SciFi Art Postcard book on sale now

The long-awaited SciFi Art Postcard title from ILEX is now officially on sale, comprising a selection of ace science fiction art included in SciFi Art Now and some other art specially selected for this project, too.

With a cover by Patrick J. Jones, it features some art used in the Sci-Fi Art Now book and other illustrations - 30 gorgeous SF-inspired postcards in total.

The artists featured are: Larry Blamire, Matt Gaser, Rian Hughes, Stuart Jennett, Paul McCaffrey, Aaron Jasinski, Patrick J. Jones, Michael Kaluta & Lee Moyer, Tom Kelly, Yigit Koroglu, John Malcolm, Sergey Musin, Nemons, 2012 Hugo and Chelsey Award-winning John Picacio, Neil Roberts, Steve Sampson, Smuzz (who I'm working with on the Crucible comic), Jon Sullivan, Dave Taylor and Oliver Wetter.

The book looks great and joins a number of similar titles from ILEX, more information here in an earlier post.

Rian Hughes 'Yesterday's Tomorrows' collection gets US publishing

Yesterday's Tomorrows, a collection of comics by "luminescent pop culture demon" and SciFi Art Now contributor Rian Hughes spanning over two decades of his career, is being re-published in the US by Image Comics in November.

Previously published by Knockabout Comics in the UK in 2007, the 264-page collection features two infamous and hard-to-find collaborations with Eisner Award winner Grant Morrison: Dan Dare, a post-modern classic that sets the aging and retired iconic British character Dare against a modern British landscape he no longer understands; and Really and Truly, a high-octane psychedelic road-trip torn from the pages of cult comic 2000AD.

Also included is one of Hughes’ first longform comic tales - The Science Service, also the first professional commission written by SciFi Art Now editor John Freeman back in the 1980s, created in duotone for Magic Strip; while Hughes explores an evocative noir palette replete with dramatic angular lighting for Raymond Chandler's Goldfish, adapted by It’s Superman author Tom DeHaven; and The Lighted Cities by acclaimed comics creator Chris Reynolds.

Rian is an award-winning graphic designer, illustrator, comic artist, logo designer and typographer. He studied graphic design at the London College of Printing before working for an advertising agency, i-D magazine and a series of record sleeve design companies. In 1994, he founded his own studio, Device, and has since worked with a wide range of international clients in publishing, advertising, music and fashion. He has also worked extensively for the British and American comic book industries, both as artist and designer. 

In addition to sketchbook pages, merchandise and rare strips Yesterday's Tomorrows features an introduction by comics guru Paul Gravett, who published Hughes’ very first strips in his seminal independent comics magazine Escape.

Rian also has a number of books about different aspects of 20th century design scheduled for release from Fiell Publishing Limited, either already published this year or due for publication soon. Out now is Lifestyle Illustration of the 60s (Amazon UK link), a survey of magazine artwork from the Swinging Sixties. Featuring over 1,000 gloriously inventive and stylistically diverse illustrations, it offers a fascinating insight into the extraordinary artistic talents of the illustrators featured, it also reveals the social aspirations of this unprecedented era of political optimism and sexual freedom.

Complementing this release is Lifestyle Illustration of the 50s (Amazon UK link), also due for release in November, an overview of the astonishing artistic skill of the leading lifestyle illustrators of the period, revealing the changing social aspirations of the post-war generation and their growing optimism for the future.

Out in October is Custom Lettering of the 40s and 50s (Amazon UK link) is a celebration of the stunning and stylistically varied headline lettering that predated modern computer type. Each a unique one-off, custom hand-drawn lettering had a stylistic freedom and creative energy unfettered by traditional typographic rules and regulations.

The handbook features over 4,500 examples of custom lettering - from urgent rough block capitals to sophisticated looping copperplate scripts, elegant fashion brush scripts and dynamic illustrative sans serifs, the extraordinary range of graphic styles is as exciting as it is stylistically diverse. It should appeal to typographers, graphic designers and, of course, retro culture fans, lettering aficionados and printed ephemera collectors.

• More information about Image Comics new US edition on the Image Comics web site

• Buy the Knockabout Comics edition from Amazon UK

• Rian Hughes official web site: www.devicefonts.co.uk 

• Fiell Publishing Limited