Luis Royo (born 1954) is a Spanish artist. He is best known for his fantasy illustrations published in numerous art books,[1] magazines such as Heavy Metal[2] and various other media including book and music CD covers, video games and Tarot cards.[3]
Beginning his career as a furniture designer, he was attracted to the comics industry in the late 1970s by the work of artists like Enki Bilal and Moebius, and in 1979 he turned to art as a full-time career.[4] Within a few years, he was publishing art within and on the covers of such magazines as Comix Rambla Internacional, El Vibora, Heavy Metal, National Lampoon, and Comic Art as well as providing cover illustrations for several American publishers.
An ongoing collaboration with Heavy Metal[11] produced a large number of magazine covers including the 20th anniversary issue in 1997.[12] Illustrations for the character F.A.A.K. were based on actress Julie Strain.
Women, Royo's first art book was published in 1992. It brings together many of his cover illustrations up to that date into one volume.[14] His second book, Malefic, was published in 1994 and was dedicated to fantasy and science fiction imagery. This was followed in 1996 by Secrets, which was dedicated to erotism.[15] Later art books, (III Millennium, Evolution, Visions and Dark Labyrinth) explored the same genres combining science fiction, apocalyptic worlds and myths of beauty and the beast,[16] but received criticism for their explicit content.[17]
Luis Royo and "Dead Moon" books
In 2006, joined by Romulo Royo, Luis Royo traveled to Moscow to complete a commission to paint a fresco on a domed ceiling, reflecting classic themes of eroticism. The process and result of this work was published in another art book, Dome.[18]
In 2018, he published the chest Projects with two books: Goddesses and Custom-Made, compiling his last works and projects.
Royo began to work on Dead Moon in 2009, a project with an oriental theme. This produced two art books, Dead Moon and Dead Moon: Epilogue that tell a love story. Royo also designed a tarot deck using the Dead Moon theme.[19] The original paintings were exhibited at Salón del Manga de Barcelona,[20]ExpoManga[19] and retail store Fnac.[21]
In 2011, Luis and Romulo Royo started a multimedia project, Malefic Time, that included illustrated novels, a role playing game, figures based on illustrations, calendars and other spin-offs.[22]
Among his latest exhibitions are "Art Generations" at the Palazzo Ducale in the walled city of Lucca, organized by the Lucca Comics & Games fair,[24][25] the exhibition space with more prestige worldwide dedicated to fantasy, "The Dream of Fantasy" at the European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM) in Barcelona, and "Komorebi Eterno: Japan through Fantasy Art" at the Spanish-Japanese Cultural Center of Salamanca.[26]
As a culmination of his artistic career, the Uffizi Gallery (Florence, Italy) has requested his self-portrait to add it to its collection.
Awards and exhibitions
In 1994 Penthouse magazine reported on Royo's work and later in 1996, one of his images was used on the cover of the American and German editions, both with an interior report. In the same year he received the Spectrum silver award for best contemporary fantastic art. Reports on his work also appeared in other publications: La Stampa in Italy, Airbrush Action in the United States and Penthouse Comic in Germany.
In 1998 Royo exhibited at the Norma Gallery in Barcelona and at the Viñetas desde o Atlántico comic festival in A Coruña. He received the Millennium Prize at the 7th Salone del Fumetto Cartoomics convention in Milan in 2000. He also exhibited his work in St. Petersburg in 2001 and received the El Peregrino fantasy award at CTPAHHNK.
In 2006 Royo exhibited his work at the 24th Barcelona comic fair. He also received the Unicorn fantasy award at the 7th International Fantasy and Terror Film Week in Málaga.
An extensive collection of derived works has also been published, including calendars, collectible cards, and portfolios.
Related Research Articles
Frank Kelly Freas was an American science fiction and fantasy artist with a career spanning more than 50 years. He was known as the "Dean of Science Fiction Artists" and he was the second artist inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
Bryan Talbot is a British comics artist and writer, best known as the creator of The Adventures of Luther Arkwright and its sequel Heart of Empire, as well as the Grandville series of books. He collaborated with his wife, Mary M. Talbot to produce Dotter of Her Father's Eyes, which won the 2012 Costa biography award.
Philip Foglio is an American cartoonist and comic book artist known for his humorous science fiction and fantasy art.
Wallace Allan Wood was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, widely known for his work on EC Comics's titles such as Weird Science, Weird Fantasy, and MAD Magazine from its inception in 1952 until 1964, as well as for T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, and work for Warren Publishing's Creepy. He drew a few early issues of Marvel's Daredevil and established the title character's distinctive red costume. Wood created and owned the long-running characters Sally Forth and Cannon.
Frank Brunner is an American comics artist and illustrator best known for his work at Marvel Comics in the 1970s.
Boris Vallejo 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 fiction novels. They are also sold through a series of annual calendars.
Hunt Emerson is an English cartoonist. He was closely involved with the Birmingham Arts Lab of the mid-to-late 1970s, and with the British underground comics scene of the 1970s and 1980s. His many comic strips and graphic novels have been translated into numerous languages.
Paul Gulacy is an American comics artist best known for his work for DC Comics and Marvel Comics, and for drawing one of the first graphic novels, Eclipse Enterprises' 1978 Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species, with writer Don McGregor. He is most associated with Marvel's 1970s martial-arts and espionage series Master of Kung Fu.
Charles Vess is an American fantasy artist and comics artist who has specialized in the illustration of myths and fairy tales. His influences include British "Golden Age" book illustrator Arthur Rackham, Czech Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha, and comic-strip artist Hal Foster, among others. Vess has won several awards for his illustrations. Vess' studio, Green Man Press, is located in Abingdon, VA.
Dave Dorman is a science fiction, horror and fantasy illustrator best known for his Star Wars artwork.
Kevin Nowlan is an American comics artist who works as a penciler, inker, colorist, and letterer. He has been called "one of the few artists who can be called 'artists's artist'", a master of the various disciplines of comic production, from "design to draftsmanship to dramatics".
Nicola Cuti, known as Nick Cuti, was an American artist and comic book writer/editor, science-fiction novelist; he was the co-creator of E-Man and Moonchild, Captain Cosmos, and Starflake the Cosmic Sprite. He also worked as an animation background designer, magazine illustrator and screenwriter.
Greg and Tim Hildebrandt, known as the Brothers Hildebrandt, are American twin brothers who worked collaboratively as fantasy and science fiction artists for many years. They produced illustrations for comic books, movie posters, children's books, posters, novels, calendars, advertisements, and trading cards. Tim Hildebrandt died on June 11, 2006.
Arthur Suydam is an American comic book artist known for his work on Marvel Zombies, Deadpool, Black Panther, and KISS Zombies. He has done artwork for magazines including Heavy Metal, Epic Illustrated and National Lampoon, while his comic book work includes Batman, Conan, Tarzan, Predator, Aliens, Death Dealer, and Marvel Zombies.
Alfonso Azpiri Mejía was a Spanish comic book artist, whose work was mainly of the adult variety.
Penthouse Comix is an American mass-market, magazine-sized comic book, published by Penthouse International/General Media Communications from spring 1994 through July 1998. Founded and initially edited by George Caragonne and Horatio Weisfeld, it originally ran 32 issues plus one special edition. Foreign versions of Penthouse Comix remained in publication through 2011.
Horatio "Ray" Weisfeld is a writer/editor/publisher who co-founded mass-market comics magazines and developed other media properties. His creation of often irreverent commercial entertainment follows in the footsteps of his father, Irwin Weisfeld, a writer and manufacturer of ubiquitous mid-late '60s counterculture buttons.
David Palumbo is an American illustrator and fine artist.
Romulo Royo is a contemporary artist, born in 1976 in Zaragoza, Spain.
Malefic Time is a visual project created by Spanish artists Luis Royo and Romulo Royo. It is set in a post apocalyptic world that mixes reality, leading to the decay of the society, with real manifestations of mythological beliefs and superstitions of different cultures.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
