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The Art of Michael Whelan

As part of the Museum's ongoing Lecture Series and educational programming Mr. Whelan will appear at the Museum on Friday March 26 and Saturday, March 27, 1999.

Lecture Series

    Friday, March 26, 7:00 pm , General Admission, $3.00
    Artist Michael Whelan lectures about his fantasy work.

Saturday March 27

    Book & Print Signing: Michael Whelan
    3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
    Gallery Tour led by Mr. Whelan 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
    Artists Reception 7 pm
    General Public $5.00, Museum Members FREE

Haunting, surrealistic, and stunningly original, the art of Michael Whelan opens the doors to future worlds and imaginative universes that stretch the mind's ability to see new vistas. We are delighted to bring the work of this visionary to our third floor galleries. The winner of countless awards, including twelve Hugo Awards for best professional Artist, Whelan has illustrated the work of almost every major author in the genre, including Arthur C. Clark, Stephen King, Anne McCaffrey, Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein.

This exhibit includes a wide range of commissioned and personal works that have one thing in common: they evoke a sense of wonder that, combined with his sense of color, scale and luminous resonance, sets Whelan apart in his field.

"An artist of science fiction and fantasy must, almost by definition, give us more of his vision than would an artist of almost any other school of art, since so many of our normal landmarks are nowhere to be found in his world. Michael Whelan is the rare talent who can both imagine the previously unseen and communicate it to the rest of the world, so that the experience of all who share it will be enriched."

-- Jackson Koffman

The Art of Michael Whelan

Michael Whelan's original paintings have been displayed and sold at galleries and museums around the world. Today, he is one of the most in-demand professionals working in the genre. Words & Pictures Museum is honored to bring his work to Northampton.

Call (413) 586-8545 for further details

www.wordsandpictures.org

Replicators Poster Art Contest

AWAKENING COMICS 1999 #1

    AWAKENING COMICS 1999 #1
    TIES PAST AND FUTURE
    TO THE PRESENT
The upcoming AWAKENING COMICS 1999 begins with a quote that artist Paul Gaugin once inscribed on one of his paintings: "Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?"

With the turn of the century just around the bend, Steve Peters is planning to make some dramatic changes to his comics work in the new millenium. To herald those changes, he has put together AWAKENING COMICS 1999.

The Xeric grant-winning book Awakening Comics #1 used an anthology format of multiple stories with continuing characters. That format continues in Awakening Comics #2, but in The Everwinds Awakening War, all the characters from Awakening Comics and Steve's Amaze Ink/Slave Labor Graphics series Everwinds combined into one storyline. From then on Steve has told a single story in each issue he's published.

AWAKENING COMICS 1999 is Steve's one last look back at the anthology format. The theme of the stories presented is one of astral travellers who explore the realm of inner space (the fantastic dream realities of the mind), some of whom are never able to make it back.

The stories are hosted and presented by the Ringmaster of the Circus of Heaven (one of the principal characters of Awakening Comics) in a manner reminiscent of the old "Cryptkeeper" comics. In fact, the cover of AWAKENING COMICS 1999 is a tip of the hat to E.C. comics of days gone by, and some of the stories are done in a style similar to that of the old E.C.'s.

AWAKENING COMICS 1999 is not all nostalgia, however; it ends looking to the future and gives a hint of what's to come in Steve's comics. Since all the stories are self-contained, it is a great "jumping-on" point for readers who are new to his work.

Steve Peters is a 1996 Xeric Award winner. He self-published Awakening COmics and created the series Everwinds for Amaze Ink/Slave Labor Graphics. His work has appeared in Cerebus, Rare Bit Fiends, and Kiss And Tell.

    AWAKENING COMICS 1999 #1 by Steve Peters
    Pub month: May 1999; $3.50 US/$5.50 CAN;
    Black and White, 48 pages.

Praise for Steve Peters and Awakening Comics

"You obviously put a lot of thought and effort into [your comics]...my feeling about them is that they don't give up their secrets easily. I think that's great."

---Jim Woodring

Tantalizing Stories, The Book of Jim, Frank

"Steve mines the realm of myth and the metaphysical playfully, yet with a serious intent, to produce stories and characters both cosmic and down to earth. His work is entertaining, as well as enlightening. The artwork, too, is a joy to look at."

---Mack White

Villa of the Mysteries, Mutant Book of the Dead, Zero Zero

"I love the constant pushing and pulling between Steve's past and present, physical reality and imagination. This is what my own comics are about!" ---James Kochalka

Magic Boy & Girlfriend, Tiny Bubbles, Quit Your Job, Triple Dare, etc.

"If I tried to describe what you do in your comics, it's that you are not content with the boundaries of the comic book medium and are constantly gunning to break, bend, or bust those boundaries in your artwork. Steve Peters doesn't care what you think of his comics. Instead, Steve Peters wants to challenge how your mind works."

---Joe Chiappetta

Silly Daddy

"Delving into his innermost parts, Steve retrieves little gems of wisdom that manifest in the form of childhood memories, fantastic alternate-reality cartoons, and a pantheon of creatures and deities borrowed from a variety of ancient traditions."

---CD Regan

Artist for White Wolf Games, creator of Petit Mal and The Confessor

"Each story is illustrated appropriately for its subject matter, demonstrating Peters' flexibilty as an artist. Taking all the stories as a whole, it's a seriously fun pop magical realist journey through time and space."

---Shane Patrick Boyle

Shorts

Related links:

The Awakening Comics Home Page

Awakening 1999 art

Checker Comics News

1-877-7-BLACK-7 = GREAT COMICS

Toll-Free Mail Order Now Available From Checker Comics’ On-Line Catalog

DAYTON, Ohio – In a continuing effort to improve ease-of-ordering for its on-line comicbook customers, the direct-market dissidents at Checker Comics have set up a toll-free order/order support hotline at 1-877-7-BLACK-7. Fans purchasing Checker titles like Mutator, Templar, Chemical Warfare and Danger Ranger on-line at http://www.checkercomics.com can now provide credit card information for their orders by phone, FAX, e-mail, or regular mail; in addition to secure on-line credit verification.

Checker Publisher Mark Thompson said the toll-free line was a response to feedback from fans visiting the website who wanted another option when it came to order processing.

"Many consumers are still not 100 per cent confident in the security of on-line transactions, so we think it’s important to offer alternatives like 1-877-7-BLACK-7," Thompson said. "I’m sure the big credit card issuers will find ways to raise consumer confidence in electronic processing, but in the meantime we want to give our fans established mail-order alternatives they are comfortable with."

In addition to placing orders, Checker customers can also use 1-877-7-BLACK-7 as a support hotline for order tracking and customer service assistance. Long-term plans are to have the line manned by operators 24 hours a day, but initially 1-877-7-BLACK-7 will only be available for 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST.

Checker Comics Publishing became the first Internet mail-order-exclusive comic book publisher in November 1998, when it began offering its line only via its website at www.checkercomics.com. The company was founded in 1997 and published its first title in March 1998. Checker Comics is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio.

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Mojo Mechanics #1

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 20th, 1999

Left Hand Men, the comic book arm of Syndicate Publishing, proudly announces the debut of Mojo Mechanics - the tale of a roving young intergalactic mechanic and his hippo. Ajax Sterling, ace handyman, and his tusked partner Bippy travel the wounded galaxies in search of love, adventure, and a paying job. In a story equal parts Mark Twain, Phil Foglio, and Franz Kafka, these two brave souls find themselves in a universe full of creatures alien in appearance and custom, but driven by very human motives.

In theory, their task is simple - answer distress calls from throughout the million galaxies in their tool-filled space-tug and fix whatever needs fixing. In practice, they discover that machines aren't the only things that can go awry and appearances are always deceiving.

The story, written by Tait Bergstrom, is meant as a kind of testimony to all those people he has known in his life who possess that almost magical power to turn bad situations into good without much more than brainpower and the ability to approach old problems from new angles. Sometimes being a good mechanic calls for intuiting when the owner, not the machine, needs some adjusting.

The art, provided by Matt Pasteris, finds a happy medium between cartoon and realism, blending elements of anime, Chuck Jones, Kelley Jones, and Berni Wrightson (had he ever decided his true calling to be humor rather than swamp monsters). The intergalactic backdrop is definitely more fiction than science, crammed with exotic Buck Rogers technology and space-age versions of our own workaday stuff translated into glittering alien terms. It is a universe crawling with giant cockroaches, bug-eyed flying lizard beasts, and implacable real estate agents piloting their own deadly battle cruisers. With all of this, these are still stories with a human touch.

Unlike too many books on the market, the focus of the story is creation and problem solving rather than destruction and troubleshooting. In order to get the job done our heroes frequently end up doing double duty as ambassadors, businessmen, saboteurs or all at once. They have a fighting spirit but are not warriors or even ninja mutant vampire assassins. They can be heroic, but are not super, only human or at least vaguely mammalian. In the course of their adventures, they explore the idea that nothing's so bad it can't be mended and even most villains aren't evil, just greedy, ambitious, and possessed of strobelighted secret dungeon laboratories and untold legions of mind controlled zombie slaves.

Mojo Mechanics. Buy your copy now and help fix everything everywhere. Standard size, 32 pages, black and white with color covers. Bimonthly (with any luck). $2.95 US / $3.95 CAN. Published by SYNDICATE PUBLISHING.

Check out our cover graphic at: www.wesworks.com/mojo1.html

Mojo Mechanics #1 can be found in the March edition of Previews under "Syndicate Publishing" , in the small press section, as a Spotlight item.

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Copyright © 1999 Sheryl Roberts, Editor