Book Notes: Spectrum 19

Spectrum was Arnie Fenner and Cathy Fenner's long-running series of annual "best of" fantastic art collections, and it ran from 1994 until 2013 without missing a year.

Somewhat randomly, I'm taking a look at the hefty 300-page Spectrum 19, published in 2012. Why? Well, partially because it's one of the few entries that I own a physical copy of (I just checked the Internet Archive, and I'm only seeing the first entry with a quick search – I feel like I've read through others on there in the past, though).

And it's partially because I need to fill in my 2000s and 2010s artist knowledge gap –I'm writing an art book on all of science fiction art history, but as an avowed '70s sci-fi art fanatic, anything from the early 21st century is solidly outside my wheelhouse. Let's see if I can change that!

Page 8: The book opens with a showcase for James Gurney, the well-deserved Grand Master award winner this year. He's not just the Dinotopia guy!

One interesting quote: "Perhaps the most succinct description of what James Gurney actually does for a living is this: Jim Gurney specalizes in painting realistic images of scenes that can't be photographed, from dinosaurs to ancient civilizations."

I like that quote because it captures the connection between sci-fi, fantasy, dinosaurs, and the supernatural that can be tough to sum up.

Page 9 features this sick Jim Gurney pirate skeleton:

P 29: "Lolth," by Fred Fields.

P 42: Man, the D&D art is some of the best stuff in here, at least so far. Here's another one by Ralph Horsley. The book calls the title "Dungeon Map Control," but it looks like he calls it "The Dungeon Master" on his DeviantArt account.

P 58: I like the style of this one: Peter Diamond, "The Orphan Palace."

P 63: This one's gorgeous, and I feel like it really captures a certain look that a lot of science fiction covers had around this time. "Ashes of Candesce," by Stephan Martiniere.

P 74: Thom Tenery, "Shiva"

P 82: Emily Fiegenschuh, "The Crowned Ibak"

P 119: This one's cool. Jordan Lamarre-Wan, "Project NOVUS - Alien Forest."

P 158: Ture Ekroos, "Beneath"

P 159: Bobby Chiu, "Early Bloom." Love this one!

P 178: Julie Bell, "The Day We Left."

P 203: Jason Stokes, "Hemisphere"

P 207: Robh Ruppel, "Dulles 2050."

P 229: I'm trying to focus on science fiction for the images I'm highlighting here, but some of the fantasy ones are too good not to post, like Eric Velhagen's "Shelter."

P 250: John Brosio, "Whole Foods"

P 252: Ioan Dumitrescu, "Discovery"

That's it! It's a cool collection. If you come across any of the 20 different Spectrum collections for cheap, you might want to pick them up.

Music Rec: "2000s computer room"

Next Time: Space Pirates