Paper Tiger Books was a British
publishing house
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
which focused primarily on books of
modern art
Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...
, specifically the visionary, the fantastic, and
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...
, and an imprint of Dragons World Ltd. It was started in 1976 by Hubert Schaafsma and brothers
Martyn and
Roger Dean after the success of Roger Dean's book ''Views'' through a sister imprint, Dragon's Dream.
[Biography on Roger Dean's official site](_blank)
/ref>
Artists published by Paper Tiger include Chris Achilleos
Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian, Christina, Christine, and Christos. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, however it is not as common.
People with the given name
*Chris Abani (born 1966), Nig ...
, Stephen Bradbury, Bob Eggleton
Bob Eggleton (born September 13, 1960) is an American science fiction, fantasy and horror artist. Eggleton is a nine-time Hugo Award–winner for Best Pro Artist in science fiction and fantasy, first winning in 1994. He won the Hugo Award for Be ...
, John Harris, Peter Andrew Jones
Peter Andrew Jones (born 14 December 1951) is a British artist and illustrator who has produced a large number of fantasy and science fiction genre illustrations. During a professional career of over 43 years he has worked on book jacket covers, ...
, Josh Kirby
Ronald William "Josh" Kirby (27 November 1928 – 23 October 2001) was a British commercial artist. Over a career spanning 60 years, he was the artist for the covers of many science fiction books including Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels.
...
, Rodney Matthews
Rodney Matthews (born 6 July 1945) is a British illustrator and conceptual designer of fantasy and science-fiction.
Career
Trained at the West of England College of Art, Matthews worked in advertising for Plastic Dog Graphics before turni ...
, Chris Moore, Bruce Pennington
Bruce Pennington (born 10 May 1944, in Somerset, England)''Eschatus'', Paper Tiger Books, 1976, Simon & Schuster, is a British painter, best known for his science fiction and fantasy novel cover art. Pennington's works have largely featured on ...
, Barclay Shaw, Anne Sudworth
Anne Sudworth is a British artist known for her paintings of magical trees and moonlit landscapes.
Career
Exhibitions
In 2001 there was an exhibition of her work in Cork Street, London at the Gallery 27. In 2002 she won a Chesley Awards, Che ...
, Jim Warren, David A. Hardy
David A. Hardy (born 10 April 1936) is a British space artist.
Early life
David Hardy was born 10. April 1936 in Bournville, UK. He studied at the Margaret Street College of Art in Birmingham, and was soon painting for the British Interplanetary ...
, and Patrick Woodroffe
Patrick James Woodroffe (27 October 1940 – 10 May 2014) was an England, English artist, etcher and drawer, specialised in Fantasy art, fantasy science-fiction artwork, with images that bordered on the surreal. His achievements include sever ...
; as well as numerous titles by Boris Vallejo
Boris Vallejo (born January 8, 1941) is a Peruvian-American painter who works in the science fiction, fantasy, and erotica genres. His hyper-representational paintings have appeared on the covers of numerous science fiction and fantasy ficti ...
and Julie Bell
Julie Bell (born October 21, 1958) is an American fine artist, illustrator, photographer, bodybuilder and wildlife painter. Bell is also a fantasy artist and a representative of the heroic fantasy and fantastic realism genres. Bell has won Ches ...
.
History
Initially formed to publish ''The Album Cover Album'', Paper Tiger's range quickly expanded to include art which was not only connected to music, but also the visionary, the fantastic, and the best of science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...
. The staff within the company, apart from Hubert Schaafsma, Martyn and Roger Dean, included Dominy Hamilton (daughter of Richard Hamilton), Jim Slattery, Christine Miles, Shelley Alge, and Steve Henderson.
Through its imprint Dragon's World, the company published the 1978 book ''The Round Art: The Astrology of Time and Space'', by the astrologer and artist A. T. Mann
Alden Taylor (Tad) Mann, (born August 18, 1943, in Auburn, New York) is an American astrologer, writer, designer and artist who is known for his books and paintings on astrology and sacred architecture, human sexuality and gardens.
Architecture ...
.
Hubert Schaafsma bought out the Dean brothers in 1981 who left the company, and it continued under the management of Dutchman Hubert Schaafsma,[Nigel Suckling's webpage about the Paper Tiger books he has edited](_blank)
/ref> producing a series of fantasy art
Fantastic art is a broad and loosely defined art genre. It is not restricted to a specific school of artists, geographical location or historical period. It can be characterised by subject matter – which portrays non-realistic, mystical, my ...
books, many of which were edited by Nigel Suckling, who also provided text to accompany the pictures.
Under Hubert Schaafsma's leadership the Dragon's World company expanded into other imprints of Dragon's World Children's Book, Dragon's World Natural History books and Dragon's World Books _ the latter being general visual interest books. The Paper Tiger imprint dealing with fantasy/visionary/science fiction and music was expanded to publish over 250 titles in 12 languages throughout the world.
From July 1999 through October 2001, Paper Tiger issued a monthly ezine called ''The Paper Snarl'',Review of The Paper Tiger Fantasy Art Gallery book on Infinity Plus
/ref> which featured interviews with its artists.
In 1997, Paper Tiger was "rescued" by Collins & Brown
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
, before becoming an imprint of Anova Books
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
. As of late 2009, the imprint appears to be defunct.
References
External links
Paper Tiger
at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) is a database of bibliographic information on genres considered speculative fiction, including science fiction and related genres such as fantasy, alternate history, and horror fiction. The ISFD ...
{{Authority control
Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom
Publishing companies established in 1976
1976 establishments in the United Kingdom