"Rotsler's religion is the joy of life"
- Robert Silverberg

"...a genius and a remarkably gifted talent dealing in evocative symbolism"
- Robert Bloch

"To say Bill Rotsler is a remarkable man is a sad bottom-line indeed; inadequate"
- Harlan Ellison

"...amazing and a great talent"
- Stan Freberg

Amazing, March 1972

Check this out: the glorious cover of Amazing, March 1972 - featuring "Star Level" By William Rotsler - and drawn by the legendary Vaughn Bode




About the Rotsler Award

(from http://www.scifiinc.org/rotsler)

The annual Rotsler Award is for long-time wonder-working with graphic art in amateur publications of the science fiction community. Established in 1998, sponsored by the Southern California Institute for Fan Interests (SCIFI), it carries a $300 honorarium. The Award is ordinarily announced at Loscon, the Los Angeles s-f convention held over the U.S. Thanksgiving Day weekend in November. The current judges are Mike Glyer, John Hertz, and Claire Brialey.

Bill Rotsler (1926-1997) knew everyone and did everything. He went house-hunting with Marilyn Monroe. He wrote s-f. He sculpted with welded steel rods. He celebrated the West Coast Science Fantasy Conference (Westercon) as his birthday. In the s-f community he was best known for graphic art, mostly in the amateur publications by fans, for fans, which we call fanzines. The name fanzine was coined by Russell Chauvenet in the 1940s.

The highest achievement award in the s-f community is the Hugo, named for s-f pioneer Hugo Gernsback, voted annually in several categories by members of the World Science Fiction Convention. Rotsler won the Hugo Award as Best Fan Artist five times, in 1975 and 1979, 1996 (when he also won the Retrospective Hugo for 1946) and 1997, a remarkable span. His cartoons were deft, his serious drawing fine, his fluency downright breathtaking. On this page, four samples.

Rotsler Award winners
1998: Steve Stiles1998: Steve Stiles
1999: Grant Canfield1999: Grant Canfield
2000: Arthur Thomson2000: Arthur Thomson
2001: Brad Foster2001: Brad Foster
2002: Kurt Erichsen2002: Kurt Erichsen
2003: Ray Nelson2003: Ray Nelson
2004: Harry Bell2004: Harry Bell
2005: Marc Schirmeister2005: Marc Schirmeister
2006: Alexis Gilliland2006: Alexis Gilliland
2007: Terry Jeeves2007: Terry Jeeves
2008: Taral Wayne2008: Taral Wayne
2009: Dan Steffan2009: Dan Steffan
2010: Stu Shiffman2010: Stu Shiffman

2011: (no award given)

2012: Ross Chamberlain

2013: Jim Barker

Read 5 Time Hugo Winner William Rotsler's Patron Of The Arts ($2.99 - Free on Amazon Unlimited) and The Far Frontier ($2.99)