(cover image by Melanie Delon)
Spectrum 16: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art ~edited by Cathy and Arnie Fenner
–published 2009
–Underwood Books
–264 pages
–4.25/5 stars
Each and every fall I await the release of the latest issue of Spectrum with fevered anticipation, for each and every year it is a delight to read. This year’s annual perusal with my friend Jeff was delayed due to ordering issues, but this past Wednesday we sat down to savor our first read-through. It most certainly will not be my last (a fact proven by my having read through it again since Wednesday!)
As I have in past years, I wanted to show you a tiny sampling of the massive art selection offered on the pages of Spectrum.
Each volume of Spectrum features the Call For Entries poster from earlier in that year, this year’s poster by Peter de Seve is chock full o’ fun. de Seve has had work featured in Spectrum for a number of years and I enjoy each and every one of his pieces. I especially like the small fairy creature in the robotic crab.
(click on image for larger version)
The name Daniel Dociu should be familiar to you as he was featured in the recent 2009 Sci Fi Book Cover post and in the 2008 version as well. This image is one of my favorite in the book. Though it may be wholly unintentional, I feel like Dociu is channeling the spirit of the late, and indeed great, John Berkey. This one will be going up on my desktop laptop immediately. Oddly enough to replace the Dociu image from Paul Melko’s book, Singularity’s Ring.
(click on image for a larger version)
A portion of this image by Jenna Smith is featured in the Table of Contents and it is wonderfully fun. You can see the entire image by clicking on the picture above, but neither of these capture the pure joy of this image like Spectrum 16 does. I certainly suggest checking out her site for more examples of her colorful, entertaining images.
Adam Hughes is one of the premiere good girl artists working today. His covers for the monthly issues of Catwoman tempt me to spend money on a series I am not reading each and every time I see one on the shelf. He truly deserves a Spectrum-style art book of his own. I am a fan of images of girls and robots, so featuring this one was a no-brainer for me. 😉
Ever since reading Neil Gaiman’s excellent short story Snow, Glass, Apples, I have had a fondness for a darker image of the Snow White tale. This image by Joe Jing, though a bit on the bloody side for my taste, captures that spirit really well.
This image needs no explanation, really. Isn’t it wonderful?!?! Jeff and I both cracked up when we saw it. It is so delightfully fun. Bobby Chiu has a great portfolio of work, many as entertaining as this one.
The covers for this series by Patricia Briggs have been consistently stunning. Daniel Dos Santos seems to top himself with each cover, and this is my favorite thus far.
Unfortunately I was not able to find a copy of this fantastic image by artist Rick Berry without the cover graphics on it. It hardly matters, however, because you can see how cool the image is anyway. In Spectrum 16 this is a full page spread and it looks amazing! I have got to buy this book.
(click on this image for a larger version)
I cropped this image slightly so that you could see more detail, but I recommend clicking above to see it in its entirety. Kekai Kotaki was one of the award winners with this image, deservedly so. I particularly enjoy the winter feel of this as I sit here on a foggy day with a blanket of snow on the ground.
This image by Oliver Meinerding is another one that just struck me as fun the moment I saw it. I love the colors, love the subject matter–it speaks to my geek heart. An octopus and a space man?!?! What’s not to like?
Luis Royo is one of the most easily recognized artists doing book cover illustration today because of his unique style. His lines have a softness to them and his images of women are consistently beautiful. I have not seen many images in which he features an Asian woman, and this one was too lovely not to show you.
Gregory Manchess is an artist that I consider one of my favorites. His illustrations for Gene Wolfe’s Wizard Knight series and for one of the more recently released Conan volumes are jaw-dropping cool. This is another beautiful one.
I am not sure how I would describe Jim Mahfood‘s style, but I am a fan. And again, girl…robot…nuff said!
Terese Nielsen has a beautiful touch to her work. There is a soft texture to the pieces that she does that really captures my attention. This image of Padme from Star Wars is one of my favorites and it was great to see it featured in Spectrum 16.
(click on this image for a larger version)
Matt Gaser‘s website is full of images just as bizarre and fun as this one. I love the colors every bit as much as I love the oddity.
(click on this image for a larger version)
I couldn’t resist showing you this image by Justin Gerard. You simply must open the larger version though to see why it captured my attention so much. There is a unique beauty to the way he has rendered this image. It is so fantastic.
(click on this image for a larger version)
It is kind of hard to see the deliciously creepy rats in this image by Bryan Beus, but it is worth taking a close look. This is dark and dreamy and makes me want to see what happens next.
I believe that this image by Chippy is for a Magic: The Gathering card. The work that Wizards of the Coast commissions for these games is often outstanding, and I really like this piece.
I have long been a fan of Alice in Wonderland, not as much for the story itself (although I have enjoyed it more since reading the Annotated Alice), as for the imagery and themes contained therein. So whenever I see art inspired by Alice I stop to take a look. This work by Lee Moyer is great. I love how the girl is stepping out of the page, her one stocking still in its book illustration form. Fun!
This image, by Antonio Javier Caparo, is one that I know all readers will fall in love with and it is the perfect image to end on. Even its title, Dreams Machine, is a delight. Isn’t that exactly what reading is like?!?! I know it is for me, especially when I am enthralled with what I am reading. Well done Antonio, this is wonderful!!!
Spectrum 16 was another great volume of art. I cannot recommend these enough. As always, I warn that there is some adult content art featured in the pages. Nothing sexual, but some artistic nudity. The hardback volume and the paperback volume can be had for incredible prices through Amazon and Barnes and Noble websites.
I stopped short of rating this a 5 this year, usually an automatic with me, because I have a few minor criticisms. The first is the fact that more than any other year I did not often agree with the Gold and Silver awards given in each category. I also found that I was not entirely happy with the images that were selected for full page treatment vs. others that were given smaller page space. Secondly, Dave Stevens and John Berkey, among others, passed away this last year. Both were given nice but inadequate features in Spectrum 16. At the very least each should have had one full page spread giving an example of their work vs. a thumbnail image. Granted, I do not know all the legalities, so maybe they couldn’t have done this. That being said, the presentation of the memorials for these two talented artists were disappointing to me.
But those really are minor criticisms in the grand scheme of things. With an always-interesting Year in Review and page after page after page or gorgeous art, you cannot go wrong in owning each and every volume of Spectrum. Now comes the long wait for Spectrum 17! 🙂
This stuff is awesome. I’m going to a bookstore tonight for my birthday. I’ll have to look for this. Thanks for sharing. The Kekai Kotaki winter piece is beautiful.
I started out buying the Spectrum books at the beginning, and have the first three, I think. I love them, but it became a space and money issue at the time so I stopped and juts never started again. I’d done the same thing with the Illustrators series, which I have through # 21. I find that these books are wonderful to look through, once or several times, and then they are put into the bookcase under the window seat I built there for tall, big books, where they gather dust. I flip through them when I remove everything to clean the library annually, but other then that they just sit. I guess that’s not a bad thing, at least I have them there.
For some reason reading – browsing – collections like these makes me yearn to own the actual art, framed and up on the wall. That’s not something that’s possible – or affordable – in most cases, and there’s no room on the walls for anything else anyway, but I’m always left with a vague sense of loss and disappointment. I really can’t explain it.
Of the illustrations you’ve chosen, I really love the Dociu and Chiu, and the Greg Manchess. Yes that last one is magical too and would make a great print to have in any room.
Thanks for anther fine post. I’ll come back to enjoy it again.
Fanstastic images! I especially liked Daniel Dociu’s.
I haven’t got my copy yet but I really really want it!
Kailana: I was wondering if you picked yours up yet. You need to! 🙂
AlexJ: His work is so great. Everytime I think I’ve found a favorite I find a new one and like it even more.
Richard: I usually pull these out once every few years or so and look at them again so I feel like I get my money’s worth, plus, like you said, at least they are there. I do that with my Frazetta art books as well. One of the things I use Spectrum for is to track down books. No matter how much I am on blogs and in the bookstore I inevitably find images in the book covers section of Spectrum that I’ve never seen before. I’ve read some great stories over the years because of Spectrum.
I can relate to that sadness part for sure. I feel the slight twinge of sadness that I don’t have this talent and also the greater sadness of knowing that I cannot afford to go buy an original oil painting from some of the people I admire. But I’ve bought autographed prints in the past and framed them and enjoyed that. I don’t do it nearly as often as I used to, but am still tempted to do so occasionally.
But more than anything I love looking at Spectrum to discover new artists that I can spend more time with on the web.
Logan: I hope you find a copy, it is well worth owning. Happy Birthday!!!
Wow! This is a dazzling post. You put a lot of work into this. Thanks!
I like your choice of pictures from the book.. this time my favorites are:
Bobby Chiu
Daniel Dos Santos
Gregory Manchess and
Terese Nielsen
great stuff… it’s one of the reasons we buy so many dang books! lol lol
They all look great! I don’t know many of the artists, but I know Bobby Chiu. I always always admire his artwork. He’s the greatest of them all :). He strikes a chord in me every time.
Mee: I don’t recall seeing Chiu’s work before this, although it is entirely possible that he has been featured in past Spectrum volumes and I just don’t remember. His work is really fun, I can see why you like him so much. He and several other artists in the book did work for this forest project and the work of all the artists for this was consistently attention grabbing.
Deslily: Great choices! And yes, that is definitely a contributing factor to our book buying.
Susan: Thanks. It is always a pleasure to do a Spectrum review. The hard part is trying to limit myself to not put a hundred images in the post!
Stunning! I agree with you, the Dead Moon art looks beautiful! And those other two from Kekai Kotaki and Gregory Manchess deserve to be on a gigantic mural 🙂
Oh, oh, going to have to get this, early birthday present I think!!
Lovely stuff! I especially like the images by Daniel Dociu, Bobby Chiu and Matt Gaser.
Nymeth: Those are great, arent’ they?
Bride: Well, happy early birthday!!! Perfect gift!!!
Mark David: I have seen some great work by Royo, but this is one of my favorites. And I agree, those two images would be fantastic on a large scale.
That Snow White one is brill, have just set it as my desktop. But they are all great, I’m surprised I managed to chose one 🙂 Thanks for the inspiration Carl, I love these posts.
Fence: It is. Makes me want to pull out Snow, Glass, Apples and re-read it. You’re very welcome!
hi carl!
i got spectrum 16 this week too! and isn’t it a goody?! i think 16 is far better than 15. i *have* to get around to posting about it. (or, to posting about anything for that matter…!)
It is such a great shared ” reading ” experience to go through this book with Carl each year. I’m a lucky guy.
As for favorites it’s hard for me to pick just one but if I had to it is the one above by Daniel Dociu. It reminds me so much of a John Berkey image and I just love it.
Jeff: It is a lot of fun, I look forward to it every year. I picked up a book today that I thought had an interesting looking cover and lo and behold it was by Daniel Dociu. He’s getting around!
JP: I’m glad you are loving it, it really is great. And so nice to see you back from the dead! Just popped over to your site this past weekend to see if there was anything new. I know you’re really busy, but you are missed as well. Great to hear from you.
it is like something from a heroic zombie film at the moment. (do you get heroic zombie films?) i’m clawing my way through the earth to come back into blogland.
i have sorely missed you guys.
spectrum 16. it makes me happy. 😀
oh yes, and thank you very much for the christmas wishes! it was very thoughtful. it is very late, but merry christmas to you and your family too – and hope 2010 is good to you and yours!
JP: Late wishes are good wishes all the same, so they are readily accepted! Glad to see you clawing your way back to the surface! 🙂
Great to hear from you JP !!!
I was hoping you would resurface. Who am I going to talk world cup football with this summer if you disappear? 🙂