Personal Vision

Sometimes I feel guilty about being so NY centric on this site....but then, I live in NY, so here we are:

I'm very much looking foward to this. Marshal Arisman is legendary for his speaking abilities for good reason. Yuko is amazing. And I'm hoping to get to meet Sam Weber, who's done a couple of covers for us this year and has quickly become one of my favorite artists.

PERSONAL VISION:
Marshall Arisman Moderator.
Nathan Fox, Sam Weber, Yuko Shimizu, Eddie Guy
Thursday, February 7, 2008
7:00 - 8:30 PM; doors open at 6:30
FIT: 27th Street & Seventh Avenue, NYC
$20 at the door - Students $5

Artists Against the War

Some quick shots from the last night's Artists Against the War opening reception at the Society of Illustrators.

PAINTINGS:
Ralph Steadman, Barry Blitt, Sam Weber.

PEOPLE:
Steve Brodner, Peter de Séve, Thomas Fuchs and Yuko Shimizu, Tim O'Brien and Ellen Weinstein, the crowd.

Little Brother

In May we will be publishing Cory Doctorow’s young adult novel, Little Brother.

This was a fun, if a little scary, cover for us. We always smile when to comes to Cory but this book, in particular, really caught everyone’s fancy. The whole company just fell in love with it and there was a lot of pressure to do right by it.

Peter Lutjen came up with a bunch of different designs that eventually evolved into the final. The penultimate version used a photo-realistic illustration that everyone almost loved. One last tweak of the design was to have the imagery re-drawn in a freer more organic style by Yuko Shimizu -- that seemed to unify everything to everyone’s liking.

Big thanks to Peter for staying enthused by the project through a number of iterations. I asked him if he had any thoughts on the process:

"This was a case where having an opportunity to read the manuscript was a huge help. My initial comps were based on a synopsis and some catalog copy and focused on elements of surveillance and captivity. After quite a few of these didn’t work out, I made time to read the book (which was terrific) and set off in a completely different direction. The editor came by my office to speak to me about playing up the resistance aspects of the story at the same moment that I was working on an image of kids kicking out towards the viewer. He liked it the idea immediately, and it came together pretty quickly from there." -- Peter Lutjen

PHOTO: Editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden, author Cory Doctorow, designer Peter Lutjen..

UPDATE: Kudos from Cory on BoingBoing.

Yuko Shimizu is Super Phat

I just got back from this opening in Chelsea:
SUPER PHAT
September 12-29, 2007
601 W 26st. 15th floor, NYC 10001

It’s an exhibit of Japanese alumni of SVA. Mainly I went to see Yuko Shimizu’s two large scale drawings. She does amazing work — smart, sexy, simultaneously funny and disturbing, like a hipster version of the racier side of Dr. Seuss. This was the first I have been able to see something other than a digital print...well worth the trip to the way west side.

Society Advertising & Institutional Opening

Friday was the last installment of the Society's annual: Adverting, Institutional, and Unpublished. It must have been a great time -- most of my pictures have people's mouths gaping with laughter, I didn't get home until 3:30am, and somehow Michael Deas agreed to strip the ugly paint off of the copper window casing in my office. This segment of the show is often more enjoyable than the Book & Editorial part -- fewer crowds and other activities surrounding the event enable you to actually talk to people that you just barely say "Hi" to at the earlier show. I spent a nice amount of time talking to Mark Summers (who is hard at work on a robot/woman for a non-fiction Tor book and Lassie for our sister company Feiwel & Friends), Jim Bennett, Michael Deas, Steve Stroud, and others. Tim O'Brien deserves a huge round of applause for chairing a great annual and upping the bar in some aspects. He was visibly relieved to hand the mantel over to Peter de Seve, chair of Illustrators 50.

SOME OF THE MEDAL-WINNERS: Mark Summers' portrait of Anna May Wong. Yuko Shimizu. Etienne Delessert's star-eating frog for the infamous Dellas Graphics Frog Folio.

PEOPLE, CLOCKWISE: Mark Summers and me, Peter De Seve and Jim Bennett, Tiffany Prothero and Scott Altman. Michael Deas. Steve Stroud.

It Came From Below

Because it looks cool...

Two high school girls are on vacation and looking for boyfriends...instead they find sea creatures that look like Brad Pit.

Yuko Shimizu did the drawing. As you can see here, Yuko is amazing. Peter "no less amazing" Lutjen did the type layout. The top one is the final. I was very tempted to go with some of the other versions, but in the end I think the added elements compete with the art too much -- you are either looking at the art or the type, but not both together. The simpler type does a better job at complimenting the art and making a cohesive package.

This book will release next summer. Only a few bookstores have seen it at this point but, so far, they are raving about it. Each season there is a cover that I love but I assume that others wont pay much attention to...And every now and then I'm wrong. A few seasons ago that cover was When Gravity Fails. I was very surprised how well our Sales force responded to that cover...even though it was one of my favorites.

Spectrum 13

Spectrum 13 is out on the stands and it's bigger and better than ever - great paintings from the people we expect to look forward to and a lot of new names...or at least, new to me. It's longer and has more full-page images than in past editions...I say this every year but, this really is the best one yet.

I attempted to start naming particular pieces but the list got too long. I am happy to say that Tor has 18 pieces in the book category. Along with the artwork there is Arnie Fenner's "year in review" and essays on Katrina, the Spectrum Exhibition (more on that soon), Byron Priess, and this year's Grand Master award winner, Jeff Jones.

Congrats to every one in the book. I've been on the Jury twice in the past and I know it is tough competition so, hats off and three cheers! Special congrats to Michael Deas for his silver award on our Richard Matheson novel, Earthbound. (Which also garnered a Society of Illustrators gold medal.)

Everyone with an interest in science fiction and fantasy should run out and get a copy. Nothing will keep you better informed to what is happening in the field's artwork better than the Spectrum annuals.

Photo: Book gold and silver awards, Jon Foster and Michael Deas. Editorial gold and silver awards, William Stout and Yuko Shimizu.

Fantagraphics Exhibit

I had a great time at the Fantagraphics exhibit opening last night. The place was packed but, since I don't know the comics field too well, I have no idea who all was there. The work looks great...but definitely needs a look when the gallery is quiet and you can actually read everything.

FANTAGRAPHICS 1976 - 2006
Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators, September 27–October 21, 2006
This massive art exhibition features over 100 original pieces by dozens of authors published by Fantagraphics over the last 30 years, including Daniel Clowes, Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Chris Ware, Peter Bagge, Jim Woodring, Joe Sacco, Carol Tyler, Ivan Brunetti, Tony Millionaire, Roberta Gregory, Bill Griffith, Richard Sala, Bob Fingerman, Steve Brodner, David B., Kim Deitch, Al Columbia, Drew Friedman, Kaz, Frank Frazetta and many others.

I did get to spend some time with Anita Kunz, Steve Brodner, Brian Cronin, Yuko Shimizu, David Hollenbach, Arkady Roytman, and others. A real treat was getting to meet Marcos Chin, who seems like a sweetheart. Apparently he and Yuko share a studio -- both do such amazing work, it must be a sight to see them working together.

More details on the Fantagraphics blog.
Update: A more knowledgeable report at The Beat.

Sorry about the cell phone pictures. Top: Everyone. Bottom: Anita Kunz and Steve Brodner.