dolorosa_12 | Hugo Awards discussion post: art categories

This is the fourth of my Hugo Awards discussion posts, which I'm publishing in the lead up to this year's Worldcon.

I know there are a fair few of my friends here on Dreamwidth who are also voting, and I thought it might be nice to do a series of posts where people could discuss the nominated works/individuals. 'Discuss' could be that you actually talk about how you're planning to vote in the applicable categories and explain your reasoning, or it could be just pulling out elements you like or dislike about any of the nominated works. People who have read/watched the work(s) in question but are not Hugos voters are of course also welcome to join in -- many of them are freely available online so you wouldn't necessarily have to buy your own copy if you wanted to participate.

I've designed the post so that there is a dedicated thread for comments on each award category, so can you try to keep your comments in the relevant thread if possible?

Today's post is about the nominees in the art categories: Best Graphic Story, Best Professional Artist, Best Fan Artist, and Best Art Book. These are as follows:

Best Graphic Story

Abbott, written by Saladin Ahmed, art by Sami Kivelä, colours by Jason Wordie, letters by Jim Campbell (BOOM! Studios)
Black Panther: Long Live the King, written by Nnedi Okorafor and Aaron Covington, art by André Lima Araújo, Mario Del Pennino and Tana Ford (Marvel)
Monstress, Volume 3: Haven, written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda (Image Comics)
On a Sunbeam, by Tillie Walden (First Second)
Paper Girls, Volume 4, written by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Cliff Chiang, colours by Matt Wilson, letters by Jared K. Fletcher (Image Comics)
Saga, Volume 9, written by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)

Best Professional Artist

Galen Dara
Jaime Jones
Victo Ngai
John Picacio
Yuko Shimizu
Charles Vess

Best Fan Artist

Sara Felix
Grace P. Fong
Meg Frank
Ariela Housman
Likhain (Mia Sereno)
Spring Schoenhuth

Best Art Book

The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition, illustrated by Charles Vess, written by Ursula K. Le Guin (Saga Press /Gollancz)
Daydreamer’s Journey: The Art of Julie Dillon, by Julie Dillon (self-published)
Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History, by Michael Witwer, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, Sam Witwer (Ten Speed Press)
Spectrum 25: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, ed. John Fleskes (Flesk Publications)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – The Art of the Movie, by Ramin Zahed (Titan Books)
Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth, ed. Catherine McIlwaine (Bodleian Library)

You can see the nominees in all the Hugo Award categories here. I'll make other posts for other categories on a staggered basis, so look out for those over the course of the time leading up to Worldcon.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Comments on the Best Graphic Story finalists go here.

Comments on the Best Professional Artist finalists go here.

Comments on the Best Fan Artist finalists go here.

Comments on the Best Art Book finalists go here.

I got four of these out form the library and it kinda feels unfair to compare them to the other two. The physical presence of an Art Book seems like such an important part of it!

I really like the illustrated Earthsea book but I'm not sure how to compare it to the others.

Ok maybe I just hate comparing things I like to other things I like an ranking them -- Hugo voting is hard!

I'm mad at the D&D book for being all "woe is use oppressed geeks" while utter failing to acknowledge how frankly offensive a lot of the early D&D art is.

I'm mad at the D&D book for being all "woe is use oppressed geeks" while utter failing to acknowledge how frankly offensive a lot of the early D&D art is.

I was excited about the D&D book for about zero point two seconds before it occurred to me exactly what kind of art it would be. Looks like my instincts were spot on.

I do wonder if any sourcebooks will ever make it into the Hugo awards though... they are getting prettier and prettier, with Kickstarter allowing for some really lush stuff. (*is currently drooling all over Fateforge's campaign*)

I've only read Abbott off this list, and while it was a good story with a great setting and characters, I do believe it's too short to hold up against the rest. It felt more like a start to something than a confined story. Saddened it's a mini-series, would have loved more.
(realistic writing, excellent setting and art, bisexual lead character, big thumbs up for me)

Likhain (Mia Sereno) was our cover artist for the Continuum 13 conbook (also one of the Guests of Honour at the con), I've commissioned art from her before, and also she's a lovely person who belts out a mean rendition of 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' at karaoke.

Well, you're one up on me: I haven't read any of them! I enjoyed Saladin Ahmed's novel back in the day, and I'm glad to hear his comics writing is good as well.

Mia is indeed a lovely person — I've commissioned art from her too (she designed our wedding invitations when I got married a couple of years ago), and I love her art. I nominated her in this category this year and would be really, really happy if she wins — she's definitely getting my number one vote. (I didn't know about the karaoke, though!)

Hugo voting is really hard, especially in categories like this, which seem to end up with so many really, really different things that don't seem at all comparable.

I'm mad at the D&D book for being all "woe is use oppressed geeks" while utter failing to acknowledge how frankly offensive a lot of the early D&D art is.

That sounds absolutely abysmal.

Yeah, the worst of the art isn't in the book -- but I know that its there and I wanted them to acknowledge it.

Hugo Awards discussion post: art categories

Best Graphic story

Best Professional Artist

Best Fan Artist

Best Art Book

Re: Best Art Book

Re: Best Art Book

Re: Best Graphic story

Re: Best Fan Artist

Re: Best Graphic story

Re: Best Fan Artist

Re: Best Art Book

Re: Best Art Book