Spectrum 18: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art

Spectrum #18

by Cathy Fenner (Editor), Arnie Fenner

Challenging, controversial, educational, and irreverent, the award-winning Spectrum series reinforces both the importance and prevalence of fantastic art in today’s culture. With exceptional images by extraordinary creators, this elegant full-color collection showcases an international cadre of creators working in every style and medium, both traditional and digital. The best artists from the United States, Europe, China, Australia, South America and beyond have gathered into the only annual devoted exclusively to works of fantasy, horror, science fiction, and the surreal, making Spectrum one of the year’s highly most anticipated books.

Featured in SPECTRUM 18 are 300 diverse visionaries, many of them world-renowned, including Michael Whelan, Sam Weber, Donato Giancola, Leo & Diane Dillon, Kinuko Craft, James Gurney, Peter de Sève. With art from books, graphic novels, video games, films, galleries, and advertising, Spectrum is both an electrifying art book for fans and an invaluable resource for clients looking for bright new talent. The entire field is discussed in an invaluable, found-nowhere-else Year In Review. Contact information for each artist is included in a handy index.

Often imitated, never equaled, SPECTRUM 18 continues the freshness and excellence that was established seventeen years ago.

Genres: Art, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Comics

304 pages, Hardcover

First published November 8, 2011

Reviews

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More pictures on my blog)

Volume 18 is another great addition to the series. It's now 304 pages, slightly thicker than Spectrum 17. Available in either hardcover or paperback. Binding is great for a book this thick.

There are close to 500 pieces of art from different type of publications and purposes. Also included are some unpublished ones.

The Grand Master Award recipient is Ralph McQuarrie in this volume. He's the popular Star Wars artists. The winners for the Gold and Silver Awards are Ryohei Hase, Sam Weber, David Palumbo, Dan Dos Santos, Rebecca Guay, Joao Ruas, Kekai Kotaki, Tomasz Jedruszek, David Meng, Akihito, Android Jones, Brom, J.S. Rossbach and Scott Brundage. There are many other prominent and new artists featured.

For the quality of work represented, this book is a tremendous bargain for the money.

[Jericha Macie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had never really seen any of the Spectrum books before this one, and I found myself sitting in the book store for hours staring at each picture and analyzing the works of art for, what does it mean, why was it made, and of course the psychologist inside me asked what emotion or event made this. I have never made a better buy with an art book. The problem with many art work books is you flip through them once or twice and then youre pretty much done, but spectrum is different in the way that every time you look through you seem to discover something new worth looking over again.

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it!

[M.i. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal art work

[Jaimie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artwork contained in this book was absolutely stunning, but I wish that it had been a bit more organized and consistent. They organized things by loose genres, some of which absolutely made sense, but some of which I thought were kind of the same thing. And then within these categories there was no internal organization that I could decipher based on logical grouping (themes, subjects, artists, locales, colours even) which made the book seem rather disjointed. That being said, I was pleased to see pieces by most of my favourite fantasy artists, plenty of recognizable sources/commissioning groups, and a whole host of unexpected newcomers.

[Jim Fallone · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Spectrum art annuals have long played an important role in fantastic and genre art providing a bellwether for quality and highlighting new talent in the fields of comics, fantasy & science fiction, game designers, and new contemporary and outsider arts. Spectrum 18 is no exception. From concept art to advertising and toy design Spectrum presents the best work of the year as chosen by a carefully selected team of judges from all aspects of the industry. Every year I discover new artists to follow and reintroduced to new work from old favorites. Highly collectible in infinitely inspirational to aspiring artists and writers.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

My library had this in stock, and I have occasionally flipped through it when wandering through the shelves. However, finally checking it out was a real pleasure with the excellent introduction by editor, Arnie Fenner. He summarizes the events of the year with a jovial tone that contextualizes the works perfectly. The works themselves are fun to pore over and flip through page after page, and the variety of style and medium make each page unexpected and interesting. Part of me wanted a more organized format similar to a museum or reference work, but the Fenners seem to want to create an annual gallery recognizing great artwork from a wide swath of industries.

[Trike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent showcase of genre art. My first hardback copy after 18 years, and the larger size definitely enhances the art. The usual doom-and-gloom editorial at the beginning about how nobody is buying books any more. You'd think after 18 years the industry would be dead. Again with the minor typos throughout. The Fenners have always needed a decent proofreader, but it's no big deal at this point.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have several of these volumes; they are wonderful, and they seem to keep getting bigger and bigger. I am continually impressed not only by the works themselves, but by the breadth of selection, from fine arts, to comics, to commercial art, to sculpture. There is apparently a near-infinite amount of 2-D and 3-D fantastic art being produced at any given time and much of it would largely go unseen if it were not for these annual collections.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gotta say this one was a step up from last year's volume 17 (which was more somber and less visually intriguing to me). I found a great deal of new artists that I may just have to view more of their amazing works.

[Little Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love fantasy and SiFi art of any type; paintings, drawings, sculpture, cartoons then this is the book for you. Fantastic selection of the years art. You can't help but find something you like inside. Highly recommended

[Mark Vandervinne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, Spectrum does it right. Need I say more.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another one of those books you will keep referring to over the next decades if not more.

[Joe Freemyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Love the Spectrum Series!! Terrific artwork

[wildct2003 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent collection of contemporary fantastic art.