Stephen Hickman (April 9, 1949 – July 16, 2021) was an American artist, illustrator, sculptor, and author.

Biography

Hickman's professional career was launched in 1972 when he got a job creating T-shirt designs for Shirt Explosion in

Lanham, Maryland Lanham is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Prince George's County, Maryland. As of the 2020 United States Census it had a population of 11,282. The New Carrollton station (the terminus of the Washington Metro's Orange Li ...

. Hickman was given virtually unlimited artistic freedom. His entry into book illustration came in 1974, when

Neal Adams Neal Adams (June 15, 1941 – April 28, 2022) was an American comic book artist. He was the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates, and was a creators-rights advocate who helped secure a pension and recognition for Supe ...

Continuity Studios Continuity Studios (formerly Continuity Associates, originally known as Continuity Graphics Associates)Eury, Michael and Giordano, Dick. ''Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, One Day at a Time'', TwoMorrows Publishing, 2003. is a New York City and Los ...

introduced Hickman to Charles Volpe, art editor at

Ace Books Ace Books is a publisher of science fiction (SF) and fantasy books founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn. It began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns, and soon branched out into other genres, publishing its first scienc ...

. Volpe bought the printing rights of items from Hickman's portfolio, and later commissioned paintings which were used for reprints of Ace Doubles in the ''Classics of Science-Fiction'' series. Hickman then became a full-time artist. His most prominent work is Space Fantasy Stamps, a series of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

postage stamps made for the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

. These stamps are a series of five scenes that depict space travel.

Awards

* 1994

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...

, for Best Original Art Work * Six

Chesley Awards The Chesley Awards were established in 1985 by the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists to recognize individual artistic works and achievements during a given year. The Chesleys were initially called the ASFA Awards, but were later r ...

References

1949 births 2021 deaths Fantasy artists Hugo Award-winning artists American speculative fiction artists Science fiction artists Role-playing game artists Artists from Washington, D.C. Writers from Washington, D.C. {{US-artist-stub