American Illustration's 25th anniversary timeline features 25 illustrations by 25 of today's top artists. Bending time, space, and perspective, these artists push the boundaries of visual expression, creating an artistic Utopia that is diverse and subversive in both subject and execution.

1997: Hale-Bopp, The Great Comet, by Karen Barbour

The great comet approached the earth on March 22nd, not to return until 4397.

Karen Barbour lives in Inverness, California with her husband and two children. Her illustrations have appeared in The New York Times, Vogue, Harpers, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, and she has done animations for MTV and created illustrations for Ralph Lauren, Sony, and Showtime, among others. Her most recent children's book is "Mr. Williams" (Henry Holt). Her artwork has been shown at the Shiseido Gallery in Tokyo, Jack Hanley Gallery in San Francisco, Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco, and at the Villa Poniatowski in Rome.

1998: The Great Zidane, by Mark Ulriksen
Zinedine Zidane of France heads in the first and winning goal in the World Cup final against Brazil, with many notables of the year watching from the stands.

Mark Ulriksen is an artist and illustrator, working out of a small studio in his San Francisco home. After more than half a dozen rejections, Mark's work was initially accepted into American Illustration 8, and since American Illustration 12 has been featured annually over the past 14 years. Since 1993 Ulriksen has been a regular contributor to The New Yorker, where he has created 25 covers, focusing especially on a few favorite subjects: baseball, dogs and crass politicians. Of late Mark has been working on children's picture books ("Dog Show," "The Biggest Parade"), gallery
exhibitions, and commissioned dog portraits.

1999: Profiles: by Roberto Parada
A Mount Rushmore of those we watched, followed and lost.

Roberto Parada has been a freelance illustrator since graduating from Pratt Institute in 1991. Primarily an editorial illustrator, he has done illustrations for Time, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and Entertainment Weekly among others. In September of 2003, Roberto was diagnosed with severe aplastic anemia, an often fatal bone marrow disease. After two failed treatments, Roberto's doctor located a perfectly matched donor for a bone marrow transplant. Roberto's September 2004 transplant was a great success and he resumed his illustration career three months later. Roberto believes in working with non-toxic artist materials and has advocated this upon learning that some of the toxic materials he had been working with may have caused his illness.

2000: Dude, Where's My Election? by Steve Brodner

The 2000 Florida wait-out, fake-out, non-vote-count as a comedy/murder/meditation on the world-alerting power of boredom.

Steve Brodner's illustrations, cartoons, and reportages have appeared in nearly every major periodical in the United States, including Harper's Magazine, The National Lampoon, Esquire, The Progressive, New York Magazine, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post and The Village Voice. Brodner has also worked as a political commentator, a publisher, and a movie poster designer. He has taught illustration at the School of Visual Arts since 1992.

Brodner has won awards from the Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, Communication Arts, the Society of Newspaper Design, and the Society of Publication Designers. He was also the recipient of the 2000 Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. Brodner's published books include "Fold 'N Tuck," "Davy Crockett," and "Freedom Fries." He lives in New York with his wife, writer and actress Anne Pasquale, and their 15-year-old daughter, Terry.

2001: Grey Snow, by Guy Billout
Artist's view of the Battery Park City promenade and the Statue of Liberty on September 11th.

Guy Billout career high points:

1969: Arrives in New York, from France, with a portfolio of 14 drawings, which Milton Glaser publishes in New York Magazine.

1972: Writes and illustrates first children's book, "Bus 24," for Harlin Quist, selected by the New York Times for their list of the 10 best illustrated children's books for that year.

1982: First full page drawing in The Atlantic Monthly, for a regular feature that lasted 24 years.

1993: Writes and illustrates sixth children's book, "Journey," published by Creative Editions.

2001: First drawing for articles by Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker.

2006: Writes and illustrates ninth children's book "The Frog Who Wanted to See the Sea," published by Creative Editions.