Articles and posts that deal with SF, fantasy and horror in the visual arts, including graphics, cover art, painting and related subjects.
When asked to explain why I chose “The Artful Collector” as my byline, and what I mean by that play on words, I always respond “because there’s an “art” to collecting, whether it’s Art that you collect, or not.” And by “artful,” I mean shrewdness is going to be needed, for success in collecting. Since […]
Sword & Sorcery has become a term of derision since the 1980s. There are good reasons for this but much of that derision is out of ignorance. The barbarian baby has been thrown out with the Hyborian bath water. This blog will outline the history of S&S, its major players, its ups and downs, and […]
Getting “Ginked” – the fine art of genre tattooing.
Video and images from day 4 of Worldcon 75
As he has done for the past several years, Steve looks back (without anger) at the previous year’s columns, and hopes you found reading them worthwhile. And now: To Infinity—And Beyond! as someone once said!
Designer M. D. Jackson defends the visual style of the Netflix series Stranger Things, saying that its retro 80s look is a deliberate homage.
M. D. Jackson’s final installment on the history of visual effects in cinema takes us from the CGI revolution of Jurassic Park to the present.
In the third part of his history of computer generated imagery, M. D. Jackson takes us from The Last Starfighter to Terminator 2, with a side trip to the Italian renaissance.
The first use of a computer assisted visual element in a major motion picture happened in 1973 with the movie Westworld.
In the dance of the ever-improving computer image, our own perceptions are a willing partner.
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Wrapping up the series by talking about a final and really influential technological change, the digital revolution.
Shanghai goes steampunk
The fourth installment of MD Jackson’s comic art history.
Having a permanent space station in orbit is all well and fine, but how to get people and materials on and off it?
The flawed heroes and the shared universe weren’t the only revolutions that Stan Lee brought to the business
Will Eisner was part artist and part businessman. In 1936 at the age of nineteen he and his partner Jerry Iger formed a studio that hired artists to produce comic books
It is time I picked up the thread of my series on art inspired by real existing space exploration.
Why was early comic book art so crude? It wasn’t all the artist’s fault….
“The Rock” as Doc: Good, bad or…?
Happy New Year from New Zealand!
It’s cast iron stomach time as Mr. Jackson related a recent medical adventure to some SF scenes we’d probably like to forget.
Fascinating collectible miniature monster paintings with amazing detail and bone-chilling appeal! Cameo Creeps are painstakingly detailed miniature monster portraits inspired by Elizabethan paintings of the past. What makes these unique and fascinating is their size. Each Cameo Creep reproduction is a unique miniature piece of art for you to collect. Created by Chris Seaman who […]
There are artists, and then there are comic book artists. Purely and simply, Darwyn Cooke was a comic book artist.
I’ve come across quite a staggering amount of Boba Fett art considering that this is at best a secondary character.
What will we be wearing in the future? Better hope SF is not accurate with its predictions.
What other trilogy has brought back the original actors, playing the same parts, 40 years on?
Okay, let me just put this out there. My favorite science fiction TV program is Doctor Who. To most of you that statement probably elicits a shrug of the shoulders and a casual “Meh. Whatever”. But let me put it this way; The show has been going on longer than I’ve been alive. And […]
2016 takes its toll
Best buddies in space.
