Steve Stiles

Steve Stiles is a cartoonist and writer, coming out of the science fiction fanzine tradition. He studied at the High School of Music and Art and the School of Visual Arts and later wrote about this in his essay, "Art School"::Both were located in Manhattan, where I was, and both had excellent reputations. And so, in 1956, at age 13, I took the entrance exams at M&A, which partly consisted of drawing an arrangement of old shoes and flowers, as well as a review of my portfolio pieces -- which included two issues of my first fanzine, "Sam"; that was a lucky break because my interviewers had never heard of a kid pubbing an ish and thought the whole concept incredibly creative. Four years later, the people over at Visual Arts had the same reaction to some of my other fanzines and awarded me a three-year scholarship. I was blown away by the realization that fandom had actually helped me achieve my goals in the Real World! That's the last time that happened... Music & Art certainly wasn't a full-fledged art school but rather a high school with additional emphasis on art and music classes. Even so, I had more opportunity to familiarize myself with a wider range of materials, from chalks and caseins to oils. And here I was studying in the same school that my heroes Harvey Kurtzman, Bill Elder and John Severin -- the guys at "Mad" -- went to, so it was pretty heady. [ [http://www.jophan.org/mimosa/m18/contents.htm Stiles, Steve. "Art School," "Mimosa" 18 (May 1996)] ]

His first professional sale was in 1961 was a cartoon for Paul Krassner's "The Realist". After a stint in the military as an illustrator, he worked in advertising before becoming a freelancer in 1975. He has worked in genres ranging from underground comix to children's books to superhero comics. Most recently he designed a Peace and Humanitarian Achievements medal for the Samaritan community in Israel. The medal's first recipient was Shimon Peres.

His first cartoon for a fanzine appeared in "Cry of the Nameless", edited by F.M. Busby and Elinor Busby. His work (art and text) has since appeared in fanzines from the famous ("Xero", "Void" and "Mimosa") to the obscure ("Vojo de Vivo"). A fanzine interlineation he coined, "Death Is Nature's Way Of Telling You When To Stop," became a national catch phrase after being reprinted in Pageant Magazine in 1962.

Awards and nominations

Celebrated for his work for various fanzines, Stiles has won five of the last six Fan Activity Achievement (FAAn) Awards for best artist (2001, 2003-2006). In 1998 Stiles also won the first Bill Rotsler Award, which was named after prolific fan artist Bill Rotsler. Stiles was a Hugo Award nominee as Best Fan Artist in 1967, 1968 and 2003 through 2008. [ [http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/Hugo.html The Locus Index to SF Awards: About the Hugo Awards ] ] [ [http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/NomArt37.html#5002 The Locus Index to SF Awards: Index of Art Nominees ] ]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.scifiinc.org/rotsler/1998-stiles/ 1998 Rotsler Award Winner: Steve Stiles]
* [http://www.stevestiles.com/index.html Official website]