GILLILAND, Alexis A(rnaldus)

(1931-)

   US cartoonist and writer who won HUGOS as Best Fan Artist in 1980, 1983, 1984 and 1985; he also won the JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD for Best New Writer of 1982. As an official in the US Federal Government 1956-82, serving mainly as a chemist and specification writer, AAG was well situated to spoof bureaucracy, though his first sf books, the Rosinante trilogy - The Revolution from Rosinante (1981), Long Shot for Rosinante (1981) and The Pirates of Rosinante (1982) - significantly stop short ofdepicting all forms of government as intrusion. Set on a space station chafing at bureaucratic interference from faraway Earth, the sequence amusedly depicts first the successful revolt, then the dawning realization of the occupants that their COMPUTERS have taken control. The End of the Empire (1983) features, contrastingly, a protagonist who works to defend aGALACTIC EMPIRE against a comically conceived LIBERTARIANISM, on the grounds that too little government is no less damaging than too much. AAG's second series, the Wizenbeak sequence - Wizenbeak (1986),The ShadowShaia (1990 and The Lord of the Troll-Bats (1992) - is fantasy, featuring a comical wizard who had appeared in cartoon form in previous years. AAG's books of cartoons, where Wizenbeak can also be found, include The Iron Law of Bureaucracy (graph coll 1979), Who Says Paranoia Isn't "In" Anymore (graph coll 1985) and The Waltzing Wizard (graph coll 1990).

   JC