Talk:Mel Odom (artist)

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[edit] Keep

There are already a number of existing articles for artists primarily/initially known for their SF/F book covers, such as Thomas Canty and Kinuko Craft. For that matter, "Category:Fantasy artists" includes at least one artist (Terese Nielsen) mainly known for illustrating Magic: The Gathering cards.

The New York Times devoted a 1998 article to Odom and his Gene doll (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E07EFDA113FF931A15751C0A96E958260), listing some highlights of his illustration career:

"In the late 1970's and early 80's, Mr. Odom was one of the hottest commercial artists in New York, a man whose contemporaries included such illustrators as Richard Amsel, Antonio Lopez and George Stavrinos, all now legendary. His erotically charged (but rarely sexually explicit) drawings for Playboy, Viva and especially Blueboy earned him an avid following.

[...]"His first literary commission led to extensive illustration work, including a line of greeting cards and posters from Paper Moon Graphics, inclusion of his work in shows at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, and awards from the Society of Illustrators.

[...]"The culmination of Mr. Odom's illustration career came with a 1989 cover of Time magazine, a portrait of the Ayatollah Khomeini. 'It's kind of the Mount Rushmore of illustration,' Mr. Odom said."

The NYT further notes, "Robert Mapplethorpe shot [Odom's] portrait for First Eyes, a 1982 Japanese catalogue of Mr. Odom's work, and traded it to him for a painting", for which the corresponding bibliographic info seems to be Genko-sha Publishing (1982) ASIN: B000JE29YC. Penguin Books published another compilation of Odom's work in 1984/1985 ("Dreamer", ISBN-10: 0140073787, ISBN-13: 978-0140073782).

The site already linked from the main entry elucidates some of his awards: "His work has an inherent fantasy feel to it and art directors in the field were quick to place his covers on their books. The sf magazine Omni was also a client. He did sleeves for CBS records. Playboy named him Illustrator of the Year in 1980 and he won the Society of Illustrators' Gold Medal in the Editorial class in 1982, and the Silver Medal in the Book class in 1987. His pencil, peerless dyes, and gouache technique is very distinctive and he seems to be totally in command of every nuance."

Also, I suspect that the author Mel Odom would appreciate being clearly differentiated from this artist, lest unwary fans fall into the trap of thinking that a single individual of that name began his career with erotic illustrations before switching over to Left Behind tie-in novels.

[edit] Mdvanii and BillyBoy*

I moved the following paragraph from a recent edit by User:Fondation Tanagra into here:

"Mel Odom, being long-time friend to BillyBoy*, artist, fashion designer and historian ( he was the first designer to have his name on Mattel's Barbie doll box and wrote the first book, a best-seller, on Barbie doll), submitted a design for a Mdvanii make-up in 1990, which was ultimately not used by BillyBoy*. The confusion, due to the anticipated use of the design, was further created when a small quantity of the Mdvanii doll's boxes claimed Odom designed the make-up. This story is clearly explained in detail, along with the entire history of the Mdvanii doll by BillyBoy* on the Fondation Tanagra's website (www.fondationtanagra.com). The Fondation Tanagra is a non-profit cultural and art organization based in Switzerland founded by BillyBoy* and his partner of 25-years, Jean-Pierre Lestrade a.k.a Lala, in 1997."

Thanks for the new info about Odom's (non)involvement with Mdvanii, which I've briefly spliced into the main article-- however, IMHO much of the text seems more appropriate for a separate article about Mdvanii. Wombat1138 (talk) 06:41, 17 April 2008 (UTC)