Hooray — my Loteria Grande card art for “El Mundo” has been selected for the Institutional category for Spectrum 22: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art!
I’m especially pleased to see this piece make the annual because “El Mundo” is my first official artwork featuring my daughter. Every time she spots the piece, she says, “There I am!”
She was thrilled when she heard the news last night, and I was too. Thanks, Spectrum jurors!
Artwork for Loteria Grande Cards by John Picacio. (Lone Boy / 2014)
The Hugo nomination voting period ends this Tuesday, March 10th at 23:59 Pacific Time. So if you’re like me, and you haven’t voted yet — get those nomination ballots in!
For all of my fellow illustrators and artists out there, I want to offer a few suggestions for being considered in the Professional and Fan Artist Hugo categories.
1) DATES!
I’m not talking about hooking up. I’m talking about making it known when your artwork was published. For Hugo Award consideration, this is a tiny thing that’s really big. Why? Because only work that was first published or appeared in the calendar year of 2014 is eligible. So, for instance, right now, I’m trying to figure out my nominations in the Artist categories and if I don’t know when an artist’s work was published or first appeared, it makes it very hard to nominate them. The solution: Make these dates readily available on your websites and your blogs along with your posted works. For example, I solved that one by grouping the illustrations on my website by year published. Like this: Here are some of my selected eligible works for 2014 awards consideration. It keeps it simple, ya know?
If you have questions about dates, here’s the Hugo rules language pertaining to this:
“In general, works first published or appearing in calendar year 2014 are eligible for the Hugo Award. Works previously published in languages other than English but first published in English in 2014 are eligible. Works previously published outside of the USA but first published in the USA in 2014 are eligible. Medium of publication is irrelevant: works published or appearing online are considered the same as if published in hard-copy form or shown on television or in theaters, including film festivals. Works published in multiple parts, such as serialized stories including graphic works, are eligible if their final part appeared in 2014. Detailed rules for the Hugo Award are contained in Article 3 of the World Science Fiction Society’s constitution.”
You don’t need anything more than the publication year. If you include the publication month that’s even shinier, but not necessary unless you’re talking about a venue that appears in periodical form.
If your work is sitting out there right now with no publication data, and you don’t have time to overhaul your website, don’t panic. Do a Tumblr post, blog post or some sort of consolidated online summary somewhere (more on that in minute) where you can point and say, “Here’s all of my eligible stuff!”
2) VISIBILITY
Ah, yes. How do you get the word out about your work? I might as well be trying to answer the meaning of life. Simple question. Tough one to answer, or at the very least, a tough one to do well even when you know the answer.
In general, letting your audience know that your work is eligible at the beginning of the Hugo nomination voting period (sometime back in January) and at the end of it (which is right now!) is a very good idea. Maybe a sporadic reminder or two within the voting period but that’s about it. I think we all have varying channels of media that we operate upon (blogs, DeviantArt, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Ello, carrier pigeons) and my advice is to spread out your reminders over those channels across different time intervals, during the course of a voting period. I think it’s OK to hit all of them with reminders at the beginning and end, but in general, distribute the word evenly so that your people in one media pocket don’t get spammed and feel like you’re hammering them like a nail.
3) DON’T CAMPAIGN
I know. Considering what I said in #2, this is a toughie. You’ll see other industry figures saying “vote for me” but don’t take the bait. It’s not the way to do this.
Pro Tip: Don’t use the phrase “vote for me”. Wash that one out of your system. Flush it. Gone.
Try using a phrase like, “Here are some of my eligible works for your Hugo Awards consideration.” It’s a better way. You’re making your work visible but you’re not panhandling. Voters don’t look kindly on overt public campaigning, and even though I see some industry folks becoming more aggressive with overtures for votes, you win by letting your art do the talking. That’s the advantage that visual creators have over word creators when awards season arrives. Our art can do the talking in one soul-moving glance, whereas people have to read a writer’s work to vote for them, and that takes more time investment.
Remember — you’re a Jedi.
Use the Force.
In your pictures you must trust. <Insert your Yoda voice here.>
FINAL WORDS
Go forth. Let the world know your work is eligible. Let ME know your work is eligible! I want to know!
And speaking of that — I have a nomination ballot to fill out. Pronto. So do a lot of other voters too! Artists — please feel free to post links to your work in the comments section below. Don’t look around, waiting for someone else to do it first. JUST DO IT. And if you’re a fan of an artist who has eligible work for Hugo Awards consideration, then feel free to post links to that artist’s eligible work.
Good luck, everyone!
Heads up, Spectrum fans and art lovers — here’s a work that was displayed at the most recent Spectrum Retrospective, and it can be yours!
THE CREATIVE FIRE (YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION?)
• 17″ x 22″ archival print on Hahnemuhle paper, professionally framed and matted, with glass, enclosed in 23″ X 27″ frame.
• Artist signature on back of frame.
• The illustration was created for the cover of Brenda Cooper’s novel The Creative Fire: Book One of Ruby’s Song.
• This framed artwork was on display this past fall at the Society of Illustrators in New York City for the 3rd Spectrum Retrospective, and was juried and featured in Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art 20.
• One-of-a-kind item, produced especially for the Spectrum show.
• Special reduced price of $600 (originally $750).
• Free shipping.
First come, first serve! Interested buyers may contact me at john (at) johnpicacio (dot) com.
Thank you!
Roberto “El Robotico” Livar of Bombasta & Daniela “ZaaZaa” Riojas of Femina-X.
I noticed my name emerge within a Facebook discussion the other night, and it led me to discover the booming San Antonio music act, Bombasta, led by Roberto “El Robotico” Livar. He’s also orchestrating a new podcast series called Radio Bomba, broadcasting from the old Alamo City Music Building in downtown San Antonio.
I’ve been checking out Bombasta’s music in the last couple of days, and they are a force! This quote sums it up: “When Bombasta, ‘San Anto’s Barrio Big Band,’ takes a stage, a stage is taken.” I’ll need to check out a live show from these guys someday soon. In the meantime, here’s a taste:
Radio Bomba is a revelation. I checked out the third episode featuring an interview with Daniela “ZaaZaa” Riojas, lead vocalist for the band Femina-X. Good stuff! Livar knows what he’s doing. He moves the talk along and hits the important beats.
Been listening to some Femina-X in the last 24 hours, and they’re terrific. Her bandmates are Alex Paul Scheel of Pop Pistol (keyboards/guitar), Jeff Palacios (bass), and Chris Cooper (drums). My favorite track so far is “Inka”.
They’re trying to raise money to record their debut album at Sonic Ranch Studios in Austin, TX, and they have until March 1st to do it. I think it’ll be an amazing piece of work, and I’ll definitely snag one when it happens.
At any rate — these two bands will be in solid rotation here in studio while I’m working on new Loteria Grande art. 🙂
In a statement released earlier this week, San Francisco’s legendary bookstore Borderlands Books is planning to close in March. This is one of the preeminent sf/f specialty bookstores in America, and it’s run by two of the outstanding minds we have in the field in Alan Beatts and Jude Feldman. These are smart, shrewd, dedicated people and losing this establishment is a huge loss for all of sf/f, not just for the San Francisco scene.
As one would imagine, there has been a massive outcry, and many have asked if there is any way to save Borderlands from closing down. Alan and Jude have extensive thoughts on this via the Borderlands newsletter, and I’m sharing those below the asterisks, but first…..
EDITORIAL NOTE: As an industry professional, friend of Alan and Jude, and book fan, I’m posting this on my blog because personally, I want to see if a miracle happy ending for Borderlands might materialize by sharing. Unexpected ideas sometimes happen this way. I think Alan and Jude are being pragmatic and professional, making choices on their own terms, despite very tough odds. That’s their right. They’re not looking for handouts. Any omniscient comments that choose to criticize their choices, or argue about the politics of minimum wage (for or against), will be deleted because they distract from the point of posting this. Arguments about business philosophy can be taken elsewhere. This story is about Alan, Jude, and the human beings who work there. Post here with sensible solutions and calls-to-action. In that spirit, feel free to share.
*****************
How Could Borderlands Stay Open?
by Alan Beatts
Since April of last year, when it started looking likely that a higher minimum wage ordinance would pass in San Francisco, I’ve been thinking (racking my brain, actually) about ways to keep the store open in the face of a 39% increase in wages. I’m going to start with what was my final conclusion and then I’m going to go back and touch on several of the other things that I considered.
First though, the basic facts:
1) The bookselling side of Borderlands has never been terribly profitable.
2) Based on current business, the new minimum wage, once fully in effect ($15 per hour in 2018) would move the bookstore from being modestly profitable (roughly $3000 in 2013 before depreciation) to showing a yearly loss of roughly $25,000.
3) It is reasonable to expect that the best-case, long term sales trend for a brick-and-mortar bookstore is relatively flat.
4) Making 50-60 hours of work, per week, with no real holidays on my part an intrinsic part of our business plan is neither viable long-term nor something I am going to do.
5) Any solution would need to have a very good chance of working. Closing now is a straightforward process and doesn’t require any money and a limited amount of frantic work. Pouring money and / or time into a solution that might work is not something that I’m willing to do at this point in my life.
The only solution that I can see would be to reduce expenses by an amount at least equal to our projected yearly loss. The only expense that is large enough to reduce by that much is our rent. So, the only viable solution I can see would be to substantially reduce or eliminate the amount we pay to house the store. The problem is that I can’t see any realistic way to achieve that. If I had the money, I would buy a building, move the store there and stop paying rent. It would be a terrible investment, since I’d be losing out on the income from that money, but if I were driven by profits or money, I wouldn’t be running a bookstore to start with. On the other hand, I would own a building that would appreciate over time, even in the current over-heated real estate market in SF, so it wouldn’t be a total loss.
However, I don’t have even a fraction of the money that would be required for that. Based on the current market and the sort of building we would need, the price tag would probably be somewhere between 1.5 and 3 million dollars. So, what it gets down to is — if someone (or a group of someones) out there wants to buy us a building, I’ll be happy to move the store and stay in business. But, otherwise, I cannot see any solution that will allow us an even half-way reasonable chance to make the business work at a minimum wage of $15 an hour.
Do I seriously think that someone will buy us a permanent home for the store? Not at all. I would do it for my store, but I don’t think I’d do it for anybody else’s. On the other hand, if I had as much cash as Ron Conway, Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk, I guess I might do something like that. But, realistically, it’s not going to happen.
But, if it did, I would keep running Borderlands ’til someone carried me out feet first. I really don’t want to close. But I can’t see any real, sane alternative.
Here’s the list of the not-completely-insane things that I considered (I’m leaving out the old-school-bus-as-bookmobile and other, crazier things). I’ll also going to give a thumbnail sketch of the reasons they won’t work.
Increase Income
Obviously if we could sell enough books to make up for the higher wages we were paying, that would fix the problem. My math says we would need to increase sales by a minimum of 20%. We could increase sales in a couple of ways –
1) Sell a broader range of books
2) Sell more of the books we already carry
3) Sell items other than books, with a higher profit margin
4) Increase the price of the books we are selling now
5) Raise prices at the cafe to make up the short-fall
Selling a broader range of books is a problem because; first, we’d have to put a lot of money into inventory. Adding our mystery section meant spending around $8,000 on inventory and we didn’t finish the job. Since there isn’t another genre of books that would be a good, logical fit with what we sell now, I think we would need to turn ourselves into a general interest shop. That would probably cost about $25,000 to $40,000 and we don’t have the money (plus I’d be hesitant to risk that much on a less-than-pretty-sure thing). Second, we don’t know the field. We’re excellent at SF and fantasy as well as being damn good at horror and mystery. But other stuff? Nope. As a result, we wouldn’t be very good at selling those books, which is a big problem. Finally, we don’t have room. The store is pretty full now. Granted we could cut out some of the stuff that doesn’t sell so well but we don’t have the 20% extra room to increase our sales by 20%.
Selling 20% more of the books we already carry is completely beyond reach. We do a good job at what we do (wouldn’t still be in business if we didn’t). Adding our mystery section gave our sales a nice boost because we actually added customers, but otherwise our sales have been pretty steady for years (economic crash in 2009 aside). Based on everyone I’ve talked to, increasing sales by 20% without changing locations, adding inventory, or making some other sort of big change just doesn’t happen in the book world (or most any other retail business).
Selling things other than books is tricky for several reasons. First, what sort of stuff would we sell, exactly? It would need to be something that goes, in some way, with books — otherwise it would just be weird. It would have to be simple so as not to add much to our existing workload. We already carry things like journals, bookmarks, postcards, and so forth. We’ve tried selling DVDs (back when people bought such things) and also jewelry. Neither of those things were much of a success at all. Second, I’m not sure that idea really works very well for bookstores — it certainly didn’t work for Borders Books. One of their last-gasp attempts to recover their business involved selling all sorts of crap other than books. Finally, we got into this business to be booksellers. Moving a fifth of our sales to something else isn’t something anyone here is very enthusiastic about. Also, like moving towards becoming a more general interest store, there is the problem of tying up a lo
t of money in inventory that might or might not sell.
All that I’ll say about increasing our prices is that it’s already hard to get people to pay the publisher’s list price for a book. How often have I heard people say, “I’ll just get it cheaper on Amazon”? I don’t think that enough people to keep us in business would pay a 10 or 15% surcharge to buy books at Borderlands. Of course, we could increase the prices on our used books, but they only represent about 7.3% of our sales, so that could never be enough.
I did spend a fair amount of time thinking about increasing the prices at the cafe to make up for the increased wages at the bookstore. But the math said no. The problem is that I’m going to have to increase the prices at the cafe to make up for the higher payroll at the cafe. It’s not possible to raise the prices enough to accomplish that as well as raising them enough to cover the bookstore. We’d price ourselves out of business that way.
Reduce Expenses
OK, so if we can’t get more money coming in, what about reducing the money going out? The catch is that, other than payroll and rent, the bookstore has almost no expenses. Other than credit card processing (where we have quite a good rate), our highest expense is our PG&E bill . . . which is only about $2000 a year. In fact, rent, payroll, and credit card processing represent 68% of all our expenses. There isn’t anything left that we could cut to make up $25,000 a year.
As a result, the only thing we could cut would be payroll. Most of the people who work at Borderlands are part-time, so cutting any single employee doesn’t make much of a dent. Based (once again) on ugly math, to get the store on a balanced financial footing, I’d have to lay off almost everyone on staff. Jude Feldman, the general manager, would remain along with one part-time employee. Jude would need to work the counter from noon to eight, five or six days a week, while I did all the back office work. In other words, I would continue doing the job I do now along with taking on about half of the job that Jude does.
That option was one that Jude and I discussed a great deal. In fact, we went around and around about it. And finally we decided that it wasn’t something either of us wanted to do. When it gets down to it, as much as we both love bookselling, it’s more important to us to have reasonably sane, healthy lives. We have both worked the sort of hours that I just described. In fact, we’ve done it many times over the past 15 years. However, all the times in the past we did it to accomplish a specific goal. Neither of us are willing to plan on working those hours as a matter of course, just to keep the store open.
Other Ideas
We could, of course, move the store out of San Francisco to someplace that doesn’t have as high a minimum wage. But, I suspect that the sales we would lose because of moving somewhere with a less dense population and fewer visitors would create a financial problem almost as bad as what we’re facing. On top of that, no-one on the staff here (yours truly included) wants to commute a long way to work. Last but not least, Borderlands is a San Francisco sort of shop. I don’t think it would flourish in deeply alien soil.
I considered selling (or closing) the cafe and sub-leasing that storefront. In this market, it would probably rent for more than I’m paying right now. Of course, it would have to rent for $2000 more a month than I’m paying right now, but even that isn’t out of the question. However, currently my pay comes from the cafe’s income, not the bookstore’s. So, if I did something with the cafe, I’d have to figure out how to get my pay from the bookstore’s income. I don’t make much money ($28,000 gross last year), but that’s still a big chunk of money and there is no way that selling the cafe or sub-leasing it could produce enough to make up for the added payroll at the bookstore and my salary.
That thought led me, for about ten seconds, to the thought that I could go get a job elsewhere that would pay me enough to support myself. In that case, my salary from the cafe could go to the bookstore and it would cover the payroll costs. But, of course, the two problems there are that I would be working one job while still needing to do my job at the bookstore. The burn-out there would be something to behold. Besides, do I really want to work some other job just so I can keep owning a bookstore where I never have time to be a bookseller? Dumb idea.
Without going even further down into crazy-land, there is only one other thought that I had. We could sell memberships to the store, ask for donations to keep running, or in some other way offset the added payroll by relying on the kindness, generosity and support of our customers. I have two problems with that idea. First, Borderlands is a for-profit business that I started with the intention of making money. I don’t think that it’s right to ask our customers and community to give me their hard-earned dollars so that I can continue to support myself. If I had made the store a non-profit whose purpose was to promote genre fiction, that would be a different matter but — that’s not what I did. And so I don’t think that it’s right for me to ask for continual hand-outs so that I can stay in business. The second problem that I have is that it wouldn’t work. Over the years I’ve seen many stores try many things to remain in business. Asking your customers and community for support wo
rks wonderfully — as long as it is to accomplish a specific goal. But I have never seen a success come from counting on that sort of support to maintain a functioning business over the long term.
The last thing I should address is the possibility of selling the store to someone who either has more money to put into it than I or is willing to work the sort of crazy hours I did when I opened. Or, I suppose, the possibility of turning it into a non-profit by creating a suitable entity, raising money for that entity, and then selling the store to it.
Not going to happen.
There is a very fine and chilling SF story by Tom Godwin called “The Cold Equations”. If you’re not familiar with it, you should read it (despite the arguably fair complaint that it depends on good physics and lousy engineering). The core of the story is that math leads to conclusions that cannot be argued with, regardless of what seems right, fair or just. And the math about Borderlands says that what we’ve been doing won’t work anymore.
Everyone at Borderlands has seen a slow, sad spiral that a bookstore goes through when the money just doesn’t work out anymore. I’ll bet that many of the people reading this have seen it too. It’s heart-breaking and, perhaps worse, it creates a set of memories that overlay the good ones of the store in its prime.
It may be hugely arrogant, but I don’t believe that any owner can beat the cold equations that we’re facing. When I first discussed our situation with the staff the feeling was unanimous (and, in a couple of cases, very emphatic) that we wanted to close the store with all the care, class and consideration for our customers with which we had run it. That is both the reason that the store is not for sale, and also the reason that we’re closing now, long before higher wages drag us down the drain.
One footnote before I end this. It might seem that my suggestion at the beginning of this essay, that the only real solution to the problem is for someone to give us a building, doesn’t really match up with my opposition to asking for a hand-out so that I can keep running my business. Let me clarify that — if someone wanted to give Borderlands a building to operate out of, I would actually say no because it would be a hand-out.
My counter-offer would be that I would be thrilled to set up (or help set up) a non-profit foundation to own and manage a building with the express purpose of housing a bookstore (or bookstores) as a literary and community resource. Of course, I’d be thrilled if Borderlands was the first tenant. The beautiful thing about that idea is that, regardless of Borderlands’ financial health (or mine), a place like that could serve as a permanent support for bookselling, no matter how much the world and San Francisco changes. As I said at the beginning of this post, I don’t think that there is a snowball’s chance in hell that it will happen. However, I’m likely to have more spare time on my hands in six months to a year. Starting that foundation and seeing if it’s possible to make it happen for some other store might be a good way to spend some time.
Wow! Fan-designed Elric of Melniboné Tattoo Sleeve!
I love when fans create cosplay based on my artwork — and even better? When they’re tattooing themselves with my art! 🙂
Of course, what’s on this guy’s arm is not exactly my art. It’s an adaptation of it, interpreted by a tattoo artist. You can also see a tribute to Michael Whelan‘s legendary Stormbringer cover art, in this passionate sleeve design.
Hats off to the tattoo owner, who very kindly requested to remain anonymous, but had no problem sharing these photos. And BIG shoutout to the tattoo artist who did the design work — way to go!!!
I’m honored — it’s a real labor of love.
So much good genre TV happening right now. Couple that with the wave of social change that’s happening, and it just feels like the time is right for Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné to become a pop culture phenomenon. He’ll always be an icon of counterculture for me — and to truly be Elric, he always has to be — but I think the mainstream may finally be ready for him and his sword’s soul-sucking glory. Who’s with me on this?
Here are the artworks that inspired these tattoos:
Cover art by Michael Whelan for Michael Moorcock’s STORMBRINGER.
Cover art by John Picacio for Michael Moorcock’s ELRIC: SWORDS AND ROSES.
Cover art by John Picacio for Michael Moorcock’s ELRIC: THE SLEEPING SORCERESS.
Elric art by John Picacio, created for MicroVisions 2012. 5″ x 7″ on illustration board. Original owned by The Sean Lackey Collection.
Sample art from INSPIRED, clockwise, top left: Art by John Picacio, Rebecca Yanovskaya, Wylie Beckert, Marc Scheff
Yesterday, I received word that three of my artworks will be included in the forthcoming art annual, Infected By Art 3.
Today, I want to share news of a forthcoming fantastic sf/f art book called Inspired. It’s the brainchild of Chesley Award-winning art director and Art Order mastermind Jon Schindehette. The collection features a juried selection of works from over 30 international artists via Art Order’s “Inspiration” Challenge. I’m honored to be included amongst the artists chosen for this volume, and you can see the full list of selected artists here.
The jury for this book — an amazing lineup of sf/f luminaries:
Irene Gallo — Associate Publisher, Tor.com
Julie Bell — Illustrator
Lauren Panepinto — Creative Director, Orbit Books
Rebecca Guay — Illustrator / Founder of Illustration Master Class & smArt School
Terese Nielsen — Illustrator
Terryl Whitlatch — Illustrator and Creature Designer Extraordinaire
Inspired is going to be a dynamite art collectible and the print run is limited to only 1000 copies — now taking pre-orders!
BONUS! All pre-orders also receive a digital copy of the book for free!! You can score your books here.
‘Can’t wait to see the finished product, and be inspired. Congrats to Jon — and thank you for creating not only this book, but potentially a new art book model where all parties share the revenue pie. Thank you to the jury, and congrats to all of the artists that were selected!
Great start to 2015! Three of my 2014 artworks have been jury-selected for the forthcoming Infected By Art 3 Annual, including two that were “Unanimous Selections”! Very grateful to be included in this book with some AMAZING artists!
Wanna see all of the art that was jury-selected for the book? Here you go. Congrats to all of these creators — some truly inspiring work here!
Special shoutout to all of the Grand Prize Winners! Way to go, all!
My three selected works are:
“El Mundo” / Loteria artwork © John Picacio.
“La Calavera” / Loteria artwork © John Picacio.
“El Corazon” / Loteria artwork © John Picacio.
All three of these are from my Loteria series, and that makes the news even more gratifying. “El Mundo” and “La Calavera” were voted “Unanimous Selection”.
Thank you to the jurors: Donato Giancola, Rebecca Guay, Greg Hildebrandt, and Jon Schindehette! And thank you, IBA — grateful and honored to be included.
Here’s an abbreviated one-stop gallery of selected highlights from my 2014 published works, including cover illustrations, interiors, and product artworks.
http://www.johnpicacio.com/portfolio/2014/index.html
The awards nomination season is here again (Hugos, Chesleys, World Fantasy Awards, etc.). When voting, it helps to know which works from a creator are eligible for which awards categories. If you wish to reference this list for future deliberation and sharing, I hope it proves helpful!
I invite all of my fellow authors, illustrators, sculptors, visual artists, art directors, editors, and bloggers to add links to YOUR eligible bodies of work for this year’s various awards in the Comments. This is your chance to remind voters that you’re in the running. Best of luck, all!
Good news, Loteria fans! 2014 finishes in grand style with the release of a new Loteria Grande card series from Lone Boy, including “La Calavera”, “El Corazon”, “El Venado”, “El Mundo”, and “La Escalera”! These cards feature the same production value and giant size as the Grandes originally released with my 2013 Calendar’s Kickstarter campaign — 4.5″ x 7.5″ on thick, durable cardstock, with rounded corners. All cards also include my final pencil drawing for each artwork reproduced on the reverse side.
I’m remodeling my blog and web store, and moving it all to WordPress over the New Year’s holiday. Once that work is done, my store will be taking orders for Loteria Grande / Series 1 during the first full week of January.
Here are the rest of the cards included in Series 1.
Happy New Year, all!
I’m remodeling my blog and web store right now, switching everything to WordPress. It should be finished by the first full week of January.
Meanwhile, I’m making changes to my social media participation in 2015. I’ll be substituting much of my time investment via Facebook to other social media conduits.
Facebook: For those who don’t know yet, Facebook is instituting new terms for usages as of January 1, 2015. I’m no longer comfortable sharing images of my raw art via this service and because of the new terms, I’ll be reducing my postings on FB. I’ll continue to post general product news and links to my blogposts, but I’m concerned about FB’s location tracking, datamining, ever-shifting language about usage rights for creative content (and their alleged rights to commercially redistribute that property to third parties, if they so choose) as well as reports of algorithms that seem to obstruct useful networking and sharing. It seems prudent to invest that time and content with other channels — and those are…..
Tsu: New social network, similar in design to Facebook, but they claim to actually share revenue with users in exchange for their social media content. These transactions are not a sale of rights as much as an acknowledgement that user content generates revenue. It would seem Tsu wants to build audience by sharing that revenue. So if you haven’t signed on, consider yourself invited and give it a try. 🙂
Ello: New social network. I’m available there, and waiting to see if it connects with larger audience. Friend me here.
Twitter: I’ll continue tweeting, as I always do. Follow: @JohnPicacio
Tumblr: I’ll be using this one more in 2015.
Pinterest: Not great for relationship-building, but it is great for research and sharing all good things visual with you. I regularly add more, so feel free to follow.
I don’t necessarily post the same things to all of these channels. So the best way to keep tabs on me is to sign on for the Lone Boy List.
If you have, and you’re following me on one or more of these social media conduits, we’re good.
However, if you’re not already on the Lone Boy List, then you’re missing sneak peeks of my new work + product news, including alerts regarding new book cover work, special projects, and all of my Loteria art! Email info (at) lone-boy (dot) com, if you’re not already aboard.
Thank you, everyone. Here’s hoping for a great 2015 to you and yours!!
Presenting the final color artwork for ‘La Escalera’ — the latest addition to my Loteria series! In English, ‘La Escalera’ means ‘The Ladder’, inspired by the traditional Loteria cards I played with as a kid, such as this one:
Those who own The 2014 John Picacio Calendar will remember a progress version of my ‘La Escalera’ artwork was featured in the August layout. As with ‘La Calavera’, I liked the concept but felt I could do a better drawing. So I started over, and re-drew the entire thing from scratch, and then added a stronger, final color treatment. Here are the improved pencils, followed by a look at the ‘La Escalera’ Grande Loteria card — available very soon!
If you’re not a member of the Lone Boy List, send your email addy to info (at) lone-boy (dot) com, and we’ll add you to the List! 🙂
“Moorcock is dead.”
A publishing executive said that a few years ago, dismissing Michael Moorcock as an author who could connect with today’s audiences. It was an off-hand apocalyptic remark, the kind of overreach that people make when they’re worried about their jobs.
The next night, Mike had heard about it, and he started laughing. “They’ve said that at least four or five times over the course of my career,” he replied. “They’ve left me for dead and I’ve always outlasted them. That’s what you do, you know. And in the end, I’m still here — and they’re out of work. It’s the way of things.”
He said it gracefully, like someone who had been there, done that, several times over. No bragging. No malice. No sweat. Just smooth. When times are tough, I replay that moment in my head. It was a gentle career lesson delivered in a few killer sentences, wrapped in a smile.
Mike was the first author that I ever cover-illustrated, and I’ve been fortunate to illustrate several of his works, including major editions of the Elric of Melnibone saga for Random House. He’s the one that taught me how to be a pro, usually without even trying, sometimes without saying a word. He owns the career that we all hope to have, the one that has multiple lives and new possibilities for the world, the one that shapes change instead of gravytraining it, the one that celebrates all we can be.
Locus Magazine‘s December issue celebrates Mike’s 75th birthday and with it, his prodigious career as one of The London Times’ “50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945.” He’s widely regarded as one of the most impactful creators in the history of science fiction and fantasy, and quite frankly, that’s an understatement. If you haven’t bought that issue yet — grab it. I think you’ll find it well worth your time — and if you’ve never read a Moorcock book, it’s a welcome compass for navigating his literary landscape in search of the right work for you.
He’s a must-read for anyone who loves fantasy literature. In an age driven by social media and the perception of followers — Moorcock’s all-time ‘follower’ list includes legendary careers that were directly spawned by his authored works and editorial tastes: Brian Aldiss, J.G. Ballard, Samuel R. Delany, Thomas M. Disch, Harlan Ellison, Norman Spinrad, Michael Butterworth, John Sladek, and so many more. If you’re a fan of the works of Alan Moore, Jeff Vandermeer, China Mieville, Grant Morrison, Graham Joyce, Chris Roberson, Tad Williams, Paul Cornell or Neil Gaiman (see Neil’s terrific story, “One Life Furnished in Early Moorcock”), he’s a fundamental wellspring of inspiration for all of them, and legions of creators from around the world.
His imagination and influence weave through the history of gaming, fantasy art, rock music, comic books, and filmmaking over the last 50 years to the present — thanks to concepts, characters, narrative devices, and archetypes he conceived which others expand upon, or imitate, often without knowing he was there first.
I can’t wait until his new book releases in January from Tor. It’s a fantasy novel called The Whispering Swarm, and it’s part personal memory, part history of London. I’ll buy it the first day it releases, and start reading that night. Whatever I’m illustrating that day, I suspect reading The Whispering Swarm will challenge me to be better at what I’m doing, and inspire the hell out of me, as all great works and great people do.
Cheers, Mike. Happy 75th. I hope it’s a terrific birthday week for you, and that you and Linda celebrate and enjoy all of the best.
Here’s the next artwork in my Loteria series — “El Venado” (The Deer)!
My concept for this one was inspired by the novels of my friend, author Leigh Bardugo, and namely Shadow and Bone, the first in her New York Times-bestselling Grisha Trilogy, followed by Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising.
I had a pretty strong idea of where I wanted to go on this one, even at the sketch stage.
Leigh encouraged me, backing me all the way. Without her, the art would look very different.
This work is definitely a love letter to her Grisha Trilogy. There are homages throughout the middle ground and background. Some of them are overt. Some are subtle. See if you can find them all. 🙂
However, even while paying tribute to these books, the key challenge was to create an iconic Loteria illustration that could stand on its own for those that haven’t yet read them.
I’ll be doing a Grande Loteria card of this one in the near future. If you’re on the Lone Boy List, you’ll know first. If you’re not on the List, now’s a good time to get onboard! Just send an email to
info (at) lone-boy (dot) com
We’ll add you!
Happy Holidays, all.
Crazy week after returning from the World Fantasy Convention in Washington, D.C. It was a terrific con, highlighted by one of the best art shows (if not the best) I’ve seen at a WFC in the last ten years. Hats off to Mike and Beth Zipser, and the entire art show staff for ringleading it.
To all sf/f conventions who say that paying Art Show artists their sales money upon exit is too hard or impossible to do? Talk to the Zipsers and Elizabeth Klein-Lebbink! They paid all artists immediately upon exit with no hassle whatsoever. Way to go, folks!! 🙂
To Peggy Rae Sapienza, Michael Walsh, Colleen Cahill and the whole WFC staff — take a bow. HUGE applause. This was a dynamite WFC, and you all did a tremendous job!
I conducted a rousing hour of Loteria games on Saturday at the con, and it was a huge success, as it has been all year. It brought literary folk and art folk together, and we had an absolute blast. Thank you to all who came out and played! And THANK YOU to all who bought my Loteria posters at the functions across the weekend. Very appreciated.
I’ve already said on social media how happy I am to see so many of my friends nominated or win World Fantasy Awards this past weekend, but again — congrats to all!! Thank you, Mary Robinette Kowal, for the kindness of the gathering late Saturday night. Best of times. 🙂 And thank you, Jane and Howard Frank, for the kindness of the visit to your house and collection!
As far as the pictures at the top of this post — those are tiny detail shots from my iPhone of seven of my favorite things I experienced during WFC weekend, courtesy of an unnamed offsite visit. They belong to a collection of work that I was privileged to see. Out of respect to the owner, and at his/her request, I will not divulge where I saw these, and would prefer those who know to not share that here. Not top-secret, but it’s the owner’s preference and I’d like to respect that.
Otherwise — feel free to guess or discuss any or all of the artists responsible for painting these! No problem there. They inspired the heck out of me this weekend, and on that note, it’s time to work again. Thank you to all of the friends that shared visits with me at WFC 2014…..it was a great weekend!
