The Idea Box Journal

The Black Throne. New card illustration for Arkham Horror, the Lovecraftian living card game series.

Study of a woman’s face

Several more paintings in my I Need Space series-

We Seek the Skies

Boldly We Go

Elsewhere in Orbit

The Path is Long But Our Way is Clear

New painting-

Let’s Get Outta Here
oil, 12×15”

Essential Science Fiction & Fantasy

A few weeks ago my girlfriend and I started in on a role playing game together in the sci fi Traveler system. Out at dinner she mentioned she didn’t get a lot of the references we’d been making. She asked if I wouldn’t mind making her a list of the books and movies that would help her feel caught up for the next time we played, adding she’d like to feel more included when sci fi & fantasy topics pop up in general. Of course I said I’d be happy to.

The real challenge came with limiting the list so it wouldn’t become totally overwhelming. I knew Frankenstein was essential as was Bladerunner, but so many works in between have contributed to our shared imagined space. I feel strongly that credit must be given to the creators who inspired the next generation of creatives, not to mention scientists and other practical disciplines. Sci fi and fantasy are our go-to metaphors, and our cautionary tales. They pose examples of how we handle what if? scenarios and prepare us for what’s to come.

The list below is a collection that I think solidly represents our current narrative landscape, laying out how we got to now in as concise a manner as I can muster. Therefore, limiting to only one work per originator. Mind you, I’m aware of the bias I bring having grown up in the States and being a straight, white male. Ideally I would be more globally inclusive, but I want to be able to vouch for everything included.

I’m sharing here for those of you who would like a crash course on speculative fiction that sticks to these genres, mostly steering clear of magical realism and horror. My goal is to touch upon the works that have made a notable contribution, not simply homaged or reveled in familiar tropes. I have left off many names for the sake of not overwhelming my girlfriend, despite every person deserving of credit which I hold for them in high regard. Lastly, I’ll point out that I (mostly) left off works from the past 5-10 years because it usually takes a span before we’re aware of how much new content has made an impact. Ok, enough qualifying, here it is:

-Key-

(Wiki)  Read up for cultural significance
*         Personal Favorite
+        Hugely influential
^        Non-Essential but worth listing

-Literature-

8,000 BC
Aboriginal mythology (pre written language)

2,300 BC
Egyptian & Chinese myths+

1,000 BC
The Old Testament+

900 BC
Greek myths, fables, and all the rest

300 BC – 1800 AD
Folk and fairy tales+

700AD
The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Wiki)

1000 AD
Beowulf

1100s
Legend of King Arthur+

1200s
Norse mythology+

1300s
The Inferno – Dante Alighieri+

1600s
Paradise Lost*

1700s
Gulliver’s Travels
The Arabian Nights (Wiki)

1800s
Faust
Frankenstein* – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly+ (largely considered the first SF novel, penned by this brilliant young woman)
Grimm’s fairy tales+ (Wiki Grimm brothers, who collected folktales)
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde* – Robert Louis Stevenson
Dracula – Bram Stoker+
Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll+
The Time Machine & #War of the Worlds – HG Wells+ (godfather of SF)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne+
Flatland
The Tell-Tale Heart – Edgar Allan Poe+ (king of gothic, also pioneered the detective story)

1900s
Peter Pan
Little Nemo in Slumberland – Winsor McCay (self proclaimed founder of animation)
Book of Wonder – Lord Dunsany (less known now, he was highly influential in his time for fantasy & mythos)
The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka+
(Einstein’s Theory of Relativity)
The Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Baum+
John Carter of Mars – (Wiki)
Call of Cthulhu or The Outsider – HP Lovecraft+
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley (Teacher of Orwell https://bit.ly/2xayA23, also wrote about psychedelics)
1984 – George Orwell+
Amazing Stories – John Campbell+ (writer, and as editor ushered in the Golden Age of SF)

After 1950
Lord of the Rings series – JRR Tolkien+
Conan series (Wiki)
Chronicles of Narnia* – CS Lewis
I Am Legend – Richard Matheson (The first real zombie story. Also wrote for Twilight Zone)
Childhood’s End – Arthur C Clarke+
I, Robot – Isaac Asimov+
Farenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
The Garden of Forking Paths – Borges+
Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut
Wizard of Earthsea or The Lathe of Heaven – Ursula LeGuin
Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein
Dune
Where the Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak
The Neverending Story*
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (inspired Bladerunner) Philip K Dick+
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
A Wrinkle in Time
The Stand – Stephen King+

After 1980
Invisible Cities – Italo Calvino
Xanth series*
Communion – (True account of alien abduction)
Neuromancer – William Gibson+
Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton+
Snow Crash – Neal Stephenson
Ender’s Game* – Orson Scott Card
A Song of Ice & Fire – George RR Martin
^Hunger Games
Harry Potter – JK Rowling+
Who Fears Death

-Comics/Superheroes-

-DC Comics-
Superman (Wiki how he came to be)
Wonder Woman (Wiki how she came to be or watch Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. Very interesting)
Batman
The Sandman – Neil Gaiman
Watchmen* – Alan Moore+

-Marvel Comics-
Spiderman* (Wiki how he came to be)
X Men*
Avengers (the hugely popular films all started with decades of comics)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles*
Hellboy*

-Games-
Dungeons & Dragons+
Warhammer 40k
Magic the Gathering
Netrunner

-Artists & Illustrators-

1100-1200
Anonymous monk’s illuminated manuscript creatures – https://bit.ly/2Ynytf7

1400s
Hieronomous Bosch+
Leonardo DaVinci+
Michelangelo+

1500s
Arcimboldo

1800s
Gustav Doré+
Howard Pyle
JW Waterhouse

1900s
Maxfield Parish
NC Wyeth+
Sir John Tenniel
Windsor McCay+
Arthur Rackham – fairy tales
Margaret Brundage – Weird Tales covers
Jack Kirby+ – superhero comics
Picasso+ – Cubism
Chesley Bonestell – space travel, integral to NASA
Frank Frazetta
MC Escher+
Heinrich Kley – his lively drawings inspire animators, notably for Fantasia

After 1980
Jeff Easley – D&D
Jim Lee – X Men
Michael Whelan – book covers
H.R. Giger – Alien films
Brian Froud 
Syd Mead – design of Bladerunner & other films
Roger Dean – album covers
Jean Giraud aka Moebius
Alan Lee – Lord of the Rings
Bill Waterson – Calvin & Hobbes
Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon
James Gurney – Dinotopia
Alex Ross – realistic superheroes
Chris Van Allsburg
Mike Mignola – Hellboy
Mary GrandPré – Harry Potter

-Radio-

1930s -1950s
Flash Gordon
War of the Worlds (Wiki Orson Welles’ radio hoax)
Buck Rogers
The Shadow
and much more in the ensuing years, including adaptations of The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide

-TV Shows-

After 1950s
Twilight Zone – Rod Serling. Learn more at https://bit.ly/2Ll1Evy
Lost in Space
Star Trek – (Wiki) Gene Roddenberry
Dr Who (Wiki)
The Jetsons (Wiki)
Cosmos – Carl Sagan+ (Science fiction author & science educator)

After 1980s
Transformers
Quantum Leap
Buffy the Vampire Slayer* – Joss Whedon
Twin Peaks – David Lynch (not either genre but impact is undeniable)
X Files*
Neon Genesis Evangelion

After 2000
Firefly
Lost* – JJ Abrams
Battlestar Galactica
Black Mirror*
Game of Thrones
Westworld* – (reboot of Michael Crichton 1970s film)

-Films-

1900s
King Kong (Wiki)
The Wizard of Oz+
Fantasia- Disney+
Monster movies – Dracula, The Mummy, The Wolfman, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein (Wiki)

After 1950
Godzilla+ (Wiki)
Seven Samurai or Hidden Fortress – Akira Kurosawa+ (Not SF or fantasy but influential)
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad – Special effects by Ray Harryhausen (Wiki)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
2001 A Space Odyssey – Stanley Kubrick+ & written by Arthur C Clarke
Planet of the Apes
Night of the Living Dead+ (Wiki)
Superman
Star Wars Trilogy – George Lucas (owing to Joseph Campbell’s monomyth)+

After 1980
Bladerunner* – Ridley Scott
^Legend
Alien+ or sequel Aliens
Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind – Steven Spielberg+
ET
Mad Max series
Star Trek series
Back to the Future
Brazil – Terry Gilliam+
12 Monkeys
Tron+
Ghostbusters*
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure*
Princess Bride*
Labyrinth*
The Terminator & Terminator 2* – James Cameron+
Akira
The Fifth Element
Robocop
Beetlejuice – Tim Burton
^Nightmare Before Xmas*
Jurassic Park – Steven Spielberg+
City of Lost Children*
Iron Giant*
Groundhog Day*
Sixth Sense
Ghost in the Shell (1995 anime)
^Gattaca
Donnie Darko*
Starship Troopers (tongue in cheek adaptation of Heinlein’s classic)
The Matrix+*

After 2000
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
My Neighbor Totoro or Spirited Away – Hayao Miyazaki+
^Underworld
Minority Report
Lord of the Rings
Primer
^The Incredibles
Shaun of the Dead*
Pan’s Labyrinth – Guillermo del Toro
Moon*
Marvel Cinematic Universe
^Idiocracy
Inception* or Interseller – Christopher Nolan+

Hello gamers,

I’m so pleased to be able to tell you the playmats are finally here. Thank you for your patience. They took longer than expected. Most of you know that while in-production on Android:Netrunner, Fantasy Flight Games wasn’t able to give me permission to make playmats out of my card artwork. This all changed a few months ago. So I took polls, collected the most popular images, and tailored them all to fit the mat proportions and resolution requirements.

You can order them from Overpoweredmats. I teamed up with these folks because the mats they make are thick, have a beautiful black trim, and are made in the USA.

Preliminary stocks are limited, so order yours soon!

You all have been so great. It was such a pleasure to be involved with bringing Netrunner to life. I hope it continues to bring you joy in the years ahead. Happy gaming!

New painting-

I Need Space
oil, 16×15″

Following years of requests from the gaming community, Fantasy Flight Games has authorized me to offer playmats of my Netrunner illustrations. Here’s a peek at Adept prints in progress. Twenty of my most popular card images will be available next week! 💥💥💥

This painting has been waiting patiently for a month to be completed. I’ve been wanting to add a touch of something in the background but haven’t gotten to it. In case it goes no further, here’s Adore, oil 18×12.5”.

A small collection of my art for kids is now available at INPRNT