Brazilian comic book artist Al Rio (b.1962) died on January 30, possibly a suicide. Rio, whose full name was Alvaro Araújo Lourenço do Rio, worked on Gen¹³, Dungeon Siege, X-Men Unlimited, and DV8. his art also appeared on album covers.
Costume designer Eiko Ishioka (b.1939) died on January 21 from pancreatic cancer. Ishioka won an Academy Award for her work on Bram Stoker’s Dracula and also designed costumes for The Cell, The Fall, Immortals, and the upcoming Mirror, Mirror. She recently helped design costumes for teh Broadway show Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Ishioka also won a Grammy Award for the cover design of the Miles Davis album, Tutu.
Christopher J Garcia and Steven H Silver have announced a new fanzine, Paint, Pen, and Pixel to showcase the excellent artwork done by fan artists. They are asking for fan artists to send us a piece of original, unpublished artwork to be included, along with contact information. The fanzine will be in an electronic format and either horizontal or vertical artwork is welcome. The submission deadline is February 15 with the goal of publishing the fanzine on March 1.
For more information, e-mail paintpenpixel@gmail.com
Comic artist Eduardo Barreto (b.1954) died on December 15. Barreto, from Uruguay, worked on titles including Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, The New Teen Titans, and his last work, DC Retroactive The 70′s: Superman, published earlier this year. Also in 2011, Barreto became the artist for the Sunday The Phantom comic strip.
Comic artist Jerry Robinson (b.1922) died on December 7. Robinson is best known for co-creating Robin, the boy wonder, and creating the Joker. Robinson also worked on the creation of Alfred and Two-Face. Robinson began working for Batman creator Bob Kane in 1939. In the 1970s, Robinson worked to get credit for his friends, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster for their part in creating Superman. Robinson is in the Comic Book Hall of Fame and has received lifetime achievement awards from the Cartoon Art Society and the National Cartoonists Society.
Artist Darrell K. Sweet (1934) died on December 5. Sweet was scheduled to be the artist guest of honor at LoneStarCon 3, the 2013 Worldcon and had been honored as the artist guest of honor at Tuckercon, the 2007 NASFiC, in St. Louis and at the 2010 World Fantasy Con. Sweet’s art appeared on numerous book covers over the years and was known for having an extremely high sell through rate. Some of his art was collected in the book Beyond Fantasy.
Mike Glyer reports that D. West has declined the Rotsler Award announced last weekend at LosCon.
D. West, the winner of the 2011 Rotsler Award for Fan Artist, sponsored by the Southern California Institute for Fan Interests, was announced at Loscon. Founded in 1998, the award comes with a $300 honorarium. Sample of West’s work was displayed at Loscon. West has previously won three FAAn Awards for Best Artist and has three Hugo nominations for best fan artist, in 1979, 1987, and 1999.
Spectrum Fantastic Art has announced that will be offering a scholarship to send an artist to the Illustration Master Class at Amherst College in Massachusetts from June 9th-15th. Organized by Rebecca Guay, the week includes faculty including Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, Donato Giancola, Dan Dos Santos, Irene Gallo,
James Gurney, and Brom.
Warren Ellis will appear for a question and answer session before the London debut of the documentary Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts, which is part of the London International Comics Festival. The screening will take place at 7:00 GT at Bishopsgate Institute’s Great Hall, in London. The London debut will take place one day after the world debut for the film occurs at the Napa Valley Film Festival in California.