News Hugo Winners Announced (9-3-01)

Hugo Winners Announced

DC SIGNS THREE TOP ARTISTS TO EXCLUSIVE CONTRACTS

DC Comics is pleased to announce that three of comics' top artists - Doug
Mahnke, Marc Laming and Seth Fisher - have all signed exclusive agreements.

Doug Mahnke, who recently ended a run on SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL to
take over pencilling JLA with December's issue #61, has worked with DC steadily
for the past four years on projects including MAJOR BUMMER and last year's
HITMAN/LOBO: THAT STUPID BASTICH one-shot.

"I've had nothing but encouragement from my editors at DC," says Mahnke, "and
I've been kept absolutely busy all the time, which I really appreciate."

"Doug's going from drawing the World's Greatest Super-Hero to the World's
Greatest Super-Heroes," notes Mike Carlin, Executive Editor of the DC Universe.
"He's done a breakthrough job on Superman, and we have every reason to believe
that he'll do even more with the JLA."

AMERICAN CENTURY penciller Marc Laming has also joined the ranks of
exclusive DC artists, saying, "As a freelancer I'm overjoyed, because now I know
I've got regular paychecks coming in for a whole year. I've got tremendous
support from my editor, Shelly Bond, and I'm really having a blast doing the book."

"Writers Howard Chaykin, David Tischman and I have been blown away by Marc's
work," says VERTIGO editor Shelly Bond. "His exquisitely detailed pencils, not to
mention his deft research, have made this 1950s hardboiled adventure series true
to its era."

Seth Fisher, illustrator of the recent graphic novel GREEN LANTERN:
WILLWORLD as well as the two-part Paradox Press miniseries HAPPYDALE:
DEVILS IN THE DESERT, has also signed an exclusive with DC. Fisher, who is
currently developing a project with VERTIGO, says, "I am really impressed with
the way my DC editors trust me. I'm never quite sure what I will come up with,
and it's nice to work with people who trust you that much. My editors have
encouraged me to continue taking chances and experimenting with every new
project."

"Seth is an extraordinarily fast and extraordinarily inventive artist," says DC
Universe editor Joey Cavalieri. "He clearly draws on images and sources that are
different from what we expect to see in comics. On WILLWORLD, he was
always embroidering on and topping all the crazy stuff that was already in J.M.
DeMatteis' script."

Hugo Winners Announced

.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire won the 2001
Hugo Award for best science fiction novel during ceremonies
held at the World Science Fiction Convention in Philadelphia on
Sept. 2. The 2001 Hugos, recognizing work from 2000, were voted
by the membership of Millennium Philcon.

The Hugo Awards—named in honor of Hugo Gernsback, "the father
of magazine science fiction"—are presented annually by the World
Science Fiction Society. The Hugo Awards are also known by their
more formal name, the Science Fiction Achievement Awards. A
complete list of winners follows.

Best Novel

•Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Best Novella

•"The Ultimate Earth" by Jack Williamson

Best Novelette

•"Millennium Babies" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Best Short Story

•"Different Kinds of Darkness" by David Langford

Best Related Book

•Greetings from Earth: The Art of Bob Eggleton by Bob Eggleton
and Nigel Suckling

Best Dramatic Presentation

•Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, directed by Ang Lee

Best Professional Editor

•Gardner Dozois

Best Professional Artist

•Bob Eggleton

Best Semiprozine

•Locus, edited by Charles N. Brown

Best Fanzine

•File 770, edited by Mike Glyer

Best Fan Writer

•Dave Langford

Best Fan Artist

•Teddy Harvia

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

•Kristine Smith

In addition to the Hugo Awards, the Big Heart Award honoring
active fans who have demonstrated their "Big Hearts" was given to
Steve and Sue Francis. The First Fandom Hall of Fame Award for
fans who have given a lifetime of service to science fiction went to
Frank Robinson.

The newly created Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award, which is
presented to a science fiction or fantasy author whose work
deserves renewed attention, went to Last and First Men by Olaf
Stapledon. The Japanese Seiun Award for non-Japanese-language
works that were first published in Japanese translation in 2000 went
to "Oceanic" by Greg Egan for Best Short Story, and Frameshift by
Robert Sawyer for Best Novel.

Matrix Co-Star Aaliyah Dies

op star and actress Aaliyah, slated to co-star in the two
upcoming Matrix sequels, died in an airplane crash over the
weekend, throwing into question her role in the two films, wire
services reported. The 22-year-old Aaliyah perished when her
twin-engine Cessna went down shortly after taking off from the
Bahamas on Aug. 25, the Associated Press reported. Eight others
on board also died.

Aaliyah, born Aaliyah Haughton in Brooklyn, New York, was to play
Zee in the upcoming Matrix Reloaded and Matrix 3. The AP reported
that Aaliyah had already shot some scenes for the two Matrix
sequels in the spring, but was due to film the bulk of her role next
year. It is unclear what affect her death will have on the movies,
the AP reported.

Aaliyah also starred in the upcoming feature-film adaptation of
Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned novel, playing the titular vampire
empress. That film has completed production.

WB Double Books Charmed

he WB is hoping to persuade advertisers that money
earmarked for The WB's witch series Charmed could also
apply to the show's second airing on sister cable network TNT,
Variety reported. The second dose of the Aaron-Spelling-produced
supernatural drama will run at 10 p.m. Tuesdays on TNT, five days
after its initial WB airing, starting Oct. 2, the trade paper reported.

Though normal rules prohibit rerunning a prime-time series in the
same week during prime time, the TNT airing of Charmed would
take place after The WB signs off for the night.e.