Tag Archives: World Fantasy Convention

Artists Beware!

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Artists — how do you feel about someone who says, “Give us your ideas for free. If we decide we like one of them, we’ll use it for our own personal branding and for our own prestige. We will hire someone to make multiple images of it and that person will not receive compensation either. We have zero respect for any of you as working professionals.”

As of today, that’s the official message that the World Fantasy Convention just transmitted to all professional artists as the WFC searches for a new image for their World Fantasy Award. See their new “World Fantasy Award Call for Submissions”.

That’s right. Your ideas and your work — for nothing.

It’s an extremely unprofessional message, and it’s not one that befits experienced professionals. It says to all of its members — writers, editors, agents, publishers — that the organization doesn’t value its own branding enough to properly invest in it. That’s very sad to see.

Throughout my career, I’ve had fellow professional artists such as Michael Whelan, Bob Eggleton, and Greg Manchess take the time to point me in the right direction, whether it was toward a worthy opportunity, or away from a predatory situation. I try to do the same for others. Pay it forward.

This is one of those moments.

If you’re an artist who wishes to submit free ideas and free work to this process — don’t do it. Save your energy. Take your ideas and your hard work and channel them into conduits and clients where your work is valued.

Recently, the writer Wil Wheaton eloquently refused to trade his writing for ‘exposure’ from the Huffington Post. He’s a major celebrity. He’s presumably doing well financially. The compensation amount probably wasn’t a big deal to him one way or the other, but he knew better than to accept nothing for his work. It wasn’t just the wrong thing for himself, but it set a bad precedent for writers who are less advantaged than him, who are much more easily preyed upon, and who depend on fair compensation for their work in order to make a living wage. He took a stand. These acts matter.

I’m not Wil Wheaton. I don’t have his celebrity power. It’s important to say this though, and I hope it helps my fellow artists and the creative community at-large:

As a past World Fantasy Award winner and frequent attendee of the World Fantasy Convention, I encourage all artists to boycott this process and do not give your work or ideas to this convention for free. ‘Exposure’ and ‘prestige’ are not enough.

Expect better.

In fact, expect the best.

Keep working towards it every day. Don’t fall prey to an unprofessional overture such as this one. And if you see artists who are more established than you falling prey, ask yourself why and how you might approach the situation better. Don’t follow someone else’s example blindly.

As for the WFC, I’m sorry to see it inflict itself with this black eye.

It’s a convention with assets, even if it doesn’t want to compensate artists with money. It could have compensated all professional 3D artists who submitted ideas with a membership to a future WFC. It could have compensated the winning sculptor with a lifetime WFC membership. It could have found any number of creative solutions.

Instead, it chooses to send the message that artists’ work and ideas for a new World Fantasy Award are worth nothing, and in turn that the convention’s new image is worth the same.

Onward to better expectations and better days.

The New World Fantasy Award: What’s Next?

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The World Fantasy Convention’s board of trustees has decided to evolve their award from a bust of H.P. Lovecraft (crafted by Gahan Wilson) to a brand-new, yet-undecided design. There’s been a ton of debate and reaction to this topic.

Bottom line: I applaud the WF board on their decision and I’m looking forward to what’s next for this award. So yeah — what IS next? Decisions, decisions…..

Here’s the thing — often, the key to making a good decision is first asking the right question.

We can all watch random people lobbing ideas and concepts, seeking answers for the award’s new design that best endorse their pet interests. You’ve probably already seen some. Not surprisingly, many of these ideas spring from a very Eurocentric view of fantasy that seems a bit tone-deaf to a shifting ethnic and cultural spectrum amongst audience and creators alike. Some advocate for a favorite fantasy form that makes them feel nostalgic — a dragon, an elf, a green man, for instance. Others advocate that the award should resemble a person that perhaps makes them feel comfortable, or reflects themselves.

These responses seem myopic and panicked, borne of an unspoken open question: “What should the award look like?”

If I were a decision maker in this process (and THANK GHOD, I’m not), I would offer that’s NOT the right question to ask right now, and thus, it’s no surprise that the answers so far are less than optimal. In fact, unless you’re a professional sculptor, you’re probably not the most qualified to find the ‘answer’. I’m not either. I’m a working professional illustrator and a storyteller who keeps trying to be a better artist every day, but I’m not a professional sculptor. And thus, I’m probably not as qualified to conceive and create this sculpture as an artist who does sculpt for a living. However, my job as an illustrator does require me to be a strong problem-solver, and that means knowing how to ask good questions.

Thus, here’s some brief advice I can offer the decision makers, and to all who share my interest in the future of this award:

1. THE FIRST QUESTION NEEDS TO BE THE RIGHT ONE. In this case, I would offer that the first question should not be, “Hey, World: what do you think this award should look like?” The first question should be, “Who are the best sculptors and who is the sculptor that can best elevate this award toward a new timeless icon? Who can carry this responsibility? Who can take us to a place we could not have imagined on our own?” The same respect that is given to a great novelist should be given to a great sculptor here.

The sculptor of this award needs to be an artist, first and foremost — someone who solves problems, conceives original thoughts, has unique insights, and visually communicates those thoughts, insights, emotions and intangibles into tangible form. If the plan is to take a straw poll of the most popular and familiar symbols and word pictures, or to concoct a preordained vision and then hire some poor sap to carefully sculpt to that prescription, then please hire a pharmacist, not a professional artist. However, the World Fantasy Award can do better than that, and I’m hoping it will. If I were a decision maker in this process, I would be sky-high excited about the amazing creative (and branding) opportunity ahead, and I would be vigorously searching for the right sculptor to cast a new icon, rather than casting a fishing line praying to hook an idea.

The making of this icon is the kind of job that visual artists are uniquely qualified to do. I most trust an artist to do this job of researching, idea-making, conceiving and creating a new visual icon — just as I most trust a surgeon to operate on me, or an architect to design a house, rather than the other way around.  This is a job for a visual artist who professionally sculpts, not a committee, not a straw poll of writers, readers, and historians. In short — the sculptor making the award should decide what the best idea is, what it looks like, and then present that form to the decision makers for them to decide if it’s ‘the one’.

The single most important question facing this award right now: “Who is that sculptor?”

In my opinion — asking this question, and doing the requisite selection work, is the key mission for the award’s decision makers.

2) CHOOSING THE SCULPTOR. Creating this award is a job –and wow, THAT’S an understatement! 😉 It should be a paid gig — probably a well-paid one considering the stakes, the importance of the result, and the rights involved. In contrast, an ‘open call for ideas’ that preys upon artists to generate work for free, even if they’re just sketches, would be ill-advised and bad PR, and I would advocate that no professional artist should answer that call and undercut their own livelihood. The ideas are the job, just as much as the final sculpt. I would caution against giving those ideas away publicly, even if it’s to drum up popular momentum. This isn’t a popular election, after all. It’s a job, and most of us are not official components of the job’s process.  Instead, I think the best thing that we can all do (decision makers, creators, and readers alike) is educate ourselves on the pool of working sculptors that are out there — and promote them.

a) If I was a decision maker, I would scour the last few years of SPECTRUM: THE BEST IN CONTEMPORARY FANTASTIC ART and the INFECTED BY ART annuals. I would research the last six or seven years of Chesley Award nominees in the Three-Dimensional category.

In fact, to all who are commenting via social media and campaigning for ideas — the best thing we can do to further this process is advocate for sculptor(s) that we think are best suited for the job — and try to articulate why. Shift your energy from firing shots in the dark about pet concepts, and instead boost the visibility of worthy sculptors. Link to their websites and their social media. Share some of your favorite images of their work.

b) Again, putting myself in a decision maker’s shoes — I would ask myself, “What are the questions that best lead me to the right sculptor for this job?” Here are a few questions that might help along the way:

• Does the sculptor’s work largely represent their own imagination or does it represent someone else’s?

• Does the sculptor’s work surprise? Does it invent? Does the sculptor’s work have a history of making forms and icons that haven’t quite been seen like that before?

• Does the sculptor’s work have the ability to be universal, or does it seem to reflect a limited cultural and ethnic viewpoint? Can this sculptor create an icon with a large enough ideological umbrella to not just include the world, but embrace it and elevate it?

• Does the sculptor’s work show the ability to problem-solve a variety of contexts? Is their work all literal? Is it all abstract? Is that artist capable of expressing within both realms? Does the sculptor’s approach to the job propagate his or her own brand more than it creates a unique brand for the award?

• Does the sculptor design their own work and then have someone ELSE cast it? Or does the sculptor design AND cast their own work from start to finish? This may be a very important production question for the board as they narrow down their sculptor choices.

3) BUILDING THE BEAST. I think once the decision makers have chosen their sculptor, I suggest that the next most important mission is shaping an environment where the artist is free to propose original ideas, problem-solve, and sculpt the final award, shielded from preordained ideas and agendas. This isn’t just what’s good for the sculptor. It’s about getting the most value from the artist during the course of the process. What comes out of the sculptor’s head is as important as what comes out of his or her hands. The sculptor will probably want to dialogue with the board as the process evolves, and that will likely be one of the most crucial parts of the whole endeavor.

This is brave new frontier. This is what artists live for. My sincere best wishes to the sculptor selected for this job and to the decision makers involved, and in closing, I’ll offer a few sculptor suggestions for consideration for this job. What are yours?

VINCENT VILLAFRANCA:

VINCENTVILLAFRANCA

If this decision were in my hands, this would be the sculptor I would choose. His work consistently innovates. It invents. It can be literal. It can be abstract. It can be both. He has the restless imagination that searches for new ideas and forms that elevate. He has experience dealing with the pressure of awards-making, having designed one of the most celebrated trophy bases in Hugo Awards history. He creates his own work from start to finish — from birthing the idea to final bronze, casting everything himself.

VIRGINIE ROPARS:

VIRGINIEHer ethereal and haunting work seems to own the Spectrum annual’s 3D category every year.

THE SHIFLETT BROTHERS:

SHIFLETTSThese guys do stunning work. Master creature makers.

CHARLES VESS:

The Barter Green in Abingdon, VA

He’s a four-time World Fantasy Award winner. He’s designed small sculptures and big ones. If he’s selected to sculpt the new one, and wins a fifth World Fantasy Award, would he get to award himself with his own sculpture? 🙂

Those are a few thoughts. Please share your own. Brainstorm. Explore. Discover. Share. Who would you like to see sculpt the new World Fantasy Award?

WFC 2014

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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!

Karen Jones

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A great person died last week. Her name was Karen Jones and she was my friend.
I heard the news Saturday night when I was heading out to the World Fantasy Convention Art Show Reception. Jennifer Heddle phoned me and let me know. It was a shock, to say the least. She introduced me to Karen at the World Science Fiction Convention in 2002, and they were very good friends for the better part of two decades.
Rather than dwell on Karen’s death, I want her to be remembered for the good that she brought. She had an infectious smile and laugh, and for several years, a group of us including Chris Roberson, Allison Baker, Lou Anders, Paul Cornell, Jen Heddle, Alan Beatts, Jude Feldman, and Karen were a rolling ‘rat pack’ of sorts that banded together at more conventions than I can count (shoutout to Joe McCabe and Jess Nevins, as well). We were all building pro careers in various publishing capacities, whether it be as editors, illustrators, writers, retailers, or publishers — all of us it seemed, except Karen.
She was a voracious reader and connoisseur of film, TV and video games, and she wasn’t chasing a career in publishing. She was simply one of us. She was strong, quietly confident and true to herself. I think it was Chris that once said Karen was the smartest one amongst all of us, and it was true. I don’t know what Karen’s IQ was, but if one of us was officially ‘genius’, it was her, without a doubt. She never flaunted. She was unabashedly geek-proud, passionate about the things and people she loved. She brought joy wherever she went, and I’ll always remember her for that.
She may not have been chasing a career in the arts or publishing back then, but lo and behold, in recent years, she ended up becoming the art director for Lightspeed Magazine, once again proving how diverse her talents were.
She was funny. She was brilliant. She was luminous.
You will not be forgotten, Karen.
(pictured above: (l to r) Jennifer Heddle, Karen Jones at the 2002 World Fantasy Convention)

LA CALAVERA

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Presenting the final color artwork for ‘La Calavera’ — the latest in my Loteria series! In English, ‘La Calavera’ means ‘The Skull’. Those who own the 2014 John Picacio Calendar will notice that a progress version of this work is featured for the month of October. I retained the concept, but completely started over and overhauled the art from scratch. Here are the new improved pencils, created as the foundation for the revised final.

And for those who are unfamiliar with the game of Loteria, here’s the Don Clemente/Pasatiempos Gallo version for this icon, and as with all of my Loteria work, this is what inspired me.

Halloween and Dia de los Muertos is right around the corner, and a ton of Alamo City Comic Con attendees asked if my ‘La Calavera’ would be available as a poster.

Good news — for ONE WEEK ONLY — it is. 🙂 Previously, neither my ‘La Luna’ or ‘El Corazon’ Loteria posters were available for sale online.

They are now available via my website, and so is the new poster for ‘La Calavera’!

Each measures 11″ x 18″ and is printed on thick cardstock. Only 500 posters of each will be printed, and all are signed. The ‘La Luna’ and ‘El Corazon’ posters are already in reduced supply because of heavy sale during my summer convention appearances.

Heads up — deadline for all orders will be Wednesday, October 22nd at 8pm CST. After that, I’ll close online ordering for these items and process as many orders as I can before Dia de los Muertos.

All posters will be shipped in a protective tube. Prices include shipping. Unfortunately, I can only accept continental US orders at this time. 🙁 I’m unable to do shipping outside the US because of rising shipping rates, but also because it will take too much time to handle the customs paperwork for orders shipping outside the US. I’ll be doing fulfillment on this by myself, and in order to do it efficiently, I have to make some time-saving choices for this limited campaign.

Thereafter, these posters will also be available at the following 2014 appearances:

Saturday, October 25th: DRAGON’S LAIR, San Antonio (in-store signing from 10am to 2pm)

Friday, November 7th: WORLD FANTASY CONVENTION, Washington DC (at the Mass Autographing)

November 21st to 23rd: AETHERFEST, San Antonio (poster signing details TBA)

So for all that are traveling to WFC from outside the US, that convention is a great opportunity to score posters for yourself, and probably your only chance for the foreseeable. (If you’re not attending WFC, perhaps you might contact an attendee from your country who is, and ask them to acquire the posters for you?)

Thanks to all for the kind words about the Calavera concept featured in my 2014 Calendar. I hope you all enjoy the revised version as much, if not more! 🙂

The Facts of Life

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I met Graham Joyce in 2000 at the World Fantasy Convention. He was one of my favorite writers. Still is.

I first heard his name four years earlier. It was my first visit to Michael and Linda Moorcock’s house. I was there to meet Mike because I was doing my first book cover gig — for the 30th Anniversary edition of his novel BEHOLD THE MAN. I was sitting in his studio sanctorum with Ben Ostrander and Rick Klaw, and Mike had just finished writing a review for The Guardian. The subject was a novel called REQUIEM by Graham Joyce. Mike had high praise for it, and I remember writing the name down in my sketchbook.

I bought REQUIEM shortly thereafter, and Mike was right. Graham was good. I started collecting Graham’s books. I was a newbie cover artist, in the embryonic stages of building a career. When WFC came to Corpus Christi in 2000, I barely had enough money to attend, but I did, and Graham was one of the first people I wanted to meet.

For those that didn’t see my Facebook post today, here’s a brief recap of what happened — but I also want to share something extraordinary that I haven’t yet shared elsewhere…

Virtually no one knew who I was at that convention. I had never met Graham, and I went to see him talk. I waited until everyone exited, and showed him my portfolio. He took the time to visit with a total stranger like me, and treated me like the center of the world. A few minutes later, a bald man with dark-rimmed glasses ran up to me in a hallway, and said, “Graham Joyce just told me I needed to meet you!” And that was Lou Anders, who has been my best friend since that fateful moment. It was Graham who brought us together.

But that’s not where the extraordinary ends…..

I saw Graham at the end of the con. We were parting ways. I told him about that first time that I heard about him, when Mike was reviewing his book, and when I was working on BEHOLD THE MAN. He said, “BEHOLD THE MAN?? When that one first came out, back in the day……that was the one that made me want to be a writer.”

Graham said, “Did you really mean that you could show me around after the con?” I said, “Sure, man. Where do you want to go?” I figured Graham wanted to find some dinner. He said, “How far away is this place where you live?”

“About three hours,” I said.

“Is Halloween good around San Antonio?”

I said, “It’s alright, but in Austin, it’s bonkers. Sixth Street. You’d love it.”

Thirty minutes later, one of my favorite writers in the world was riding shotgun in my Saturn coupe as I sped us north to my home in San Antonio. Graham stayed at my house for two terrific Fall days, and yeah, we spent a rollicking Halloween night on Sixth Street together. Better than that though — I took him to meet Michael Moorcock that same evening, and Graham was so happy. Mike meant the world to him, and it was one of my favorite Halloweens ever. Linda was there. So were Rick Klaw and Brandy. It was the best of times.

Years went by, and Graham was always the cool rogue and the great statesman, and he did it effortlessly. He was one of those pillars that defined a generation of the fantasy field for me and my friends. He was always there at WFC, with a word of advice about how to handle a tough situation, or a word of encouragement — with a lot of laughs. I can’t think of the World Fantasy Convention without thinking of him.

He passed away today after bravely battling lymphoma cancer. He was a friend, and one of my favorite people.
I will never forget him..