Yesterday I was recording the first episode of Small Blue Planet with my Finnish pals, Jukka & Kisu (it will hopefully be online later this week). I was reminded that Finland is in which a great chance of a Hugo nomination again this year. That’s not just for Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Fractal Prince, which managed to be published in both the UK and US in the same year, so hopefully won’t suffer the same fate as The Quantum Thief, but also for a movie. Bang on cue came the happy news from Australia overnight that Iron Sky had won an AACTA Award (Australia’s answer to the Oscars) for Best Visual Effects. Industry-wise, a Hugo is doubtless not in the same league, but I’m sure that Timo, Jarmo and the crew would be over the dark side of the moon if they got nominated. Let’s have some non-Hollywood movies on the list for a change (even if the big fight will be between Avengers and The Hobbit).
Another category that is perennially in need of voter direction is Graphic Story. The ever-so-helpful Joe Gordon has just published his list of top SF&F graphic novels of 2012. Needless to say, Grandville: Bete Noire will be on my ballot, and I’m keen to get hold of a copy of Saga, which sounds very interesting. The art on Batwoman continues to be phenomenal, and JH Williams III will be on my Best Professional artist ballot again this year, even if the comic doesn’t make the cut.
There are a few other graphic novels you may want to look at. Fables is always delightful, but Lauren Beukes’s run on Fairest is still ongoing so I think that one is for next year. Mike Carey & Peter Gross’s The Unwritten continues to be first on my list. The latest book, Tommy Taylor and the War of Words, continues the phenomenally high standard. Paul Cornell’s Saucer Country is another very strong bet. And the book I most want to see is Pachyderme by Frederik Peeters, translated from French by Edward Gauvin. The blurb describes it thus: “Imagine a David Lynch film co-written by Chuck Palahniuk, Jean-Paul Sartre and Milan Kundera.” Check out the FPI review for more details.
Cheryl,
thanks for mentioning the SF comics list, would liked to have added a pile more relevant works to it, but as usual time means having to settle for a handful, but hopefully it at least gives folks some ideas. Editing the daily guest Best of the Year posts all through December just drove home to me what I had already been considering, that it had been an exceptional year for comics with science fiction elements to them, and a number of them featured on the daily guest choices too – nice to know how well they had gone down with various writers and artists. Saga is certainly worthy of a look – I came late to it, had been recommended to me by colleagues, then it kept cropping up in those guest choices so I just had to sit down and read it, quite hooked now.
Second your call for some non Hollywood in the film category!
Joe