{"id":303,"date":"2008-06-11T12:48:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-11T12:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/2008\/06\/11\/world-fantasy-life-achievement\/"},"modified":"2014-12-14T18:48:00","modified_gmt":"2014-12-14T18:48:00","slug":"world-fantasy-life-achievement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/2008\/06\/11\/world-fantasy-life-achievement\/","title":{"rendered":"World Fantasy Life Achievement"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p> $\"\"$ <\/a>World Fantasy Award nomination ballots are due June 30 (voting info\/ballots here, if you click \u201cNominations Ballot\u201d in the sidebar)<\/a>. John Klima has a nice rundown of his choices<\/a>, and he\u2019s got some terrific ones in all categories, including Life Achievement. His post inspired me to type up a specific one about the Life Achievement category. When you take a look at this category\u2019s history of recipients<\/a>, there isn\u2019t a name in there that isn\u2019t absolutely worthy. It\u2019s a terrific list, but there are very few illustrators represented (Frazetta, Cartier, Wilson, and Fabian, so far) in the award\u2019s 32-year history. Several major fantasy illustrators are very deserving and I\u2019ll be voting for two, and I offer the following for voters\u2019 consideration this month. Each ballot may nominate up to two for Life Achievement.\n

Moebius\/Jean Giraud<\/a> \u2014 he was Guest of Honor last year at WFC and if you aren\u2019t familiar with his body of work, I feel for you (see picture above). It\u2019s hard to imagine a medium that hasn\u2019t been influenced by his visions. He\u2019s one of the founding fathers of METAL HURLANT (which became HEAVY METAL in the US), creator of BLUEBERRY and ARZACH, film designer, comics visionary\u2026.a giant whose work transcends country and translation. My favorite Moebius memory was back in \u201997. I did a signing with him and Mike Moorcock when I was first starting out, and Moebius\u2019 line of fans went on forever. When I was done signing (didn\u2019t take long), I stood behind him and watched over his shoulder as he graciously did a little sketch in everyone\u2019s book who approached him. The sketches were 15 to 30-second line drawings, but each was clear, crisp and absolutely unique\u2026.landscapes, vehicles, figures, portraits\u2026.he never repeated himself \u2014 not once. It seemed as if a projector was mounted to his forehead and he was tracing the pictures that came out. So graceful and so effortless. <\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>Jeffrey Jones<\/a> \u2014 Robert Weiner curated an awesome display of Jones paintings from his personal collection at last year\u2019s WFC. If you saw it, it was truly a herculean effort on his part and I was glad to see so many people reminded of the fundamental power of Jones\u2019 work at its best. Her body of work spans five decades and the piece depicted here was painted in the late \u201990s, reminding us that Jones remains one of the most evocative fantasy painters ever.

Leo & Diane Dillon<\/a> \u2014 Hugo Award-winning husband and wife team whose illustrated books have also won the prestigious Caldecott Medal (two consecutive, in fact)\u2026.their body of work spans six decades and include covers for seminal fantasy books by Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Joan Vinge, Garth Nix and countless others. The Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame and the Spectrum Grandmaster Award already include the Dillons amongst their immortals. They\u2019re worthy of WF Life Achievement not only for their adult genre work, but for their body of work for childrens\u2019 books. I\u2019m surprised they haven\u2019t already received this.<\/p>\n

Virgil Finlay<\/a> \u2014 his b\/w scratchboard illustrations are amongst the finest ever in fantasy. Finlay died in 1971, but his best work has a surreal tone that seems as potent today as when it was first published. Virtually every major pulp magazine sported work by him and he did some of his most timeless drawings for WEIRD TALES. He\u2019s definitely one of the most influential b\/w fantasy illustrators of the 20th century.<\/p>\n

Alan Lee<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s hard to think of Tolkien\u2019s LORD OF THE RINGS books without thinking of Lee\u2019s visuals at the same time. Along with John Howe, he\u2019s well-known as a conceptual designer for Peter Jackson\u2019s LOTR films, but even if he wasn\u2019t associated with those films, his delicate pencil and watercolor work would still be the definitive imagery of the LOTR canon. That said, I also think John Howe would be a deserving Life Achievement candidate one of these years\u2026.what fantasy illustrator has done more to explore the mythic history of armor and combat than Howe?<\/p>\n

Lastly, I\u2019d be remiss if I didn\u2019t include Michael Whelan. He\u2019s the only individual to ever win three consecutive World Fantasy Awards in the Artist category and no one else will ever repeat that feat because they changed the rules thereafter to prohibit consecutive-repeat winners. He\u2019s not only one of the greatest genre painters ever, but he\u2019s one of the field\u2019s most gracious ambassadors as well. He\u2019s a shoo-in one for World Fantasy Life Achievement one of these years. However, despite his epic body of work, he may in fact still be too young for consideration. Ditto Bob Eggleton \u2014 still young and still kicking ass, even though his body of work could probably already be deserving. Just a matter of time for both of these guys\u2026.<\/p>\n

My personal picks this year for Life Achievement \u2014 Moebius\/Jean Giraud and Jeffrey Jones. I hope one or both of them are inducted this year, but I\u2019d applaud any of the above.<\/p>\n

Anyone have any other illustrator names that should be considered? Or non-illustrators for that matter?<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"