Charles Vess
Encyclopedia
Charles Vess is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 fantasy artist and comic-book illustrator who has specialized in the illustration of myths and fairy tales. His illustrations are strongly influenced by the work of artists and illustrators such as Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham was an English book illustrator.-Biography:Rackham was born in London as one of 12 children. At the age of 18, he worked as a clerk at the Westminster Fire Office and began studying part-time at the Lambeth School of Art.In 1892 he left his job and started working for The...

 and Alphonse Mucha. Vess has won several awards for his illustrations.

Early life and career

Charlies Vess began drawing comic art as a child. He graduated with a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Commonwealth University is a public university located in Richmond, Virginia. It comprises two campuses in the Downtown Richmond area, the product of a merger between the Richmond Professional Institute and the Medical College of Virginia in 1968...

 in 1974. His first professional position was as a commercial animator for Candy Apple Productions in Richmond, Virginia, which he held for approximately two years.

In 1976 he moved to New York City and became a freelance illustrator. He contributed illustrations to publications including Heavy Metal
Heavy Metal (magazine)
Heavy Metal is an American science fiction and fantasy comics magazine, known primarily for its blend of dark fantasy/science fiction and erotica. In the mid-1970s, while publisher Leonard Mogel was in Paris to jump-start the French edition of National Lampoon, he discovered the French...

, Klutz Press (now an imprint of Scholastic Press
Scholastic Press
Scholastic is a global book publishing company known for publishing educational materials for schools, teachers, and parents, and selling and distributing them by mail order and via book clubs and book fairs. It also has the exclusive United States' publishing rights to the Harry Potter book...

), and National Lampoon. One notable publication from this early period was The Horns of Elfland (ISBN 0-915822-25-3) published by Archival Press in 1977, which Vess wrote and illustrated.

From 1980-82 Vess worked as an art instructor at the Parsons School of Design in New York City. Also during that period, his work appeared in one of the first major museum exhibitions of science fiction and fantasy art, held at the New Britain Museum of American Art
New Britain Museum of American Art
The New Britain Museum of American Art is an art museum in New Britain, Connecticut. Founded in 1903, it is the first museum in the country dedicated to American art....

 in 1980.

Mainstream fantasy

By the late 1980s Vess had found a niche in the world of fantasy comic art with publications such as The Raven Banner: A Tale of Asgard written by Alan Zelenetz
Alan Zelenetz
Alan Zelenetz is an American film producer and comic-book writer best known for co-creating the series Alien Legion for the Marvel Comics imprint Epic Comics and a founder of Ovie Entertainment...

 and published by Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

 in 1985, The Book of Night, published by Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...

 in 1987, and The Warriors Three Saga, Marvel Fanfare
Marvel Fanfare
Marvel Fanfare is the title of two comic book series published by Marvel Comics. Both versions of Marvel Fanfare were anthology, showcase titles featuring a variety of characters from the Marvel universe.-Volume One:...

 
#34-37, 1987-88. His success was also mainstream, however, as evidenced by his illustration of Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...

: Spirits of the Earth
(a 1990 graphic novel from Marvel), and a ten issue run (#129-139) as cover artist of The Swamp Thing
Swamp Thing
Swamp Thing, a fictional character, is a plant elemental in the created by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson. He first appeared in House of Secrets #92 in a stand-alone horror story set in the early 20th century . The Swamp Thing then returned in his own series, set in the contemporary world and in...

by DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

 in 1993. In 1991 he illustrated the official comic-book adaptation of Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...

’s Hook.

Collaborations with Neil Gaiman

In 1989 Vess began one of his best-known collaborations to date, with writer Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...

. He illustrated "The Land of Summer's Twilight", one of the four episodes in the original The Books of Magic
The Books of Magic
The Books of Magic is a four-issue English-language comic book mini-series written by Neil Gaiman, published by DC Comics, and later an ongoing series under the imprint Vertigo. Since its original publication, the mini-series has also been published in a single-volume collection under the Vertigo...

mini-series, and also worked on three issues of Gaiman’s critically acclaimed Sandman series (both series were initially published by DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

 as part of their shared universe, but later moved to the new "mature readers" Vertigo imprint/universe). Sandman #19 ("A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...

") is a meta-fictional adaptation of Shakespeare's play. In 1991, that issue won the World Fantasy Award
World Fantasy Award
The World Fantasy Awards are annual, international awards given to authors and artists who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in the field of fantasy...

 for Best Short Story, the only comic book to hold the honor, as award organizers subsequently amended the rules to specifically exclude comics. Vess contributed eight drawings for a prose-based inset that appeared in Sandman #62 ("The Kindly Ones: 6") and illustrated the final issue of the series, Sandman #75, a second Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

 adaptation ("The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...

"), both now published by Vertigo. He also drew the covers for the Books of Faerie
The Books of Faerie
The Books of Faerie was a series of three mini-series spun off from Vertigo Comics' series The Books of Magic written by Bronwyn Carlton and John Ney Rieber...

spin-off series Molly's Story (1999).

Stardust

Between 1997 and 1998 the collaboration between Vess and Gaiman continued in the four-part series Stardust
Stardust (book)
Stardust is the first solo prose novel by Neil Gaiman. It is usually published as a novel with illustrations by Charles Vess. Stardust has a different tone and style from most of Gaiman's prose fiction, being consciously written in the tradition of pre-Tolkien English fantasy, following in the...

, a prose novella to which Vess contributed 175 paintings. The series was collected and published in trade paperback form by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. Stardust won an Alex Award from the American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....

. It also received a Mythopoeic Award
Mythopoeic Awards
The Mythopoeic Awards for literature and literary studies are given by the Mythopoeic Society to authors of outstanding works in the fields of myth, fantasy, and the scholarly study of these areas; the full criteria and description can be read on the Mythopoeic Society's -Mythopoeic Fantasy...

, and Vess was given the 1999 World Fantasy Award for Best Artist
World Fantasy Award for Best Artist
This World Fantasy Award is given to the artist voted best in the fantasy field by a panel of judges. It is presented each year at the World Fantasy Convention.-2004:WFC 2004 was held in Tempe, Arizona...

 for his work on the series.

In 1999, Vess's own Green Man Press produced a portfolio as a benefit for his wife Karen, injured in a car accident, titled A Fall of Stardust, which contained two chapbook
Chapbook
A chapbook is a pocket-sized booklet. The term chap-book was formalized by bibliophiles of the 19th century, as a variety of ephemera , popular or folk literature. It includes many kinds of printed material such as pamphlets, political and religious tracts, nursery rhymes, poetry, folk tales,...

s and a series of art plates.

The 2007 film adaptation of Stardust credits Vess prominently.

Blueberry Girl

Between 2004 and 2007 Vess adapted a poem by Neil Gaiman into a children's book, Blueberry Girl
Blueberry Girl
Blueberry Girl is a book by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess. It was conceived as a poem of the same name, written in 2000 by Neil Gaiman for his goddaughter Tash, daughter of his friend Tori Amos...

. The book was published by HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...

 in 2009.(ISBN 0-06-083808-6)

Tales and Sagas

Beginning in 1995 Vess self-published a biannual series of comics entitled The Book of Ballads and Sagas through his Green Man Press. In this series Vess illustrated adaptations of traditional Scottish and English ballads written by a variety of contributors, including Emma Bull
Emma Bull
Emma Bull is a science fiction and fantasy author whose best-known novel is War for the Oaks, one of the pioneering works of urban fantasy. She has participated in Terri Windling's Borderland shared universe, which is the setting of her 1994 novel Finder...

, Charles de Lint
Charles de Lint
Charles de Lint is a Canadian fantasy author and folk musician. He is also the chief book critic for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction....

, Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...

, Sharyn McCrumb
Sharyn McCrumb
Sharyn McCrumb is an American writer whose books celebrate the history and folklore of Appalachia. McCrumb is the winner of numerous literary awards, and the author of the Elizabeth McPherson series, the Ballad series, and the St...

, Jeff Smith
Jeff Smith (cartoonist)
Jeff Smith is an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the self-published comic book series Bone. His current series, RASL, focuses on an art thief who hops through dimensional barriers, hiding out on various parallel worlds.-Early life and education:Jeff Smith was born in McKees...

, and Jane Yolen
Jane Yolen
Jane Hyatt Yolen is an American author and editor of almost 300 books. These include folklore, fantasy, science fiction, and children's books...

. Issues 1-4 were collected and published as Ballads in 1997. The work was reprinted as a hardback by Tor Books
Tor Books
Tor Books is one of two imprints of Tom Doherty Associates LLC, based in New York City. It is noted for its science fiction and fantasy titles. Tom Doherty Associates also publishes mainstream fiction, mystery, and occasional military history titles under its Forge imprint. The company was founded...

 in 2004 with additional material, including an introduction by Terri Windling
Terri Windling
Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. Windling has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award...

.

Collaborations with Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow

Vess has illustrated a series of anthologies edited by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow, published by Viking
Viking Press
Viking Press is an American publishing company owned by the Penguin Group, which has owned the company since 1975. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim...

. They are: The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest (2002), The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm (2004), and The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales (2007).

Collaborations with Charles de Lint

Probably his most productive collaboration is with longtime friend and writer Charles de Lint
Charles de Lint
Charles de Lint is a Canadian fantasy author and folk musician. He is also the chief book critic for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction....

. The pair have worked together on at least half a dozen publications, including Seven Wild Sisters (Subterranean Press
Subterranean Press
Subterranean Press is a small press publisher in Michigan. Subterranean is best known for publishing genre fiction, primarily horror, suspense and dark mystery, fantasy, and science fiction...

, 2002) and related projects A Circle of Cats (Viking
Viking Press
Viking Press is an American publishing company owned by the Penguin Group, which has owned the company since 1975. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim...

, 2003), and Medicine Road (Subterranean Press, 2005), along with others mentioned above. In 2004 Vess also did both a color cover and front page illustration and additional black and white interior illustrations for a 20th anniversary (signed, limited) edition of Moonheart, by de Lint (Subterranean Press).

Exhibitions

Starting in 1989 with "The Art of Fantasy and Science Fiction" at the Delaware Art Museum
Delaware Art Museum
The Delaware Art Museum is an art museum located on the Kentmere Parkway in Wilmington, Delaware, which holds a collection of more than 12,000 works. The museum, was founded in 1912 as the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts in honor of the artist Howard Pyle and is now celebrating its centennial...

 in Wilmington, Delaware, a series of gallery exhibitions have featured Vess's artwork. The gallery show "Storyteller" appeared in 1992 at Frameworks Gallery in Bristol, Virginia. The following year he showed work under the title "The Mythic Garden" at the Open Air Birch Garden in Devon, England, and also "The Magic" at Repartee Gallery in Park City, Utah.

In 1994, after he moved to southwestern Virginia, a local museum asked Vess to organize a show which became The DreamWeavers: a travelling exhibition of 15 fantasy artists from a variety of fields including children's book illustrators Jerry Pinkney
Jerry Pinkney
Jerry Pinkney is an American illustrator of children’s books, and winner of the 2010 Caldecott Medal. He has received a Caldecott Honor citation five times, the Coretta Scott King Award five times, four New York Times Best Illustrated Awards , four Gold and four Silver medals from the Society of...

, Dennis Nolan
Dennis Nolan
Dennis Nolan may refer to:*Dennis Nolan *Dennis E. Nolan, United States Army general...

, Gennady Spirin, Ruth Sanderson
Ruth Sanderson
Ruth Sanderson is an illustrator of many books for children and young adults.-Biography:Sanderson graduated from the Paier College of Art in Connecticut in 1974. Since then, she has illustrated many books for children and young adults...

 and David Wisnieski; comic book illustrators Michael Kaluta, and Vess himself; science fiction/fantasy book jacket artists Dawn Wilson and James Gurney
James Gurney
James Gurney is an artist and author best known for his illustrated book series Dinotopia, which is presented in the form of a 19th century explorer’s journal from an island utopia cohabited by humans and dinosaurs...

; commercial book illustrators Scott Gustafson
Scott Gustafson
Scott Gustafson is an American artist. He attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. He originally had ambitions of becoming an animator, but has worked primarily as an illustrator for the past twenty-five years...

, Brian Froud
Brian Froud
Brian Froud is an English fantasy illustrator. He lives and works in Devon with his wife, Wendy Froud, who is also a fantasy artist...

, Alan Lee and Alicia Austin, and fine artist Terri Windling
Terri Windling
Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. Windling has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award...

. The show ran from fall 1994 through summer 1995.

Since that time Vess's work has appeared in gallery showings and museum exhibitions, including:
  • "The Tempest" Spring 1996. Four Color Images Gallery, N.Y.C.
  • "Stardust" Spring - Summer 1998 Cartoon Art Museum
    Cartoon Art Museum
    The Cartoon Art Museum is a California art museum that specializes in the art of comics and cartoons. It is the only museum in the Western United States dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of all forms of cartoon art...

    , San Francisco, Ca.
  • "Good Goddess Arts Exhibition", Johnson City, TN and Abingdon, VA, March 1998, ‘99, and 2000.
  • "Into the Light," Comic Art Symposium, Avilles, Spain, Fall 2000.
  • "Fantasy, Visionaries of the Fantastic" Torino, Italy, Spring 2002.
  • "A Circle of Cats," 153W Bookstore & Gallery, Abingdon VA, Summer 2003
  • "Ancient Spirit, Modern Voice," (Co-curator and participating artist) The DeFoor Centre, Atlanta , GA , Spring 2004.

Awards

Vess has won the Will Eisner Comics Industry Award
Eisner Award
The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...

 three times. In 1997 he was named Best Penciler/Inker for his work on Sandman #75 and The Book of Ballads and Sagas. In 2002 he was honored as Best Painter for his work on Jeff Smith’s Rose
Rose (comics)
Rose is a prequel to the Eisner-winning comic book Bone. It was written by Bone creator Jeff Smith and illustrated by Charles Vess, who earned an Eisner nomination for his work on it...

.
  • The Inkpot Award
    Inkpot Award
    The Inkpot Award, bestowed annually since 1974 by Comic-Con International, is given to some of the professionals in comic book, comic strip, animation, science fiction, and related pop-culture fields, who are guests of that organization's yearly multigenre fan convention, commonly known as...

    : For excellence in comic art, 1990.
  • World Fantasy Award
    World Fantasy Award
    The World Fantasy Awards are annual, international awards given to authors and artists who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in the field of fantasy...

    : Best short story, 1991 for Sandman #19, by Neil Gaiman
    Neil Gaiman
    Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...

     and Vess.
  • Will Eisner Comics Industry Award
    Eisner Award
    The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...

    : Best Single Issue, 1991 for Concrete Celebrates Earth Day, by Paul Chadwick
    Paul Chadwick
    Paul Chadwick is an American comic book creator best known for his series Concrete about a normal man trapped in a rock-hard body....

    , Vess, and Jean "Moebius" Giraud
    Jean Giraud
    Jean Henri Gaston Giraud is a French comics artist. Giraud has earned worldwide fame, not only under his own name but also under the pseudonym Moebius, and to a lesser extent Gir, the latter appearing mostly in the form of a boxed signature at the bottom of the artist's paintings, for instance the...

  • Comic Creators' Guild: 1993 Best Cover (Dark Horse Presents #75).
  • Silver Award (Comics Industry) 1995, Spectrum Annual of Imaginative Art.
  • Will Eisner Comics Industry Award: Best Penciler/Inker, 1996 for The Book of Ballads and Sagas and Sandman #75.
  • World Fantasy Award: Best Artist, 1999 for Stardust, written by Neil Gaiman
    Neil Gaiman
    Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...

    .
  • Will Eisner Comics Industry Award: Best Painter/Multimedia Artist, 2002 for Rose, written by Jeff Smith
    Jeff Smith (cartoonist)
    Jeff Smith is an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the self-published comic book series Bone. His current series, RASL, focuses on an art thief who hops through dimensional barriers, hiding out on various parallel worlds.-Early life and education:Jeff Smith was born in McKees...

  • World Fantasy Award: Best Artist, 2010

External links

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