Ken McIntyre Award
A British award for the best fanzine art, named to commemorate fan artist Ken McIntyre, who died in August 1968. Once or twice, the longer name Ken McIntyre Memorial Award appeared; Checkpoint 15 also mentioned a fund associated with it. There was a trophy of some kind passed among the winners, with their names "presumably engraved" on it.
It is unclear how exactly the award ceased to exist, and even its inauguration misfired: Then quotes Pablo 12 reports from December 1970 that the Ken Mcintyre award "was being organised by Rog Peyton and would be presented for the first time at the 1971 Eastercon", but then Checkpoint Trial Issue 0 and Focal Point reported it as "not awarded this year". (This may have to do with a complicated and lengthy nomination process that the final rules entailed.)
It seems to have had a fraught history. Already in 1981, the Yorcon 2 PR 2 mentioned it as "sadly neglected in recent years" (together with the Doc Weir Award; PR 4 rephrased it as "often neglected"). Keith Freeman was the administrator then, and the eligibility period was described as "the convention year", i. e. the time since the last Eastercon.
In 1989, the rules were reported (apparently, they were re-printed in the Eastercon program books or Progress Reports at least until Beccon 1987, but these are not available online yet) as:
The Ken McIntyre award is given for the best fanzine artwork of the year. All pieces of art must be nominated in advance. Both the original artwork and a published copy must be on display at the con. The winner is chosen by a committee that consists of: 1) A BSFA nominee, 2) A Knights of St. Fantony nominee, 3) The convention committee nominee, 4) Rog Peyton (or proxy), 5) A. N. Other. In the event that any of these members is not available, then the remaining members of the Ken McIntyre award committee may select others to make up the number.
By mid-1990s, the award had a hiatus of 3 years, both due to general changes in fandom and fanzines, and a loss of energy or interest by the original organisers. There was a rec.arts.sf.fandom discussion in 1998, where Bernie Peek posted:
The Ken MacIntyre [sic!] award is in an even worse state [than the Doc Weir Award discussed originally]. It wasn't mentioned in the con publications this year [later corrected as it was in PR3] and wasn't awarded. The award was originally intended to be for fanzine art. The conditions laid down for choosing the recipient makes it very difficult to administer. Because it's theoretically possible to meet the conditions, no Eastercon feels that it has the authority to change the rules.
As noted, the 1998 committee was interested in presenting it, but their trial balloon in PR3 did not elicit sufficient response.
We tried to administer the Ken MacIntyre [sic!] award at the 1996 Eastercon. Both the original and the published form of the artwork need to be displayed, and must be judged by a panel of five people […] Ken Slater and Rog Peyton were two of the judges in 1996 - one of them was keen for the award to be revived and publicised to encourage more entrants, the other thought it might be better if it died quietly. We could not award the prize that year, as there was only one entrant.
John Dallman mentioned "a small fanzine I did about it" in 1997, and another re-post by Dave Langford summarised most that was known by then.
| Year | Winner | Reason | Notes / source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | Jim Pitts | cover of Balthus 2 | Wrongly announced in Vector (62?) BSFA News column as Martin Pitt; error reproduced in the first version of Rob Hansen's THEN. Erratum note in Vector 63. The Balthus 2 piece is named as the winning artwork in a Pitts interview in Dark Horizons 9. | |
| 1973 | David Fletcher | cover of Shadow 18 | Reported in Checkpoint 37 and 38 | |
| 1974 | not presented | According to report in Checkpoint 47 | ||
| 1975 | Carol Gregory | Cover of Black Hole (number not cited) | Reported in Checkpoint 61 | |
| 1976 | Paul Dillon | Assumed from slightly garbled report in Tackett's Travels in Taffland; no mention in Checkpoint; not engraved on award | ||
| 1977 | Jon Langford | ?cover of Drilkjis 1 | Year and win confirmed in Twll-Ddu 7, May 1977; award engraving cites Drilkjis 2 | |
| 1978 | Steve Bruce | cover of Tangent 3 | ||
| 1981 | Pete Lyon | cover of Matrix 34 | ||
| 1982 | Rob Hansen | cover of Epsilon 8 | misspelled as "Hanson" on award | |
| 1985 | Iain Byers | cover of Wallbanger 9 | Reported in Birmingham Science Fiction Group Newsletter 164, April 1985; not engraved on award | |
| 1989 | Jim Porter | cover of Concatenation 2 | See next item | |
| 1990 | Jim Porter | "Eastcon", per award engraving | Reported in BSFA Matrix 88, June/July 1990, as his "second year running" win | |
| 1991 | Colin Johnston | Illumination badge design | Reported in BSFA Matrix 94; spelled "Johnson" on award | |
| 1992 | Colin Johnston | cover of Illumination program book | Reported in Brum Group News 248, May 1992 (winner here spelt Colin Johnson, as also on award) | |
| 1994 | Barbara Mascetti | the Stratmann wedding invitation | Reported in Ansible 81 | |
| 1995 | Dave Harwood | cover of Attitude 2 | Reported in Ansible 94 | |
| 1996 | not presented | "received no nominations" according to Ansible 106; just one recalled by administrators, see above | ||
| 1998 | not presented | "still languishing in fannish apathy", as Ansible 130 put it | ||
| 1999 | Tom Abba | Reported in Ansible 142, incl. the award being "formerly for fanzine art, now revived for 'unpublished artwork in Eastercon art show'"; not engraved on award | ||
| 2000 | Sue Mason | 2Kon Progress Report 1 cover | https://news.ansible.uk/a154.html#01; engraved on award as 1999 |
Even the reform attempts, whatever they brought beside the relaxation of eligibility (downsizing the jury was discussed), turned out to be shortlived: the Paragon 2001 report in Ansible 166 does not mention the award at all, but Jay Hurst won the "Paper Tiger art show award", which Abba won as well in 1999. As this was presumably better sponsored and organised, it would have made the McIntyre's new definition superfluous.
The award currently (2024) remains in the possession of its last winner, Sue Mason.
Entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
| Award | 1972—2000 |
| This is an award page. If you know something about it, such as who awarded it, who the winners were, what the criteria were, and when it was awarded, please add it! See Standards for Awards. |
