Good news — the 2009 Locus Award Finalist List went out yesterday. I’m one of the five finalists in the Artist category!

Here’s the Artist list:

Bob Eggleton
John Picacio
Shaun Tan
Michael Whelan
Charles Vess

The Locus Award winners will be announced in late June in Seattle. I’m thrilled and honored to be in this year’s top five and it’s a heckuva list all around. Very pleased to see Pyr’s FAST FORWARD 2 with two stories amongst the finalists: “True Names” by Benjamin Rosenbaum and Cory Doctorow and “The Kindness of Strangers” by Nancy Kress. Congrats to editor Lou Anders for that! I illustrated the cover of the Sept. ’08 ASIMOV’S and my cover illo was based on Stephen Baxter’s “The Ice War” which is one of the finalists for Best Novelette. Congrats to Stephen and of course, editor Sheila Williams.

Congrats to everyone on the list….it’s an honor to be amongst you. 🙂