Most obvious is cover artist TIM KIRK, who has won five Hugo Awards as science fiction’s best artist as well as having part of his Master’s thesis (twenty-six paintings depicting Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy) brought out by Ballantine Books as a stunning color calendar. Tim’s day-to-day job is as an illustrator for Hallmark greeting cards, though he finds time to do covers for both paperback and hardcover publishers, including illustrating a Whispers Press hardcover edition of Fritz Leiber’s famous Fafhrd and Gray Mouser.
LEE BROWN COYE deservedly won the first World Fantasy Award for art; his masterful use of blacks and whites in his gothic artwork has made him a great in his own lifetime. He works in all media and has had several shows at the Whitney Museum of Art. One of his watercolors is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the State University of New York has a special collection of his work, as do several New York State museums, including the Syracuse Museum. These aggregations include his paintings, silverwork, sculptures, and scale models (that have to be seen to believe their intricacy and realism). The most amazing thing about Lee’s artwork is that it is all self-taught, although he himself has instructed art classes on a university level.
GEORGE BARR, is best known for his intricate mixed-media color artwork. He has also won a Hugo Award as Best Artist and has had a nomination for that category under the World Fantasy Awards as well. Barr has recently had published a hardcover collection of more than fifty of his color works (Upon the Winds of Yesterday, Donald Grant, 1976) and may be remembered for his poster work on the movie Flesh Gordon. His art is constantly in demand by both paperback and hardcover publishers.
FRANK UTPATEL is best known in this field for his more than fifty covers for the fabled Arkham House publishers, though his reputation as a regional artist whose lithographs, woodcuts, and engravings are widely sought is not unsubstantial. In 1936 four of his woodcuts brought unholy life to the otherwise drab production of Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s first hardcover book, the classic The Shadow Over Innsmouth (Visionary Press). That art still ranks today as among the best ever executed for a Lovecraft story. Frank is still working for Arkham House and a national publisher is now preparing a hardcover collection of his lithographs.
MIKE GARCIA is a young artist whose intricate stipple technique makes his black and white drawings a long and laborious job. His Lovecraftian folio, “The Outsider in Hollywood,” took several first prizes at science fiction conventions, including the prestigious San Diego Comic Con. Garcia’s artwork is often nonliteral, occasionally anachronistic, but always outstandingly executed. Whispers Press has put out an 11×14 collection of his twenty-five best drawings.
STEVE FABIAN is my choice as the worthy successor to the legendary Virgil Finlay. His artwork does not attempt to copy the inimitable linework Finlay was known for, but it exudes the same unearthly mood that master was able to exert in his blacks and whites. No other artist in the field comes close to doing this. Steve’s color work is also outstanding and multiple Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominations only hint at the excellence of his art today and its potential for future growth.
Lastly let me note that production methods precluded the artwork herein from being placed directly with the story and situation they illustrated. This was unavoidable and hopefully has not taken away from the impact of art and fiction.
STUART DAVID SCHIFF
Stuart David Schiff is the editor and publisher of Whispers, a magazine he founded in 1973 to create and preserve quality art and literature in the horror and fantasy field. Winner of the World Fantasy Award for 1975, Whispers has aroused an enthusiastic response from an appreciative audience. Dr. Schiff holds a degree in Dental and Oral Surgery; currently he is a Major in the U.S. Army. He lives with his wife Susan and son Geoffrey in New Jersey.
