| Charles Vess | |
|---|---|
 Charles Vess in his studio, Green Man Press, inAbingdon, Virginia. | |
| Born | (1951-06-10)June 10, 1951 (age 74) |
| Area | Artist |
Notable works | |
| Collaborators | Neil Gaiman,Terri Windling andEllen Datlow,Charles de Lint |
| Awards |
|
| www.greenmanpress.com | |
Charles Vess (born June 10, 1951)[1] is an American fantasy artist andcomics artist who has specialized in the illustration of myths and fairy tales. His influences include British "Golden Age" book illustratorArthur Rackham, CzechArt Nouveau painterAlphonse Mucha, and comic-strip artistHal Foster, among others. Vess has won several awards for his illustrations. Vess' studio, Green Man Press, is located inAbingdon, Virginia.
He has received numerous awards and honors for his work including the 2019 and 2023 Locus Award for Best Artist and the 2019 Hugo Awards for Best Professional Artist and Best Art Book forThe Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition.[2]
In 1991, his work with Neil Gaiman on theSandman comic short story "A Midsummer Night's Dream" became the first comic to win the World Fantasy Award.[3]
Charles Vess began drawing comic art as a child. He graduated with aBFA fromVirginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in 1974. While at VCU, Vess' comics appeared in theFan Free Funnies, a comic tabloid published by the student newspaper.[4] His first professional position was as a commercial animator for Candy Apple Productions in Richmond, Virginia, which he held for approximately two years.
In 1976 he moved to New York City and became a freelance illustrator. He contributed illustrations to publications includingHeavy Metal, Klutz Press (now an imprint ofScholastic Press), andNational Lampoon. One notable publication from this early period wasThe Horns of Elfland (ISBN 0-915822-25-3) published by Archival Press in 1979, which Vess wrote and illustrated.[5]
From 1980 to 1982 Vess worked as an art instructor at theParsons School of Design in New York City. During that period, his work appeared in one of the first major museum exhibitions of science fiction and fantasy art, held at theNew Britain Museum of American Art in 1980.
By the late 1980s Vess had found a niche in the world of fantasy comic art with publications such asThe Raven Banner: A Tale of Asgard written byAlan Zelenetz and published byMarvel Comics in 1985,The Book of Night, published byDark Horse Comics in 1987,[5] and "TheWarriors Three Saga" inMarvel Fanfare#34–37 (Sept. 1987–April 1988).[6] He painted the cover of the debut issue ofWeb of Spider-Man (April 1985),[7] wrote and drew a backup story inThe Amazing Spider-Man #277 (June 1986),[8] and crafted theSpider-Man: Spirits of the Earth graphic novel (1990).[9] In 1991 he illustrated the official comic-book adaptation ofSteven Spielberg’sHook and had an eleven issue run (#129–139) as cover artist ofSwamp Thing byDC Comics in 1993.[5]
In 1990, Vess began one of his best-known collaborations to date, with writerNeil Gaiman. He illustrated "The Land of Summer's Twilight", one of the four episodes in the originalThe Books of Magic mini-series,[10] and worked on three issues of Gaiman's critically acclaimedThe Sandman series.[11]Sandman #19 ("A Midsummer Night's Dream") is a meta-fictional adaptation ofWilliam Shakespeare's play[12] and in 1991, that issue won theWorld Fantasy Award for Best Short Story, the only comic book to hold the honor, as award organizers subsequently amended the rules to specifically exclude comics. Vess contributed eight drawings for a prose-based inset that appeared inSandman #62 ("The Kindly Ones: 6") and illustrated the final issue of the series,Sandman #75, a second Shakespeare adaptation ("The Tempest").[13] He drew the covers for theBooks of Faerie spin-off seriesMolly's Story (1999).[14]
Between 1997 and 1998 the collaboration between Vess and Gaiman continued in the four-part seriesStardust, a prose novella to which Vess contributed 175 paintings. The series was collected and published in trade paperback form by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint.Stardust won anAlex Award[15] from theAmerican Library Association. It received aMythopoeic Award, and Vess was given the 1999World Fantasy Award for Best Artist for his work on the series.
In 1999, Vess's ownGreen Man Press produced a portfolio as a benefit for his wife Karen, injured in a car accident, titledA Fall of Stardust, which contained twochapbooks and a series of art plates.[16]
Between 2004 and 2007 Vess adapted a poem by Neil Gaiman into a children's book,Blueberry Girl.[17] The book was published byHarperCollins in 2009.(ISBN 0-06-083808-6)
Beginning in 1995 Vess self-published a biannual series of comics entitledThe Book of Ballads and Sagas through his Green Man Press.[5] In this series Vess illustrated adaptations of traditional Scottish and English ballads written by a variety of contributors, includingEmma Bull,Charles de Lint,Neil Gaiman,Sharyn McCrumb,Jeff Smith, andJane Yolen. Issues 1-4 were collected and published asBallads in 1997. The work was reprinted as a hardback byTor Books in 2004 with additional material, including an introduction byTerri Windling.
Vess has illustrated a series of anthologies edited by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow, published byViking Press. They are:The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest (2002),The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm (2004), andThe Coyote Road: Trickster Tales (2007).
Vess worked with longtime friend and writerCharles de Lint on at least half a dozen publications, includingSeven Wild Sisters (Subterranean Press, 2002) and related projectsA Circle of Cats (Viking, 2003), andMedicine Road (Subterranean Press, 2005, as well as a later edition byTachyon Publications, 2009), along with others mentioned above. In 2004 Vess did both a color cover and front page illustration and additional black and white interior illustrations for a 20th anniversary (signed, limited) edition of Moonheart, by de Lint (Subterranean Press).
Vess was chosen by Saga Press to illustrateThe Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition (2018), a compilation of all five Earthsea novels, as well as short stories, including some previously unpublished works. During the process, Vess had a chance to work closely with Le Guin, translating her vision onto the page. Vess described their work together as a true collaboration, saying in 2018 "... I don’t think she believed me when I said I wanted to collaborate. But, after four years and lord knows how many emails, she sent me a copy of her latest book, her essay book, and her dedication to me was ‘To Charles, the best collaborator ever.’"[18] The book was published in October 2018, and won a 2019 Locus Award for Best Art Book[19] and a 2019 Hugo Award for Best Art Book.[20]
In 2021 Vess illustratedJoanne Harris'Honeycomb; a collection of 100 interconnected fairy stories forming amosaic novel.[21] Harris describes the process of working with Vess as follows:[22]
Through the lens of Charles' art, the Silken Folk of my stories are neither entirely human, nor overly insectile: and their beauty is slightly monstrous, yet altogether bewitching. I think illustrations give a different dimension to a text: translating them from simple print into the stuff of dreams (and nightmares). In the case ofHoneycomb, Charles has brought my dreams to life. I can think of no finer magic than this.
In a 2004 interview, Vess cited among many artistic influences, beginning with the 19th-century British book illustratorArthur Rackham, saying,
I discovered his work while I was still in college and immediately fell completely in love with it. His art, unlike a lot of other artists that I discovered at the same time (Maxfield Parrish,Frank Frazetta, etc.) I've never grown tired of. I always find myself learning new things every time I study it. But there are many others that have influenced me, among them: the Swedish illustratorJohn Bauer,Howard Pyle, the 19th-century German illustratorHermann Vogel,Alphonse Mucha (the father ofArt Nouveau),Willy Pogany,Kay Nielsen,W. H. Robinson,Hal Foster andAlfred Bestall (the British illustrator of the long runningRupert Bear series). Among the living I countMichael Kaluta,Alan Lee,Brian Froud,Lizebeth Zwerger andTerri Windling.[23]
Starting in 1989 with "The Art of Fantasy and Science Fiction" at theDelaware Art Museum in Wilmington, Delaware, a series of gallery exhibitions have featured Vess's artwork. The gallery show "Storyteller" appeared in 1992 at Frameworks Gallery in Bristol, Virginia. The following year he showed work under the title "The Mythic Garden" at the Open Air Birch Garden in Devon, England, and "The Magic" at Repartee Gallery in Park City, Utah.
In 1994, after he moved to southwestern Virginia, a local museum asked Vess to organize a show which became The DreamWeavers: a travelling exhibition of 15 fantasy artists from a variety of fields including children's book illustratorsJerry Pinkney, Dennis Nolan,Gennady Spirin,Ruth Sanderson and David Wisnieski; comic book illustratorsMichael Kaluta, and Vess himself; science fiction/fantasy book jacket artists Dawn Wilson andJames Gurney; commercial book illustratorsScott Gustafson,Brian Froud,Alan Lee and Alicia Austin, and fine artistTerri Windling. The show ran from fall 1994 through summer 1995.
Since that time Vess's work has appeared in gallery showings and museum exhibitions including:
Having fantasy artist Charles Vess illustrate the first cover toWeb of Spider-Man also announced that this [series] was something unique.
In the issue's second story, written and illustrated by the talented Charles Vess, Spider-Man swung into a snowstorm in Central Park in order to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a diplomat.
The Sandman saw a variety of artists grace its pages. Sam Kieth drew the first few issues, followed by Mike Dringenberg, Chris Bachalo, Michael Zulli, Kelley Jones, Charles Vess, Colleen Doran, and Shawn McManus, among others.
