by real mail before I saw your comment.

Maybe we’ll all learn something.

Here’s what Fred said. 

Vaughn’s legal surname.  It is my understanding and recollection that it is “Bode”, without accent or other marking, pronounced “Boh-dee”, and that “Bod?” (with, as you say, a macron) is the form he settled on for signing his art; although he had experimented with a number of different forms before settling on that.  I believe he told me once that it was because he got tired of people calling him “Baahd” and “Bohd”.

Wikipedia cites me?  Li’l ol’ me?  Gawrsh.

Those, as a friend of my father’s used to say, are the conditions that prevail.

Changes Coming for Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art

John Fleskes, Cathy Fenner, and Arnie Fenner.

John Fleskes, the current Director of the Spectrum Fantastic Art competition and editor of the resulting book, has announced he will be stepping down from both positions following the publication of Spectrum #27 in October, 2020. Spectrum Fantastic Art founders Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner will return as Directors and editors beginning with the 28th annual competition in the Fall.

Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art was founded by Cathy and Arnie Fenner in 1994 and is the renowned international symbol of excellence for the field of fantastic art. John Fleskes became Director/Editor/Publisher of the series in 2013.

Spectrum is an extremely time-consuming, labor-intensive project” says Cathy Fenner, “and John has many books for his Flesk Publications line that he is very passionate about but has been unable to pursue because of the energy and focus Spectrum demands. He also has some deeply personal projects outside of publishing that he needs time and attention to bring to fruition—and there are only so many hours in the day. Arnie and I greatly appreciate all of the excellent work John and his staff have put into Spectrum, SFAL, and the fantastic art community for the past seven-plus years and sincerely wish him the best of luck with all of his future endeavors.”

“It has been an absolute joy to be a part of Spectrum,” shares John. “I still have the same enthusiasm and care for Spectrum and the art community that I have always had. Both Arnie and Cathy Fenner have been wonderful to work with as mentors and friends. I can’t thank them enough for their trust in me and for their support over the years. I consider myself very fortunate to have had this experience. Being able to work with so many creative and amazing people is something that I will forever be grateful for. I’ll continue to be very active in the art world as I focus on a new line of books that I am eager to publish and I’ll be setting the foundation for a new vision that is close to my heart.”

John’s last volume, Spectrum #27 (as well as all previous in-print volumes), will be available through Flesk Publications and to the book trade via distributor Publishers Group West as usual.

The addresses for the Spectrum website and social media pages will remain the same; Spectrum 28 will open for entries in October, 2020 and the book will be available in October, 2021. Further announcements regarding the new Spectrum advisory board, additions to the Spectrum staff, and jurors for #28 will be made at a future date.

For more information visit the websites — Spectrum Fantastic Art, Spectrum Fantastic Art Live, and Flesk Publications, or social media — Facebook/spectrumfantasticart/, Facebook/Spectrumfantasticartlive, Instagram/Spectrumfantasticart/.

Small Gods, Three Times A Week

Artist Lee Moyer (The Doom That Came to Atlantic City, Starstruck) and author Seanan McGuire (Middlegame, Every Heart a Doorway) have joined forces to bring you icons and stories of the small deities who manage our modern world in their new series Small Gods to Enlighten the Homebound.

Gods yearn to be believed in, that they might become powerful and influential. Belief is everything to them, and without it, they may stay small forever. From the God of Social Distancing to the God of Finding a Parking Space, some Gods find their own niches and fill the Belief Economy for many years undisturbed – Others want it all.

The series will continue each week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and can be accessed from these internet platforms —

Small Gods debuted May 1 with Medusa.

“The [early] Roman gods were kind of crap, you know – Geoff, the god of biscuits, and Simon, the god of hairdos….” — Eddie Izzard “Dress to Kill” 

“All the sweetness of religion is conveyed to the world by the hands of storytellers and image-makers. Without their fictions the truths of religion would for the multitude be neither intelligible nor even apprehensible.” — George Bernard Shaw

[Thanks to Venetia Chambers for the story.]

Best Professional Artist Hugo: Eligible Works from 2019

By JJ: To assist Hugo nominators, this post provides information on the artists and designers of more than 660 works which appeared in a professional publication in the field of science fiction or fantasy for the first time in 2019.

These credits have been accumulated over the course of the year from dust jackets, Acknowledgments sections and copyright pages in works, as well as other sources on the internet. This year, Filer Goobergunch also collected this information, and though we had a lot of overlap, his extra entries have greatly increasead the information we are able to provide you. My profound thanks go to Goobergunch for all of his hard work.

You can see the full combined spreadsheet of Editor and Artist credits here (I will be continuing to update this as I get more information).

In this post I will display up to 8 images of artworks for each artist for whom I have identified 3 or more works which appeared in a professional publication in the field of science fiction or fantasy for the first time in 2019.

Please note carefully the eligibility criteria according to the WSFS Constitution:


Professional Artist

3.3.12: Best Professional Artist. An illustrator whose work has appeared in a professional publication in the field of science fiction or fantasy during the previous calendar year.

3.2.11: A Professional Publication is one which meets at least one of the following two criteria:
(1) it provided at least a quarter the income of any one person or,
(2) was owned or published by any entity which provided at least a quarter the income of any of its staff and/or owner.

3.10.2: In the Best Professional Artist category, the acceptance should include citations of at least three (3) works first published in the eligible year.


Under the current rules, artwork for semiprozines and fanzines is not eligible in this category. You can check whether a publication is a prozine or a semiprozine in this directory (the semiprozine list is at the top of the page, and the prozine directory is at the bottom).

Please be sure to check the spreadsheet first; but then, if you are able to confirm credits missing 2019-original works and the names of their artists from Acknowledgments sections, copyright pages, or by contacting authors and/or artists, go ahead and add them in comments, and I will get them included in the spreadsheet, and if the artist is credited with at least 4 works, in this post. If you have questions or corrections, please add those also. Please note that works may or may not be added to the list at my discretion.

PLEASE DON’T ADD GUESSES.

Artists, Authors, Editors and Publishers are welcome to post in comments here, or to send their lists to jjfile770 [at] gmail [dot] com.


(warning: this post is heavily image-intensive, and will probably not work well on mobile devices: flee now, or prepare to meet your doom extremely slow page download)

Only those bying stoute of heyrte and riche in bandwydthe shouldst click hither to proce’d…

Spectrum 27 Awards Nominations

Dan dos Santos – Penric’s Progress

The jury for Spectrum 27: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art has nominated the top five artworks in eight categories for consideration for either a silver and gold award.

Judges Alice A. Carter, Craig Elliott, Anthony Francisco, Courtney Granner, Forest Rogers and Chie Yoshii debated the merits of hundreds of pieces of art before finalizing this list on Saturday, February 8 at the Flesk Publications offices in Santa Cruz, California.

Established in 1993 by Cathy and Arnie Fenner, the first Spectrum annual appeared in 1994 from Underwood Books; for over a quarter of a century it has attracted participants from around the world and has set the standards for excellence in fantasy and science fiction art. John Fleskes became the Director and Publisher of Spectrum in 2014 with volume 21.

The recipients will be announced at the Spectrum 27 Awards Ceremony that will be held at the Grand Ballroom of the Kansas City Convention Center in Kansas City, MO on Friday evening, March 20. The 2020 Spectrum Grand Master Award honoree will also be announced during the ceremony.

To see all the nominated art, click here and scroll past the text-only nominee list.

ADVERTISING CATEGORY

  • Anna and Elena Balbusso Twins – The Magic Flute Backstage
  • Brom – Lilith
  • Bartos Kosowski – The Shining
  • Alessandra Pisano – The Part You Throw Away
  • Bayard Wu – Fighting in the Harpy Nest

BOOK CATEGORY

  • Sam Araya – Arthur Jermyn
  • Rovina Cai – Ivywood Manor
  • Dan dos Santos – Penric’s Progress
  • Sija Hong – The Three Lords of Shambhala
  • Yuko Shimizu – The Wind Up Bird Chronicle

COMIC CATEGORY

  • Thomas Campi – L’éveil, page 25
  • Jessica Dalva – The Dollhouse Family #1
  • Tim Probert – Lightfall 1: Walk in the Woods
  • Claudya Schmidt – Myre: Flora
  • Leif Yu – Rainforest

CONCEPT ART CATEGORY

  • Ian Chiew – Island Woodblock
  • Te Hu – la Marcarena
  • Finnian MacManus – Xulith
  • Andy Park – Captain Marvel Binary Powers Concept Design
  • Wu Qinghao – Devourer of Ghosts

DIMENSIONAL CATEGORY

  • Michihiro Matsuoka – Philosopher From The Past Coelacanth
  • Lucas Pina Penichet – Guardian of the Forest
  • Kristine and Colin Poole – Spinner of Dreams
  • Dug Stanat – Space Madness
  • David Zhou – Harpy

EDITORIAL CATEGORY

  • Sam Araya – The Forest Yell
  • Galen Dara – Many Hearted Dog
  • Angi Pauly – Blue Moon Harvest
  • Red Nose Studio – Truth, Lies & Uncertainty: Truth
  • Tooba Rezaei – Blue Hope

INSTITUTIONAL CATEGORY

  • Tyler Jacobson – The Broken Sword/Throne of Eldraine
  • Iain McCaig – Claim the Firstborn
  • Mike Miller – Quest
  • John Jude Palencar – The Stranger: The Seventh Faith
  • Chase Stone – Tymaret Chosen From Death

UNPUBLISHED CATEGORY

  • Diego Fernandez – 492
  • Axel Sauerwald – Ascent
  • Jan Wessbecher – Celsius 13: Junkyard Crew
  • Allen Williams – Armorus
  • Daniel Zrom – The Spoon Thief
Galen Dara – Many Hearted Dog

Pictures at an Exhibition

By John Hertz: Here are Kenn Bates’ photos from Loscon XLVI —

  • The exhibit of Rotsler Award winners through 2018;
  • The exhibit (in the Art Show) of the 2019 winner Alison Scott (follow the link to learn about the Award too);
  • A close-up of her plaque, sent to her later;
  • The exhibit about Leonardo da Vinci which had been at this year’s Worldcon in honor of his 500th centenary, our genius neighbor;
  • And a close-up of the top of the Leonardo exhibit.

Thanks to Kenn for his photos.  Thanks to Elizabeth Klein-Lebbink for her graphics-wizard help with these exhibits.