Taral Wayne

Taral Wayne is likely Canada's best known science fiction fan artist, and has been nominated for the field's most prestigious award, the Hugo, six times. (1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 2000, 2001 -- no wins.) He 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 published 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. Significant work he's done within the genre includes the illustration of Rudy Rucker's novel Spaceland (Tor, 2002), restoration of Vaughan Bode art appearing in fanzines for Rare & Well Done Bode, research and illustration for John Robert Columbo'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). During the 1990's Taral focused more on comic book work. His major acheivment was the 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). In addition to art, he has sold a small number of articles and short stories. He's 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 even be appearing in an upcoming book on Japanese submarine-launched seaplanes. 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 privately commissioned comics for clients with special interests.

Taral Wayne was born in Toronto in 1951, and resides in the Parkdale district today. While still posessing 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. Their loss... ; )

-- Taral, Nov '05