Charles Vess

Author profile

born

June 10, 1951 in Lynchburg, VA, The United States

gender

male

website

http://www.greenmanpress.com

genre

Comics & Graphic Novels, Children's Books, Literature & Fiction

influences

Arthur Rackham, Alphonse Mucha

About this author

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Charles was born in 1951 in Lynchburg, Virginia and has been drawing since he could hold a crayon. He drew his first full-length comic when he was 10 and called it "Atomic Man." Minimalist in nature, it required no drawing of hands, feet or heads ("they just glowed"). Since then, he has painstakingly drawn thousands of hands, feet, and heads in great detail. Charles graduated with a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, and worked in commercial animation for Candy Apple Productions in Richmond, Va., before moving to New York City in 1976. It was there that he became a freelance illustrator, working for many publications including Heavy Metal, Klutz Press, and National Lampoon. His award-winning work has graced the pages of numerous com...more Charles was born in 1951 in Lynchburg, Virginia and has been drawing since he could hold a crayon. He drew his first full-length comic when he was 10 and called it "Atomic Man." Minimalist in nature, it required no drawing of hands, feet or heads ("they just glowed"). Since then, he has painstakingly drawn thousands of hands, feet, and heads in great detail. Charles graduated with a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, and worked in commercial animation for Candy Apple Productions in Richmond, Va., before moving to New York City in 1976. It was there that he became a freelance illustrator, working for many publications including Heavy Metal, Klutz Press, and National Lampoon. His award-winning work has graced the pages of numerous comic book, publishers such as Marvel, DC, Darkhorse and Epic. He has been featured in several gallery and museum exhibitions across the nation, including the first major exhibition of Science Fiction and Fantasy Art (New Britain Museum of American Art, 1980) and "Dreamweavers" (William King Regional Arts Center, 1994-95). In 1991, Charles shared the prestigious World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story with Neil Gaiman for their collaboration on Sandman #19 (DC Comics) --- the first and only time a comic book has held this honor. In the summer of 1997, Charles won the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award for Best Penciler/Inker for his work on The Book of Ballads and Sagas (which he self-publishes through his own Green Man Press) as well as Sandman #75. Soon after Charles finished the last of 175 paintings for Stardust, a novel written by Neil Gaiman, for which he was given the 1999 World Fantasy Award as Best Artist.

In 2002 Charles won a second Will Eisner award, this time as Best Painter for his work on Rose, a 130-page epic fantasy saga written by Cartoon Books' Jeff Smith. The year continued to be busy for Charles with the publication of Seven Wild Sisters (Subterranean Press) and The Green Man, Tales from the Mythic Forest (Viking), both utilizing cover art and interior b/w illustrations by the artist, and both making the 2003 American Library Association's list for Best Books for Young Adults! By the end of the year he had completed 28 paintings for his first children's picture book, A Circle of Cats, done in collaboration with writer Charles de Lint (Viking). This cover art won the Gold Award for Best Book Art in the 10th annual "Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art" even before it was officially published. A new edition of Peter Pan (Tor/Starscape) featuringa cover as well as over 30 b/w interior illustrations by Vess was released this past Fall. Another collaboration with de Lint, Medicine Road (Subterranean Press) and the YA anthology,The Faery Reel (Viking ) will be arriving this Spring and he is currently hard at work producing drawings for several new books, including, A Storm of Swords (MeishaMerlin), the 25th anniversary edition of Moonheart (Subterranean Press) and a graphic novel collection of his ballads material for Tor.
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15 posts
Charles Vess's Blog

Charles Vess isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but he does have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from his feed.

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Published on June 28, 2011 06:46 • 49 views

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combine editions
Books by Charles Vess

Average rating: 4.33 · 79,444 ratings · 3,512 reviews · 53 distinct works

	The Book of Ballads 3.97 avg rating — 369 ratings — published 1997 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Drawing Down the Moon: The Art of Charles Vess 4.60 avg rating — 101 ratings — published 2009 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Spider-Man: Spirits of the Earth 3.47 avg rating — 34 ratings — published 1990 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Modern Masters Volume 11: Charles Vess by Charles Vess, Eric Nole-Weathington 4.14 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 2007	My rating:
	The Horns of Elfland 4.00 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 1978	My rating:
	The Book Of Night 3.83 avg rating — 6 ratings	My rating:
	Journeys into the Mystic (The Forbidden Book, volume 1) by Charles Vess, Colleen Doran, Stephen Blue 3.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2001	My rating:
	Ballate 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2009	My rating:
	The Sandman, Vol. 3: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman (Goodreads Author), Kelly Jones (Illustrator), Charles Vess (Illustrator) 4.37 avg rating — 18,970 ratings — published 1990 — 20 editions	My rating:
	The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman (Goodreads Author), Marc Hempel (Illustrator), Richard Case (Illustrator) 4.57 avg rating — 13,868 ratings — published 1995 — 11 editions	My rating: