2013 Hugo Award base designed by Victor Villafranca. Photo: Kevin Standlee. Permission for non-commercial and journalistic uses with attribution granted.
Close-up of 2013 Hugo base. Photo: Kevin Standlee. Permission for non-commercial and journalistic uses with attribution granted.
Victor Villafranca’s 2013 Hugo Award trophy was displayed for the first time at LoneStarCon 3’s Opening Ceremonies on August 29. Thanks to Kevin Standlee for making his photos freely available at TheHugoAwards.org.
In other Hugo news, look for Ann Gentry’s article about the award, “Hugo Rising”, in the August 30 issue of the Austin Chronicle —
The culmination of Worldcon is the formal Hugo Awards ceremony, in which rocket-shaped trophies named for Hugo Gernsback, editor of the first pulp magazine, are bestowed on outstanding science fiction and fantasy work from the past year. Sixteen categories spanning fiction, film, art, and fan work, plus the unaffiliated John W. Campbell Award for best new writer, make this something like the Academy Awards of sci-fi, with most fans listening for the announcement of Best Novel at the end of the night. And like the Oscars, they have plenty of detractors. Every year the release of the shortlist raises cries of sinister cronyism and downright irrelevance, with fans taking to their blogs to lambast the ludicrous process of whittling down the vast and increasingly varied body of science fiction to just five nominees in each category.
