I know I announced a review of Fringe for today, but you’re going to like this better.  This weekend, while looking for a birthday present for my step-son, I stumbled upon a magazine that I just have to share with you. (I ordered him a subscription, and one for myself as well.)

I’m still so engaged in gorging on the incredible art that I have yet to read the accompanying articles and interviews,  but this single issue of Hi Fructose, Under the Counter Culture, Vol. 13 , borders on being a masterpiece, must-have collection of macabre and weird art all by itself. All the fifty billion magazines of fantasy art and fantasy book covers, Photoshopped to death out of a a master template should hang their heads in shame.

Heck, even the ads in Hi Fructose are almost worth the price of the magazine ($6.95). Keep that in mind the next time you’re tempted to drop fifteen bucks for a magazine of fantasy art tutorials by artists you can barely tell apart.

You will never mistake the artists in Hi Fructose for one another. These artists define the ideas of original and visionary. These are the people whom I want to illustrate the fiction I like, these are the people whose prints I want to collect, and these are the people I want to learn from.

Usually the pictures I put up are promotional pieces or of historical interest, but I am a little skittish about putting up actual art from contemporary artists. That doesn’t sound remotely like fair use to me. I figure the front and back covers of the magazine are fair game, but for the interior stuff I am just going to list all the artists websites so you can go see for yourself.

Well, except in the case of two. I’m going to contact them, alert them to my usage, and take it down if they want me to, but I just can’t stand not giving you a glimpse of these two awe-inspiring artists.

All artwork is unique by definition, but the truth is, some is just more unique than others. Kris Kuksi does work unlike anybody I’ve ever seen. He refers to his work technique as ‘mixed-media assemblage,” which strikes me as a term extreme in its modesty and obliqueness. Words are not going to add anything else to this description. Just go a take a look at his work, and that will tell you all you need to know.

Eric Fortune

Eric Fortune might seem traditional by comparison, but only if you just glimpse his work out of the corner of your eye. A mere seconds focus and you will see a subtle, masterful surrealist who, to my eye on this first encounter with his work, combines influences as diverse as Kay Nielesn, Arthur Rackham and Jeff Jones, and then transcends all of them. His paintings are beautiful, quietly unsettling, and despite the lack of overwrought detail so popular in fantasic genre art today, actually draws you into a mysterious, unfamiliar world with only a few bare hints. His ‘realistic’ style is light years beyond the tepid literalism that bores me to tears as I walk down the fantasy and science fiction aisles of the book store.

Now these folks are gallery artists, though some have worked as illustrators.  I hope they will pursue that line of work occasionally in the future. Stephen King, I hope an issue of this magazine comes your way. I would kill to see any of these artists illustrate your next Donald Grant publication. Not that you need the money, but I might even buy two copies, so I could tear the pictures out and hang them up.

Here are links to other artists featured in the current issue of Hi Fructose:

Lori Earley

Mia Brownell

Dave Kinsey

Joe Sorren

James Jean

And here are links to artistts whose ads caught my eye. I’ve spent a minute or two at each site, and look forward to spending a lot more time in the future.

Greg Simkins

Chris Mars

Ron Zakrin

Glenn Barr