Lazarus Chernik Announced as Judge in the L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of the Future Contest

Lazarus Chernik has been named as a judge for the international L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of the Future Contest. It is one of the world's largest, oldest, and most prestigious illustration competitions that culminates annually with the publication of the bestselling anthology for new writers and illustrators, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future. The contest is a career launcher.

The Illustrators of the Future Contest was initiated nearly thirty years ago by L. Ron Hubbard with the assistance of Frank Kelly Freas to help discover new talent in the field of science fiction and fantasy illustrations. Other contest judges past and present include legends Edd Cartier, Dave Dorman, Bob Eggleton, Will Eisner, Larry Elmore, Frank Frazetta, Jack Kirby, Paul Lehr, Stephan Martiniere, Mobius, Cliff Nielsen, Sergey Poyarkov, and Shaun Tan.

Lazarus has been Creative Director for several Fortune 500 clients including Deutsch, Grey, RSCG-Euro, MJB Marketing and Xerox, to name a few.

In a recent interview on becoming a contest judge Chernik stated, "The Illustrators of the Future Award is such an important competition because it awards young illustrators real-world benefits like advanced education, business relationships, and (of course) cash prizes. New artists rarely get to know what goes on in the meetings and goes into the decisions that affect their art and it takes so long to learn. As a Creative Director, I have seen and worked with countless artists to produce the highest quality projects. Great direction doesn't scold artists, hold their hand, or demand they realize your vision - it guides them so they realize theirs."

As a judge for the Illustrators of the Future Contest, Chernik reviews finalist entries to determine the winners of the quarter for at least 1 quarter every year. In addition he will co-lead the annual L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of the Future workshop with his wife, Echo Chernik, for the annual winners that will be flown in from around the world to Hollywood to celebrate the year's winners and release the annual anthology which will take place next March.

Following the 1982 release of his internationally acclaimed bestselling science fiction novel, Battlefield Earth, written in celebration of 50 years as a professional writer, L. Ron Hubbard created The Writers of the Future writing contest (http://www.writersofthefuture.com) in 1983 to provide a means for aspiring writers of speculative fiction to get that much-needed break. Due to the success of the Writing Contest, the companion Illustrators of the Future Contest was created in 1988.

The intensive mentoring process has proven very successful. The 380 past winners of the Writing Contest have published 838 novels and nearly 4,000 short stories. They have produced 27 New York Times bestsellers and their works have sold over 50 million copies.

The 310 past winners of the Illustrating Contest have produced over 4,500 illustrations, 356 comic books, graced 594 books and albums with their art and visually contributed to 36 TV shows and 46 major movies.

The Writers of the Future Award is the genre's most prestigious award of its kind and has now become the largest, most successful and demonstrably most influential vehicle for budding creative talent in the world of contemporary fiction. Since inception, the Writers and Illustrators of the Future contests have produced 32 anthology volumes and awarded nearly $1 Million cumulatively in cash prizes and royalties.

For more information go to http://www.writersofthefuture.com.

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