Ikonographica Dreams, Ikons, and Fantasies

"The images presented here are solidly original, redefining much of what passes for today's lauded fantasy art…Ikonographica makes me an admirer instead of an artist."
-Michael Wm Kaluta

This first comprehensive collection of Stephen Barnwell's fantasy drawings features outstanding artworks from his illustration career, spanning almost forty years. Included in this amazing book are his complete works published in the groundbreaking collectible card games, "Mythos" and "Heresy, Kingdom Come." Barnwell's work has appeared in numerous books, magazines, newspapers, and gaming products. His fine art has been in over 90 exhibitions in galleries and museums worldwide, and his work is in several prestigious collections. His previous books have been named Best Books of the Year by Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus Reviews, as well as garnering multiple awards.

A Visionary and Symbolist artist, Barnwell creates images of angels, demons, dreams, magick, and nightmares. Rather than high fantasy, with swords and sorcery and dragons, Barnwell's fantasy reaches deeper into the collective subconscious, revealing mankind's primal visions and mythology. Overflowing with over 115 dazzling illustrations, "Ikonographica" is a feast for the eyes. A must-have book for all fans of fantasy and gaming art, it is a book that you will enjoy over and over, sharing with special friends, with each viewing of the book discovering new meaning and delight. With a special introduction by the legendary comix and fantasy artist, Michael Wm Kaluta.

Stephen Barnwell is a professional artist, working in printmaking, illustration, and book design. His prints have been exhibited internationally in museums including the Palais de Tokyo Contemporary Art Museum in Paris, the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art in California, the Altmärkisches Museum in Stendal, Germany, and the Lahti Art Museum in Lahti, Finland.

Barnwell has been in over ninety exhibitions in galleries across the country and around the world, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Santa Barbara, Houston, London, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Brussels, Naples, Seville, Budapest, Copenhagen, Finland, Hungary, and Bulgaria.

His prints and originals are in private collections in all fifty US states and in fifty-one countries around the globe, and they are in the permanent collection of the Danish National Museum, the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles, the Haupt Collection in Berlin, the Lake Eustis Art Museum in Florida, and Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania. He has won numerous awards for both his artwork and his book publishing, including Best Book of the Year nods from both Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly. Michael William Kaluta is an American comics artist and writer best known for his acclaimed 1970s adaptation of the pulp magazine hero "The Shadow" with writer Dennis O'Neil. Kaluta's early work included a three-page adventure story, "The Battle of Shiraz," in Charlton Comics Flash Gordon #18 (Jan. 1970) and an adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Venus novels for DC Comics. Kaluta's influences and style are drawn from pulp illustrations of the 1930s and the turn of the century poster work of Alphonse Mucha – his signature motif is elaborate decorative panel designs – rather than the comic books of the Silver Age. Kaluta has worked rarely with the superhero genre although one of his early contributions for DC was a World of Krypton backup story in "Superman #240" (July 1971). His first cover for a comic book was "House of Mystery #200" (March 1972).

Associated during the 1970s with Bernie Wrightson and Jeffrey Jones, he contributed illustrations to Ted White's "Fantastic" and "Amazing." Kaluta co-created Eve in "Secrets of Sinister House #6" (Aug.–Sept. 1972), a horror comics "host" character later turned into a supporting character in "The Sandman." He and writer Dennis O'Neil produced a comics adaptation of "The Shadow" for DC in 1973–1974. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that "Kaluta's style [on "The Shadow"] is an homage to Graves Gladney, master of the pulp magazine covers of the 1930s." Kaluta left the series after drawing five of the first six issues.

Kaluta was one of the four comic book artists/fine illustrator/painters (along with Jeffrey Jones, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Bernie Wrightson) who formed the artists' commune The Studio in a loft in Manhattan's Chelsea district in 1975 and continuing to 1979. In addition to many comic book stories and covers, Kaluta has done a wide variety of book illustrations.

Kaluta drew the cover for the "Madame Xanadu" one-shot in 1981 which was DC's second direct sales only comic. He and writer Elaine Lee crafted Marvel Graphic Novel #13 "Starstruck: The Luckless, the Abandoned and Forsaked" which led to an ongoing series which ran for six issues. Kaluta and O'Neil reunited on "The Shadow: 1941 – Hitler's Astrologer" graphic novel published in 1988. In 2006, Kaluta was one of the artists on the "1001 Nights of Snowfall" graphic novel written by Bill Willingham.

In 1984 he drew the illustrations for and directed the music video of "Don't Answer Me" by The Alan Parsons Project, which became one of the most requested videos of the year on the cable video channel MTV. Among music fans, Kaluta is known as the cover artist of Glenn Danzig's instrumental album "Black Aria" and for the interior illustration of Danzig's fourth album, the latter of which appeared in 1994 and 1995 as a pendant sold at Danzig concerts, and on Danzig T-shirts and sweaters produced in the same period. Kaluta created the CD covers and interior booklet illustrations for "Nativity in Black I and II," tribute albums to the music of Black Sabbath. Kaluta drew the cover art for the Bobby Pickett album The Original "Monster Mash" when it was reissued in 1973.

Kaluta has worked for role-playing game companies such as White Wolf Publishing. He has done artwork for collectible card games companies, including a comic book for Wizards of the Coast's "Magic: The Gathering" and illustrating cards on Last Unicorn Games' "Heresy: Kingdom Come."