What do you think?
Rate this book
Spectrum #1
Spectrum: The First Annual Collection of the Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art
From the lurid pulp covers of the 1920s to the high-tech digitized imagery of today, artrists have “made real” what others could barely imagine; they have – with the stroke of a pen or brush – frozen a moment, captured an emotion, or perceptively given us a glimpse of our brightest hopes.
And darkest fears.
Artists who regularly create works of fantasy and science fiction and horror – for books or comics or advertising or film – have had the difficult task of visualizing ideas and situations that aren’t based on reality. They’ve shown us life on other planets and heroes of mythological times; they’ve painted Utopian societies and grim city-hell tomorrows; they’ve made dragons fly, aliens invade, and the dead stalk our streets. They are the shamans of our imagination and our guides to the land of “what if?”
Spectrum: The First Annual Collection of the Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art is a long-overdue attempt to honor those visionaries. Selected by a blue-ribbon jury of award-winning artists and art directors from nearly 500 entries, Spectrum features a full color collection of nearly 200 magical works by a who’s-who of the most exciting creators working today. Also included in a special section are the winners of the Chesley Awards as presented by the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists.
Spectrum is a wonderous book that is destined to become the cornerstone of any art enthusiast’s library. This landmark volume marks the first time artists of the fantastic have been honored with their own “best of the year” collection.
It’s about time.
And darkest fears.
Artists who regularly create works of fantasy and science fiction and horror – for books or comics or advertising or film – have had the difficult task of visualizing ideas and situations that aren’t based on reality. They’ve shown us life on other planets and heroes of mythological times; they’ve painted Utopian societies and grim city-hell tomorrows; they’ve made dragons fly, aliens invade, and the dead stalk our streets. They are the shamans of our imagination and our guides to the land of “what if?”
Spectrum: The First Annual Collection of the Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art is a long-overdue attempt to honor those visionaries. Selected by a blue-ribbon jury of award-winning artists and art directors from nearly 500 entries, Spectrum features a full color collection of nearly 200 magical works by a who’s-who of the most exciting creators working today. Also included in a special section are the winners of the Chesley Awards as presented by the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists.
Spectrum is a wonderous book that is destined to become the cornerstone of any art enthusiast’s library. This landmark volume marks the first time artists of the fantastic have been honored with their own “best of the year” collection.
It’s about time.
152 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1994
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 3, 2018
This is first time for me to be introduced by this lavishly illustrated book Spectrum series. The artwork from it in a simple word beautiful. I am looking forward to read more from this book series...
January 25, 2016
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
May 26, 2017
Just beautiful. A slice of time-- some of the pieces look rather dated-- but even when that's happening they're amazing.
March 1, 2019
i remember first coming across the Spectrum art books in my twenties, when i would buy books simply for their dust jackets and hope the story inside wasn't too awful... the art in these books is amazing, creative, imaginary, dreamlike, fascinating, and ultimately full of life and the love of wonder and wondrous things... i would own them all if i could... extremely highly recommended...
September 29, 2018
I love the artwork. I dislike the failure to label the pieces. The name of the book or project for which the art was created would be the second most important piece of information the editor can provide, but they chose not to do so. Inexplicable.
October 27, 2008
The first and best of this SciFi and Fantast art collection series. Every year Spectrum collects the best art since the last book and puts it all together for those of us too poor to buy the art for ourselve. You will find almost anything hee, paintings, sketches, sculptures, digital and CG art, comic book illustrations and cartoons --- everything but performance art! (Though who knows? They may be working on that.)
I haven't missed buying these books every fall since I first ran into #4. Thankfully they republished #1, #2 and #3 finally. They are up to #14 now. #15 comes out at the end of November 2008.
I haven't missed buying these books every fall since I first ran into #4. Thankfully they republished #1, #2 and #3 finally. They are up to #14 now. #15 comes out at the end of November 2008.
November 14, 2016
Breathtakingly gorgeous book filled with angels and demons, robots and dragons.
My favorite works are Real Musgrave:
and Scott Gustafson:
My favorite works are Real Musgrave:
and Scott Gustafson:
November 7, 2007
The Spectrum series are entirely amazing. If you have any interest whatsoever in fantasy or sci-fi art, you do yourself a great disservice by not owning every one of these.
December 23, 2007
Would make a great coffee table book... assuming you don't mind risking having coffee spilt on it.
August 6, 2011
Fantastic compilation of fantasy art. Comes out yearly (every Novemeber). Awesome series!!!!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews