Tag Archives: Teddy Harvia

Thanks, nothing

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By John Hertz:  Being one of the Rotsler Award judges, it was my happy task to call Teddy Harvia (“Hey, Teddy!” – no, wait, that’s a water-softener joke) and tell him he won.

Actually I asked him first whether he’d accept the Award if we gave it to him. We adopted that protocol a few years ago after a Learning Experience.

The Greek poet Hesiod said “Only fools need suffer to learn” (Works and Days line 217). But you already know what kind of fool I am.

Harvia said, more or less (with this equipment I can’t find how to do Jack Speer’s quasi-quotes – which reminds me, Sandra Bond, thanks for all the fish), “Certainly, I’d be honored.” So I said, more or less, “That’s good. You are.”

Then this thank-you note came in the mail.

Harvia Postcard CLEAN 2Didn’t I tell you “Keep watching the stars”?

Shakespeare fans, and maybe others, will know that in Shakespeare’s time “nothing” rhymed with “voting”. Much Ado about Nothing, to the Elizabethan-Jacobean ear, rang the chime of taking note (and of music: Act II, sc. iii, “Come, Balthasar, we’ll hear that song again…. Nay, pray thee come, / Or if thou wilt hold longer argument, / Do it in notes.” “Note this before my notes: / There’s not a note of mine that’s worth the noting.” “Why, these are very crotchets [whimsies, quarter-notes] that he speaks! Note notes, forsooth, and nothing!”).

Shakespeare was a punster of almost Japanese dimension – or, for that matter, the 14th Chorp Dimension – but I digress.

Harvia has for a while now been – well – exploring nothing. Some of us saw this in the Lonestarcon III Program Book (71st Worldcon, San Antonio, Texas, 2013).

Harvia Wingnuts LSC3 PR CROP

[Editor’s note: I have used Paint to remove as much of the cancellation mark from the postcard art as I could. It may still look spotty.]

Rotsler Award to Harvia

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TH_Hydra_c2

By John Hertz: Texan Teddy Harvia (“har-VEE-a”) has won the 2015 Rotsler Award, named for the late great Bill Rotsler (1926-1997), sponsored by the Southern California Institute for Fan Interests, and announced at L.A.’s local convention Loscon.

The winner receives a plaque and an honorarium of US$300. The Rotsler is given, as the plaque says, “for long-time wonder-working with graphic art in amateur publications of the science fiction community.”

Rotsler himself was so prolific that previously unpublished drawings of his continue to ornament fanzines today.

Loscon is sponsored by the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, oldest SF club on Earth. The LASFS (“lahss-fahss”, although Len Moffatt always rhymed it with “sass mass”) and SCIFI (“SKIF-fy”) are independent California non-profit corporations. SCIFI established the Award in 1998. Loscon XLII was November 27-29, 2015.

Among SCIFI’s other projects have been the 1984, 1996, and 2006 World Science Fiction Conventions (L.A.con II-IV), the 1992 hardbound edition of Harry Warner’s fanhistory book A Wealth of Fable, and the 2002 West Coast Science Fantasy Conference (“Conagerie”, Westercon LV).

The Rotsler is decided by a panel of three judges, currently Mike Glyer (since 1998), John Hertz (since 2003), and Sue Mason (beginning in 2015, replacing Claire Brialey who, before this year’s decision, retired from the panel after eight years’ excellent service).

Harvia has won the Hugo Award four times as Best Fanartist (1991, 1995, 2001-2002); likewise the Science Fiction Chronicle readers’ poll four times (1990-1993); also the Southern Fandom Confederation’s Rebel Award (1997).

He arrived among us in 1975, since then contributing hundreds of cartoons, illustrations, and covers to fanzines and con publications. He was long associated with the fanzine Mimosa.  He was memorable in the cartoonists’ jam at the 2013 Worldcon (“Lonestarcon III”, San Antonio, Texas), where he and the rest drew lightning-quick responses to a time travel story extemporized by David Brin.

Asked whether there should be an accent mark over the i, Harvia said “That’s the Spanish side of the family. We on the Finnish side don’t use one.”

Some of his creatures, like Chat the Fourth Fannish Ghod (the extra h is an age-old, or h-old, touch of comedy in fanzines), or the Wing Nuts, re-appear.  Others we know not if we shall see again.  Keep watching the stars.

chat11

Updated 12/01/2015: Adopted helpful correction by supergee. John Hertz says, “The mistake about Wingnuts Soccer was mine; I misinterpreted a previous draft by Mike Glyer. Harvia gave me the 1975 date, which was used in the Loscon exhibit.”

Gunny

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The Melbourne Science Fiction Club is hosting a “Tribute to Ian Gunn” on November 28, a memorial to the well-known Australian fanartist who passed away ten years ago. Donations to the Ian Gunn Memorial Fund and the Anti-Cancer Council are welcome.

Teddy Harvia’s article for Mimosa about his friendship with Ian underscores what fandom lost (and in another way, so does its beautiful drawing of Ian Gunn and Teddy Harvia by the late Joe Mayhew.)

Update 10/24/2008: Cheryl Morgan is looking for more details. The little more I know from the current issue of MSFC’s clubzine, Ethel the Aardvark, is a calendar entry that says: “Tonight [November 28] we join Jocko Allen and KRin Pender-Gunn to acknowledge and celebrate the life of a man still sorely missed. Supper will be served.”

The League of Extraordinarily Selfless Fan Artists

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Frank Wu has preemptively announced that he will decline if nominated for Best Fan Artist in 2008.

“This essay is incredibly hard to write. I don’t want to be misunderstood, to come across as churlish, arrogant, calculating or ungrateful…. Having won three Hugo Awards for Best Fan Artist, in three of the last four years, I have decided that – should I be nominated – I will decline the nomination [in 2008],” wrote Frank in an editorial published in Abyss and Apex issue 24, dated the fourth quarter or 2007.

I learned about Frank’s decision when his editorial popped up in response to a Google search about another fan artist. Such news must have been reported and discussed long since (though not anywhere Google could show me). Such a remarkable example of selflessness is worth retelling, in any case.

Frank thoughtfully explains that his decision has been made for the sake of the vitality of the Best Fan Artist Hugo category. He wants to “break the logjam” for other fan artists like Alan F. Beck, Taral Wayne, Dan Steffan, Marc Schirmeister, Alexis Gilliland, and Stu Shiffman. (Though Frank surely must know Gilliland and Shiffman have won before.)

To help show that withdrawing is not an ungrateful response to his popularity, Frank lists many other people who withdrew from past Hugo races. He might have added the two most important examples from the Best Fan Artist category itself. There’s not another category where serial winners have been so conscientious about sharing the limelight.

Phil Foglio won the Best Fan Artist Hugo in 1977 and 1978. During his last acceptance speech, Foglio withdrew from future fanartist Hugo consideration saying, “I know how hard it is to get on the list, and once you do it’s even harder to get off.” Victoria Poyser won the category in 1981 and 1982, then announced she would not accept future nominations. Foglio and Poyser both went on to professional success.

Frank does tell how Teddy Harvia and Brad Foster declined their nominations in 1997. He speculates, “Apparently they were trying to clear the path for fellow nominee Bill Rotsler, who would pick up his Hugo and then pass away a month later.” Well, no. Just the previous year (1996) Rotsler had won the Best Fan Artist Hugo, a Retro Hugo, and a Special Committee Award. He’d already cleared his own path.  The reason Harvia and Foster gave in 1997 is that they had a self-perceived conflict of interest created by their close involvement with the San Antonio Worldcon. Foster had drawn the covers for all the Progress Reports, and Harvia contributed other art. They made a highly-principled decision. A past progress report artist had been criticized for having an unfair advantage over competitors for the Hugo — that’s fandom for you, where someone demands that our top talents forego Hugo nominations as a condition of being allowed to provide art for free!