# Pick Top 10 creative figures



## Caliban (Sep 10, 2017)

Pick your top 10 favourite creative figures. I thought this might be fun.

- favourite isn't the same as best.
- Doesn't have to be SFF related.
- by creative figures I mean things like:

- Authors
- Directors
- Playwrights
- Screenwriters
- Video Game Makers
- Artists
- Poets

- so for example you can have Shakespeare, Robert Frost, Pablo Picasso and Ridley Scott in the same list if you like. You can put a bit about why you like their work as well if you like.

and anything else you can think of that I might of missed.

I've been thinking about my own and I'm not sure yet I will add mine later


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## The Big Peat (Sep 13, 2017)

I've been thinking about this one on and off and have yet to really get somewhere. An overwhelming amount of choice and many of the people I think about collaborate a lot; I don't want to name everything involved, but equally don't want to name just one.


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## Caliban (Sep 13, 2017)

Yep it is really difficult. I think it's fun though.


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## Rodders (Sep 14, 2017)

Interesting question. I'll need to mull it over, but off the top of my head and in no particular order;

Stephen King; It took me a long time to get into Stephen King, but his volume of work is impressive and two of his books (It and The Stand) rank in my top ten favourite books. Add on an impressive amount od screen adaptations. 

Ralph McQuarrie; His concept work on Star Wars, Buck Roger and Battlestar Galactica had a real impact on my childhood. Why wouldn't he be in my list.  

Edmund Cooper; A purely personal choice, simply because i loved his books so much in my teenage years. 

J. M. Straszyncski (spelling?); Babylon Five remains my favourite Sci Fi experience in any format. 

George Lucas; As a child of the 70's, Star Wars was my main introduction to SF. I lovethe movies and It's given me a life long hobby which even after 40 years, i still enjoy. 

Gene Roddenberry; Star Trek mainly. The sheer body of work involved and the spin off novels has to be appreciated. 

Chris Foss; I just love his artistic Style. 

2000AD; Can i put this in? I wasn't exposed to Marvel or DC growing up but 2000AD was spectacular. So many great characters and so many great stories. Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, DR and Quinch, Halo Jones, Rogue Trooper to name but a few. I would love to see these characters generate a new audience on the big screen.


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## Mouse (Sep 14, 2017)

This whole thing's going to be depressingly male, isn't it?

I can only think of Hayao Miyazaki at the mo off the top of my head.


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## Cathbad (Sep 14, 2017)

- Authors - Agatha Christie
- Directors - Jim Henson
- Playwrights - Agatha Christie
- Artists - Boris Vallejo
- Poets - Thoreau
- Actor - Anthony Hopkins
- Actress - Joan Hickson
- Game Producer - E. Gary Gygax
- Businessman - Bill Gates
- Comedian - Lucille Ball


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## Montero (Sep 14, 2017)

Authors - lots and many female. Don't have one top one.

Rosemary Sutcliffe - for evocative description and great adventure stories - from teens to present day.
Anne McCaffrey - first genre author I enjoyed, got me started on SFF.
Closely followed by Andre Norton.
Continuing then with Barbara Hambly - I was buying those when they had to be imported from the US.
Katherine Kerr for her Deverry series - first Celtic sort of fantasy I read
Lois McMaster Bujold for both sf and fantasy
Terry Pratchett for keen observation and clever use of same. Great one liners.
Jasper Fforde - I love the take on literature in his books. (And recommend his website as well - nicely bonkers)
Ben Aaronovitch - for taking the mick out of bureaucracy with such style and his one liners.
Julie Czerneda - for doing scientists so well and making biology such a key to her trilogy species imperative
Tanya Huff - for her sense of fun in sff

Film - another one for JMM Strazinsky for Babylon Five

Also - writers of Dr Who, Life (the wonderfully offbeat cop drama with Damian Lewis) and The Closer. (Have to go look up who they are, breakfast is now calling, so ...later.)  With Life I'd also highlight - good use of music as part of the storytelling. It enhances it, rather than making dialogue hard to hear.

Don't really have a top business person. I think in general I'd vote for the old quakers - the sort like Fry who did a lot of good for their workers.


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## Caliban (Sep 14, 2017)

Mouse said:


> This whole thing's going to be depressingly male, isn't it?
> 
> I can only think of Hayao Miyazaki at the mo off the top of my head.



Yeah it is. I think that's probably more to do with sexism in the various industries not allowing women into them than sexism on the part of us making the list though. There are far more women authors than in other fields in the list but even then they are underrepresented.

Btw. I don't personally consider business people as creative but if other people do then that's great and it's a good idea to include.


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## Jo Zebedee (Sep 14, 2017)

Lots of creative business leaders! 

Branson - love him or loathe him - is very creative in his approach to running a business. 

Steve Covey - his writing style is accessible and original and his thoughts on principle- led leadership were ground breaking.

Charles Handy - not just some great thinking on culture but I have a book in the house where he talks about women inspirations. 

Anita Roddick felt very creative


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## The Big Peat (Sep 14, 2017)

Taking a tentative swing...

Sir Terry Pratchett
Sergio Leone
Neil Gaiman
Ennio Morricone
Grant Morrison
JRR Tolkien

And I'm kinda out on people I'd definitely have in my top 10, although there's people who could be in there. The longlist of potential additions would include Le Carre, Andre 3000, David Gemmell, Jed Mercurio, Robert Jordan, Randy Milholland (guy behind webcomic Something Positive), WB Yeats, Bernard Cornwell, Lindsay Davies, Robert de Niro, Michael Mann, Clint Eastwood, Robert Howard...

Groups where I feel unable to identify one sole member but would arguably make up the top 10 ahead of the names I just gave

Games Workshop's Development and Art Department up until the publication of 40K 3rd edition (the beginning of the end for me)
Everyone who worked on The Eldar Scrolls: Morrowind
All members of the band Dark Tranquillity
The staff of White Wolf up until the creation of the New World of Darkness


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## Stephen Palmer (Sep 17, 2017)

Paul McCartney
Kate Bush
Jack Vance
Gene Wolfe
Max Ernst
Leonora Carrington
Edgar Froese
Erich Fromm
Lynn Margulis
Nigel Shaw & Carolyn Hillyer (this last one is a bit of a cheat!)


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## DragonAether (Sep 25, 2017)

Well, that's an interesting question

I would choose people like
Eric Fromm
Sean Connery
Thomas Moore (actually I never read something properly by him, but i studied him and I loved his philosophy)
Umberto eco
Leonardo sciascia
George Lucas
Christoper Nolan
Rick riordan
Suzanne Collins
Douglas Adams

Then there are the games's developers, that would be a long list of indie developers


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## Stephen Palmer (Sep 27, 2017)

DragonAether said:


> Well, that's an interesting question
> 
> I would choose people like
> Eric Fromm



Can I offer you huge and sincere congratulations!
Great to meet another 'Frommer'.


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## Mouse (Sep 28, 2017)

Ok, so as well as Miyazaki...

Eastman & Laird
Kate Bush
Dodie Smith
Oscar Wilde

Well that's six.


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