IlluXcon Roundup: Interview with Iris Compiet

The story is about a little princess whose parents want her to marry a prince, but all the princes are just not very interesting to her, they are nice but there’s no spark… and that’s when she falls in love with another princess.

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New York Movie

Edward Hopper’s New York Movie, though not a fantasy painting, inspires artist M. D. Jackson to write a fantasy story.

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H.R. Giger

Very few artists have had as big an influence on horror illustration and on the look of horror films as had Swiss artist H.R. Giger.

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Do you Like Monsters?

That’s right, FAMOUS MONSTERS, Forrest. J. Ackerman’s beloved magazine that sported covers featuring wonderful portraits of famous monsters, most of which were painted by artist Basil Gogos.

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Lisbeth Salander

We’ve been having some pretty wild weather here in the Wairarapa lately, which meant that I’ve been sitting without power for over 24 hours earlier this week. While sitting around waiting for the contractors from the power company to turn up and put me back on the grid, I’ve managed to read myself through a substantial chunk of Stieg Larsson’s “Millenium” trilogy*: finally! I should say!

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Nighthawks

The iconic painting Nighhawks by Edward Hopper has inspired a wealth of imitations, homages, and now just a little bit of science fiction.

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Witch: The Young Woman

In my last blog, I have been looking at representations of Witches, which are depicted as old women: and I have remarked on the fact that I’ve been hard put to find sufficient images to […]

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The Artful Collector: Dealing with Art Hierarchies

It behooves to attend to the HIERARCHIES that establish “worthiness” in the field I’ve chosen. In the field of illustrative art, the challenge has never been about finding authentic items, nor even a good supply of them (until recently, illustrative art has been plentiful). Rather, it has always been a matter of finding what experts call “meritorious items” – those that are of the highest, one hopes extraordinary, aesthetic qualit

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Separating the Art from the Artist

Suppose an artist or a writer says something that is loathsome or morally reprehensible? Can we therefore judge the artist’s work as having no value simply because the artist is a jerk?

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The Art of Star Trek

Star Trek has been around since September 8, 1966. At forty-seven years old Star Trek is one year younger than I am. We grew up together. Star Trek and I were best friends.

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Afrocentric Science Fiction Conventions

Black Age of Comics Convention An artist, entrepreneur, author, art therapist, educator, and publisher, Turtel Onli founded the Black Arts Guild (BAG) in 1970, which was based in Chicago. The BAG sponsored art exhibitions and published […]

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Fantasy Cartography, Part 2

Fantasy cartography is like playing SimCity; first you create and then you take an almost gleeful joy in the destruction before rebuilding from the ashes.

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Interview with Pat Mills, Founder of 2000AD

Over four decades Pat Mills has been a major force in keeping the British comics industry alive. I caught up with him to chat about the reappearance of one of his most enduringly popular characters, the Celtic barbarian, Sláine.

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What the %&*# is Perry Rhodan?

Perry Rhodan is a weekly German science fiction pulp magazine series that has run uninterrupted since 1961. That translates into over two thousand five hundred issues released so far not counting reprints, books and spinoffs. Lets let that sink in for a moment.

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