Normally when I crack open each year’s Spectrum compilation of fantasy art, it offers that delicious kid-in the-candy-store-all-by-himself-after-it’s-closed-for-the-night feeling. Where to start?

 

As I paged through the 2009 Spectrum, though, I began to get an uneasy feeling. It was the feeling of wanting to be in love, but not really feeling it so much as having to manufacture affection while you wait for the real thing to announce its presence.

 

To my way of thinking, the jury for the 2009 Spectrum just did not live up to the lofty expectations I have for this august compilation of illustrations each year. It’s either the jury or the submissions, anyway, if blame must be assigned – maybe both.

 

The problem is that so many of the pieces chosen here are so needlessly busy. There is something to be said for power in simplicity (ask a graphic designer). Yet, so many of the paintings, book covers, ads and so on reprinted here are so flush with action and color, the eye can’t seem to decide where to focus first. And no, that kind of dynamism isn’t necessarily a good thing.

 

The fantasy illustrations that stay with me, so often, tend to be the ones that burst with a kind of simple strength. Think of Frank Kelly Freas’ famous robot holding the men he accidentally killed on the cover of Queen’s News of the World album. How about a commanding Alex Ross comic cover, like this one, of the Joker dancing with Harley Quinn against a black background. Or all those fabulous pulp book covers that reek of imminent violence. Or countless other images that lodge in your memory.

 

What many of these illos have in common is their flair for composition.

 

In Spectrum 16, you’ll find great composition in illustrations like Adam Rex’s “Frankenstein Takes the Cake,” a children’s-book cover depicting a guilty-looking Frankenstein’s monster hopelessly trying to hide behind the wedding cake he has just been chomping on. Check out Jose Emroca Flores’ “Cashcow,” a commissioned work in which consumers suck eagerly on the teats of a giant cow with a brand on its side that reads Starbucks. These are arresting images, and simple ones, where the eye finds the subject readily (and the mouth curls up into a grin, even). They’re more than clever—they feature a basic composition that rams home the impact. You remember them.

 

So many of the other pieces in the giant compilation seem to have ignored that basic instruction. There’s no need to name names, but must a voluptuous angel be wreathed in a mystic halo, have glowing eyes, elaborate jewelry, and metal gauntlets? Does the old man looking in the mirror to find a younger version of himself have to have a live frog hanging from his belt and a bunny with a fish’s tail attending the proceedings? Does the girl in the Alice-in-Wonderland get-up being mauled by the octopoid creature have to get attacked by a gang of spear-wielding blue elves at the same time?

 

I know what some of you are thinking: “This is fantasy art. Gilding the lily is part of the deal.”

 

Well, yes and no. Have a look at one of the older Spectrums. Personally, I thought the ratio of simple, arresting work to orgasms of needless detail was a bit higher in, say, Spectrum 15.

 

Another kvetch: Why are there five Adam Hughes pieces here? I’ve long been an admirer of his sexy, teasing women (but not the circus-balloon breasts he so often endows them with, frankly), but five separate works?? Surely there must be some guys who could have really used the exposure of being in a Spectrum, but didn’t make the jury’s cut by a nose hair. I’m just sayin’…

 

Soon the 2010 Spectrum will be out. I’m confident that last year’s book will prove to be an aberration. Fantasy / sci fi/ horror lovers want nothing more than to be locked in that candy shop for the night, agog at all the visual treats. That’s what Spectrum usually does so well. | Byron Kerman