Guests' Web Picks

Greetings! For those who know me, I'm just as surprised as you are to see myself writing here. For those who have no idea who I am let me introduce myself. My name is Jean-Francois Gervais (aka "Jay" or "JFG") from New-Brunswick Canada and a couple of years ago I started a web site focused on non-Japanese anime-style fan art called "The Fan Art Headquarters". Here's the little story of how it all started.

Without really being aware of what anime was, the Saturday mornings of my childhood were spent watching Astroboy, Voltron, Captain Harlock, The Mysterious Cities of Gold, Anime Three Musketeers, and many other anime, most of them in French. My official introduction to anime and manga came years later, though, as I became friends with what could be considered typical otaku. I watched the obligatory anime like Ranma and Bubblegum Crisis but I found myself enjoying manga more than animation and it got me interested in drawing fan art.

When I got access to the Internet back in 1996, I started to look for anime fan art sites and as expected I came upon a plethora of Japanese pages but very little english pages in comparison. Furthermore, there was no one site with a definitive link list of non-Japanese artists, kind of like an equivalent of TINAMI for the rest of the world. So I decided to try to make one.

I started the Fan Art Headquarters in April 1997 though it's not until several months later, in August to be precise, that it took off. By then the format of the Fan Art HQ, which had previously only consisted of an artists directory, had expanded to include fan art news, interviews with artists, and other such segments. Thankfully, I got much help from many people to maintain the new sections that continued to be added as time went by and traffic to the site increased. By late spring 1998 I didn't have much time to devote to the site and the Fan Art HQ had become too much work for me so I passed everything on to and the rest of staff.

It is now who is in charge of the site and it appears there are yet more changes on the horizon. The site is evolving into a more mature and versatile community to include and promote professional artists and not just fans. I've had a lot of fun working on the site and it's been worthwhile. If nothing else, I think the Fan Art HQ has managed to at least unite many artists, get them to know each other and enabled many to work in collaboration projects together. Some artists have even made contacts within the industry to get their art published. Also, I want to point out that many of the artists that have contributed to the Fan Art HQ are of professional caliber. That is why it's been recently decided to drop the "Fan" from the name of the site. I wish the best to all of them and long life to the HQ (under whatever name it takes) ^_^

Jean-Francois Gervais
jfg@nbnet.nb.ca

My picks

If you have any interest in anime artwork at all, or if you are an artist yourself, I can't recommend this site enough. There are all sorts of collaboration projects between artists, news, interviews, galleries, and a large link list of non-japanese anime artists with web pages.

The first monthly fan art gallery of its kind features the work of many artists drawing the same chosen anime character every month. The concept has proven to be popular and has resulted in more than half a dozen similar fan art sites. This site partly inspired me in making the Fan Art HQ.

Here are links to some of my favorite non-japanese artists on the net. By no means is this list all inclusive - there was just no way to list them all here so I settled on five. If you enjoy what you see on any of those pages I suggest you email the artists and let them know, it makes all the difference in the world to receive feedback.

This is somebody whose artwork I would love to see published and I'd be the first in line to buy it - providing I'd have money, of course -__-;; Aside from her drop-dead-gorgeous artwork you will find on her site fanfics and other stuff worth your time. Her web page is well done, loaded with humor, and loads fast so you have no excuse not to stop by this one.

Another artist which I admire. He has a couple of different illustration styles, my personal favorite being what he calls his "tweaked" style. He certainly is quite productive, there must be well over 800 of his drawings on the site, the majority consisting of "furry" art - Sonic the Hedgehog fans will be in heaven here.

Chun has had several of her works published in Singapore and once you visit her page you will see why. Her choice of colors and computer coloring is really beautiful. There is also a large quantity of material to see on her site including both original and exisiting characters.

Wicked! Her enjoyable illustrations and short mangas could be described as outlandish oddities (or as Mal best puts it "Tim Burton meets anime") and her characters range from the somber freakish to the adorably cute. She has also had artwork published in Singapore and some in the same books as Chun, actually I believe they are friends.

Pendako Club features more drop-dead-gorgeous artwork, this time from John Kim and Naska Chijoue. I think John is in the US and Naska is in Canada but what do I know and what does it matter for in the presence of such beautiful artwork nothing really matters ^_^ Pendako Club is a relatively new site and is still partially under construction but promises more goodies in the near future.