Lifetime Achievement Award

Reflecting on 50 years of Michael Whelan art

Jul 13, 2025

The World Fantasy Award against a brown gradient background. The award features the winding trunk of a tree in front of a full moon. — The World Fantasy Award, redesigned in 2016

Arguably few artists have made as massive of an impact on the field of fantasy as Michael Whelan. Driven by boundless imagination, his vibrant palette and realistic style have influenced the generations of illustrators who followed.

This week the World Fantasy Awards announced they would be honoring Michael for Lifetime Achievement, a humbling moment for the artist as news landed with resounding applause from fans everywhere.

LEFT: On a ship making its way through foggy water, Elric poses with one foot resting on the gunnels. The aft is decorated with intricate scrollwork that includes a dragon and several demon heads. Elric wears a black winged helm and a regal tunic with yellow accents. Fine silver chainmail shows underneath. The milky white skin of his arms and legs are bare to the elements. His eyes mirror the jewel at his belt as he stares down at the audience gripping Stormbringer while running his free hand along the long black runeblade. The sight of him leaves the crew, armed with swords and spears, shrinking back in fear. RIGHT: Standing atop ruins at the end of the world, an anguished Elric thrusts the runeblade Stormbringer to the heavens. The sky behind him roils with clouds rendered in acidic green. The chainmail on his right arm is torn. He wears a yellow tunic and belts strapped across his waist and chest crusted with jewels. His purple and black cloak billows in the wind. From a leather cord, he holds an ivory horn with ornate swirls of gold. The ruins he stands upon are crumbling, including the face of a skull that is missing a chunk of forehead and part of the orbital. The mouth isn't human given the fangs in its mouth and the horns protruding off the side of the head that is intact. Off to the side, a pterosaur-like creature perches with wings spread. — SAILOR ON THE SEAS OF FATE (1976) and STORMBRINGER (1977)

“Many thanks to the World Fantasy Con folks,” Michael wrote on Facebook when the news broke. “I’m truly honored.”

“One thing I never anticipated when I started my career was all the friends and wonderful people I'd get to meet and know, from famous writers and fellow artists to enthusiastic fans of the same books and films that inspired me so much. To be part of such a terrific and wonder-affirming community has made all the difference.”

LEFT: Ruth, a pearl white dragon with green eyes, poses regally with wings spread against a cliff face. Her rider Jaxom rears back, saddle-mounted just above her wings. A foreclaw grips rock as the other releases, flexing like fingers. Ruth's tail, marked with a parallel ridges of short spikes and ending in a spade-shaped tip, curls forward around her back leg. A tiny dragon grasps Jaxom's finger, perching like a bird. Across the misty valley, a group of dragons take flight, soaring past the Red Star which hangs in deep blue sky like a bloody moon just above the jagged spine of mountains. RIGHT: John Carter stands over the body of a green Martian with a rapier plunged into its chest. In his arms, he carries Dejah Thoris who lays a hand across her chest covering one breast. She wears no clothes but accents of gold jewelry and chains cover her arm and waist. An angry mob of green Martians gathers behind the raised dais as John Carter looks for an escape. The wall behind them is open in an onion style arch revealing brilliant blue sky and a large craggy moon. The surrounding pillars are marbleized metallic green swirling against smooth sand-colored stone. An elegant laser pistol lies on the floor in the immediate foreground. — THE WHITE DRAGON (1978) and A PRINCESS OF MARS (1979)

Michael is, of course, no stranger to recognition. In a stellar career spanning 50 years, he won the Hugo for “Best Professional Artist” seven years in a row and 13 times overall (both records) plus another 2 Hugos, 12 Chesleys and 3 World Fantasy Awards.

In Locus Magazine’s annual poll, readers named Michael “Best Artist” a staggering 31 times, including an inconceivable run of 21 consecutive years from 1980 through 2000.

In 2009, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame—the first living artist to receive the honor!

LEFT: Lit by a building set ablaze on the horizon, a young girl stands on a ridge overlooking the destruction. Next to her lay the charred husks of three humans, reduced to little more than skeletal remains. Lines of zig-zagging fire run through the field behind her, indicating that she was the point of origin of the inferno that clouds the sky with billowing black smoke. Her hair whips in motion as if she's just caught sight of the audience. Her eyes are fixed with searing intensity on her next target. RIGHT: A red iris with distorted pupil, bent down and bean-shaped, dominates a gray montage of horrific elements. Festering pustules form on the lids—both upper and lower—while a transparent inner sheath slides over the moist eyeball. Curving fangs protrude from the ground below, tips dripping with blood. A barren tree composed of melting, tormented faces extends leans on a diagonal. Tiny red eyeballs break up the ghastly driftwood surface. At the base of the tree, a nymph-like wraps one leg around the trunk while craning her head back. A branch grows in the place of her free arm. Did she capture these souls or is she one of them? Stringing webs between teeth and tree, a spider tends to a body contorted in agony with arms wrapped at its chest. A mound of skull piles along the side of the tree. Rats with beady red eyes play hide-and-seek in the orbitals. An insect-demon stands on a crate with limbs raised to the crescent moon. Hands work free between boards to reach out and up from the box. — FIRESTARTER (1980) and LOVECRAFT’S NIGHTMARE, Panel A (1981)

What makes Michael Whelan an exceptional artist is his relentless drive to get better. Each time he steps up to the easel, his goal is improve upon the last piece he finished and to top what he’s produced before.

That’s a tall task at this point in his illustrious career. It’s hard to live in the shadow of Michael Whelan, even when you’re Michael Whelan.

That’s why moments of special recognition like this matter. They give an artist driven to excellence an opportunity to appreciate their journey, reflect on all the hard work put in over the years, and feel how much the art—and the person—means to the world.

LEFT: A silhouette of a baby rendered in hazy blues is laid over the planet Jupiter with only a sliver of stormy surface showing against starry space. An obelisk filled with stars is positioned over both—transparent where it overlays the baby's eyes and nose. A long slender spaceship with spherical nose section dominates the foreground. Pointed away from the planet and positioned within reach of Starchild's clasped hands, the ship resembles a baby rattle. RIGHT: In the rubble of Trantor, a man stands on a broken pillar to gaze out a galactic spiral spinning brightly against a celestial canvas of stars. The immediate foreground is lit to give it an earthy red tint while the vista of planetary wreckage is gray-green leading up to a brilliant starscape of green and blue. Crumbling structures form a series of frames to give a sense of distance across the ruined surface of the planet. — 2010: ODYSSEY TWO (1982) and TRANTORIAN DREAM (1983)

Curating Michael’s art online offers me a daily connection to fandom, providing a unique window of insight. I do my very best to share all of the feedback with Michael, and I can tell you how humble and gracious he is receiving praise. But I’m not sure how much he lets it all sink in.

There are moments of discovery with our audience every week. I didn’t realize Michael painted that cover! Are there any books he didn’t illustrate?

There are personal connections and stories shared. Michael inspired me as a young artist to pursue art professionally. My parents had that book on the shelf. I stared at the cover before I could even read, and now I’m reading it to my kids.

And there are some who treat a Whelan cover like the North Star. I always know if his art is on the cover, the book is worth reading. Michael Whelan never misses!

I read all of your messages. I know how beloved this man is, and I’m so happy whenever he receives recognition like this because it is so well deserved.

I know he won’t let any of this go to his head, so please join me in sharing your appreciation for the gift of a lifetime that Michael continues to share with us.

And I can’t leave without sharing his initial reaction to receiving the lifetime achievement award: “Hey, I’m not done yet! Wait ‘til you see what I’ve got planned!”

-Michael Everett

Retrospective Perspective

The art accompanying this newsletter is limited to the first decade of Michael’s career, one painting per year, a masterpiece every one of them. I could think of no better way to demonstrate the consistent quality Michael has delivered.

He’s done covers for legends like Michael Moorcock, Anne McCaffrey, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein.

And this sample is just the beginning of his career…I didn’t have room for all 50 years in one newsletter! If you’d like perspective that highlights the long arc of Michael’s career, please check out the full Retrospective gallery on the website.

Want even more exhaustive detail? Check out the Bibliography page to see the full list of Michael’s original cover illustrations along with a list of awards organized by year.

Weekly Art Recap

Grid of images 3 across in 2 rows corresponding to the list below. — Art featured from July 7 - 12

2010: Odyssey Two - cover illustration for Grand Master Sir Arthur C. Clarke
Eye - playing on both the letter form and the ocular opening in the stone
A Splash of Magic - the 6th in the 2025 Leftover & Palette Gremlins gallery
A World of Light and Shadow - another painting that arrived by dream
Cornered - interior illustration for The Dark Tower by Grand Master Stephen King
No Service - both a light-hearted and heavy piece from the 2022 L&PG gallery

Coming Soon

Join us for another Whelan Wednesday featuring the next installment in the 2025 Leftovers & Palette Gremlins gallery.

An exclusive preview of the original art for this week will be available to our paid subscribers on Substack before the art is released in our shop on Wednesday, July 16 at 11am ET.

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Mia Kleve

Jul 13

(On the Retrospective page, THE WAY OF KINGS is labeled as 2012 instead of 2010.)

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Cybele Baker

I've been a fan since I first saw his Pern book covers back in the early 80's. It's really true that his art was sign of a good read for me. Through him I discovered Melanie Rawn, C.S. Friedman, Tad Williams and more. His cover of Paula Volsky's Illusion is one of the most beautiful pieces I've ever seen! So very well deserved, thank you for leading me to so many incredible authors.

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