Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, mike mignola, spectrum
Mike Mignola Made A Grand Master By Spectrum
This weekend, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola won the Grand Master Award from the Spectrum anthology.
The Spectrum Awards were established in 1994 to recognize the best in fantasy, science fiction, and horror artwork created each year.
In response, Christopher Golden posted on Facebook "Not to make him blush, but any story illustrated by Mike Mignola does things that prose alone cant accomplish. The illustrations create mood and atmosphere, drawing the reader more deeply into the story than words could do on their own."
Previous winners of the awards include Ralph McQuarrie, Al Williamson, Richard Corben, Jeffrey Jones, H. R. Giger, Michael William Kaluta, Mœbius, and Frank Franzetta.
SFA Advisory Board member Arnie Fenner explains that a Grand Master, according to Spectrum is an artist who has worked for at least twenty years at a consistently high level of quality; who has influenced and inspired other artists; and who has left his or her mark on the field as a whole. "Craft alone" he writes, " is not sufficient to receive the honor: There are many painters who produce solid professional work. But (and this is the key) it fails to resonate. It is admired in the moment and immediately forgotten. A Grand Master's art, on the other hand, gets stuck in the viewer's heart and memory."
Which gives me the perfect excuse to show off these covers to the Mignolaverse August 2016's Abe Sapien #36 and BPRD Hell On Earth #144 ahead of their solicitation release… by Duncan Fegredo and Max Fiumara respectively.
Spectrum Award winners receive an award statue and a full page showcasing their award winning artwork in the anthology as well as an additional full page dedicated to them. The second page includes a photograph of the artist, an excerpt from their award acceptance speech and a short biography.