Andrew Stephenson

Andrew Stephenson at Conspiracy 87; Photo by Mark Olson

(October 8, 1946 –)

Andrew Michael Stephenson is a UK fan, writer and fan and professional artist active from 1969.

Professionally, he published two novels in 1977 and 1979 as Andrew M. Stephenson and five short stories between 1970 and 1997. His artwork, often signed Ames appeared on two covers and several interiors of Galaxy and interiors of some editions of Inverted World by Christopher Priest among others. More recently he wrote the Waterloo Sunset comic series, collected in 2006.

Stephenson entered fandom in 1969 and began contributing artwork to fanzines from 1971, again usually signed 'Ames'. Covers and interiors appeared on Macrocosm, Zimri, Speculation and Vector. According to Rog Peyton, around 1975–6 he produced 'a wonderful set of illustrations, each in the style of famous pro artists' for a projected new edition of The Enchanted Duplicator. However, that particular edition never appeared and it's not known what happened to the artwork. He contributed the King of Cups artwork for the Fantasy Showcase Tarot Deck.

In a letter to Vin¢ Clarke quoted in Then (page 277), Stephenson explained his approach to fan art:

At the time most publications used mimeo and, while many artists (eg. Atom and Harry Bell) were capable of amazing results in the medium, I wanted to be free to pile in detail and textures. This meant favouring faneds prepared to use offset litho. Hence work in such places as Lisa's Zimri, Rob Holdstock's Macrocosm, and the BSFA's Vector.

Stephenson would top the 1973–4 Checkpoint poll for best fan artist, placing second in 1972–3 and third in 1974–5.

He was also the co-editor (with Lisa Conesa) of Zimri #3 (June 1972), contributing an editorial and a fanzine review column as well as art. Other fan writing appeared in Malfunction #6, Maya #5, Blunt #2, Cynic #2 and Wrinkled Shrew #7, with the latter also featuring 'It’s Hell Being a Contemporary of Andrew M. Stephenson' by Rob Holdstock. He was a co-writer of and performer in 'The Wizard of Ozimov', a fannish skit performed at Tynecon, the 1974 Eastercon.

In 1974 and 1975 he was part of the jury for the Nova Awards and he was for a time on the committee for SEACON 75, the 1975 Eastercon, but resigned over the selection of Michael Moorcock as guest of honour. He acted as UK agent for Noreascon Two, the 1980 Worldcon.

He was a founder member of the writers' group Pieria and also attended UK versions of the Milford workshop. He continued to attend Eastercons into the twenty-first century. Professionally, he was an electronics design engineer.

Links

• Entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
• Andrew Stephenson in Internet Speculative Fiction Database

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Person

1946—

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