Taral Wayne

Taral Wayne (born 1951, Toronto) is one of Canada's best known science fiction fan artists, and has been nominated for the field's most prestigious award, the "Hugo", eight times. (1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 2000, 2001, 2007 and most recently 2008 -- so far no wins.)

Taral began his involvement in fandom in 1971 when he joined the local "Ontario Science Fiction Club (OSFiC)". Over the years he contributed art and writing to a wide variety of amateur and semi-professional publications, as well as publishing his own. In the late 80's he made the jump to professional illustration, by necessity working mainly outside the SF genre. A west coast American magazine called "Ruralite" was his main client at that time.

During the 1990s Taral focused more on comic book work. His major achievement was the Furry comic title "Tales of Beatrix" (Mu Press & Vision Comics). Created by Steve Gallacci, the stories were a collaborative effort - drawn by Taral, co-written by creator and artist. Due to generally poor sales in the entire comics industry, the artist dropped the series after only a few issues. Thereafter he contributed short pieces to a number of anthologies as time permitted. Taral also created many back covers for another comic, "Gremlin Trouble" (AB Pixilations).

Significant work he's done within the genre includes the illustration of Rudy Rucker's novel "Spaceland" (Tor, 2002), restoration of Vaughn Bodé art appearing in fanzines for "Rare & Well Done Bode", research and illustration for John Robert Colombo's book "Years of Light" (Hounslow Press, 1982), as well as contributions to "The Fantasy Showcase Tarot Deck" (Bruce Pelz, 1980) and "Tank Vixens Card Game" (United Publications, 2004).

In addition to art, he has sold a small number of articles and short stories and worked on some ill-starred TV and cartoon presentations, produced a CD of his own collected art, sold tee-shirts, designed a postal cancellation, and will soon have cloissone pins on the market. The bulk of Taral's career, though, has been the creation of art for private commissions, numbering more than 2,000 inked, coloured, or penciled items to date. He is currently working on private commissions and developing his writing.

Taral currently resides in the Parkdale district of Toronto. While still possessing close ties to science fiction fandom, he is rather an outsider in the comics community, and has no contact with the Fine Arts at all. In recognition of his contributions to science fiction fandom, particularly Canadian fandom, Taral was named Fan Guest of Honour by the 2009 Worldcon Anticipation.

External links

* [http://taralwayne.deviantart.com/ Taral Wayne's deviantART site]
* [http://www.wamserver.com/taralwayne/ The Art of Taral Wayne]
* [http://www.challzine.net/22/22taralw.html "I, Fanartist" by Taral Wayne] in "Challenger 22" fanzine
* [http://www.furaffinity.net/user/saara/ Taral Wayne] at Fur Affinity