What makes Spectrum so special? It’s one of the very few, if not the only, organizations that honors fantastic art across a diversity of media.
(Underwood Books; 208 pgs fc; $29.95)
(Edited By Arnie & Cathy Fenner)
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The annual Spectrum collections of award-winning fantasy, sci-fi, and comics art disappear like pancakes at a $2 all-you-can-eat breakfast. If you haven’t heard of these books, it’s because the gluttons for great art of the fantastic snap them up, and they go out of print in a heartbeat. They wind up sharing space with other oversized art books in the dens of the geekerati, and the ignorant majority never gets hep to ’em; either you buy Spectrum every year, or you don’t really know what it is.
What makes Spectrum so special? It’s one of the very few, if not the only, organizations that honors fantastic art across a diversity of media. The Spectrum anthology shows off award-winning advertising, book covers, comics covers, statues, magazine art, posters, film art, calendar art, collectibles, and more. And it’s all creepy, freaky, haunting, glorious, weird, and otherworldly.
Raul Cruz has painted a giant robot ripping open a bank building like a kid on Christmas morning. Glen Orbik’s “wet-look” oil of a femme fatale pays tribute to pulpy noir soft covers. Dave DeVries turns children’s crayon drawings into acrylic paintings; the crude monsters of kids’ imaginations become menacing—yet cute—demons. There are more than 400 dynamic pieces reproduced here, chosen by a panel of artists from more than 4,000. It’s a feast.
You get to ogle works by vets like Luis Royo (more soft-focus boobies and swords) and Joe Jusko (his Vampirella is, as they say, “tight”), but the chance to discover works by artists you’ve never seen before is an important part of what makes Spectrum different.
Comics-lovers get to swoon over masterful impressions of Lara Croft, Hellboy, Mr. Freeze, Spidey, Darth Vader, Judge Dredd, The Goon, and even Prince Valiant. The statues section has photos of Alex Ross’ insane Bizarro sculpt, and a Dark Knight faithful to Frank Miller’s 2D creation.
So what’s to complain about? A tribute to H.R. Giger penned by Harlan Ellison is more about Harlan Ellison than the Swiss fetishist. Go figure.
It’s but a cavil. Spectrum 12 is just like its 11 years’ worth of forebears: sumptuous, primed, and ready for the coffee tables of nitro-breathing sci-fi and comics fiends across the galaxy. | Byron Kerman
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