I may have been the wrong person after all to talk to you about these icons, not because I don't think the imagery is beautiful and well-rendered, but because, with the notable exception of Calvin, I have no idea who any of these people are, nor what their particular icons might mean LOL

So, in light of that, I will say that the imagery IS beautifully rendered, the subject matter- while baffling to a pop culture noob like me- is probably exceedingly appropriate to your target audience, and they are correct, they are lovely icons. I particularly love the Calvin icon, both because I am a huge fan, but also because I think little Calvin commenting on "The Gay Agenda" is something his author might have done, himself, given the opportunity ;)

The "Big Tool" icon is cute, tho I have to say I had to study it for a moment to make out what it actually was. Again, though, I suspect that the members of that fandom will get it right away ;) The icon on the far right top row is lovely. And is that Godzilla? What does the Chinese text say and why is he climbing the icon from both sides? ;)

I wish I understood them better. I'm sorry I can't be more helpful :(

I almost said something about context being important to grokking an icon. The images are so small that they frequently require a shared cultural background to derive meaning from them. I've seen icons for fandoms I know nothing about and even the best of them tend to leave me flat. I didn't say anything, though, because one of my complaints about my work is the composition and text, which I think one can have an opinion about without knowing the fandom.

My favorite art form is the portrait and I think that's what I gravitate to in cropping pics. Another iconner agreed with me that I tend to go for the tight, extremely up-close view -- and textless. Partly, I think it's old eyes with a long history of myopia wanting everything crystal clear and partly I think it's not knowing what to do differently.

while baffling to a pop culture noob like me

Hee - I'm not certain that Sci Fi will ever be pop culture if it isn't Star Wars but I know precisely what you mean. It was why, in fact, I threw in the icon on the bottom row labelled, "Ben." Nobody will get the context for it because Ben is an original character created by jalabert. I was hoping to offer enough icons that were context-free so that not every icon would speak to those who share my brand of geek-itude.

I particularly love the Calvin icon

I really wish Watterson were still drawing C&H. *sigh* For me, the golden days of comics were The Far Side, C&H, and Bloom County. I wasn't certain Watterson would have touched a political hot button but I loved using the exaggerated horror of the innocence represented by Calvin to comment on the stupidity of the whole "we're under siege" mentality. It's also a reference to the idea of "we have to be taught to hate."

The "Big Tool" icon is cute, tho I have to say I had to study it for a moment to make out what it actually was.

It was a moment that stood out to me visually from nine years of the show and it's one of the first icons I made because I sought out the image to icon while working my way through awmpdotnet's brilliant Pop Art on Photoshop series. I can totally see, though, that the non-Stargate fan would not recognize that as our studly alien ally shooting the cannon off of a downed Glider. ;-) Otherwise, as mcroft intimated one time, it looks like a much more suggestive icon than I ever saw it as.

And is that Godzilla? What does the Chinese text say and why is he climbing the icon from both sides? ;)

Yes! It is Godzilla. jalabert is a HUGE fan of G and she asked me to make her some G icons when I first started. I threw that icon in because it's as close as I come to, "meaning divorced from context and meant to please solely by its looks" in an icon. The cap itself was boring so I had to use composition and color. I made G a plastic-y green (he was gray in the cap) as a salute to the often cheesy nature of early G movies, fer instance.

I wish I knew what the Chinese says. That was a total compromise because what I really wanted was a Japanese character that I wish I knew what it said. After all, Godzilla is Japanese! ;) Seriously, it's there solely for atmosphere and not because there's any meaning. The two-sided thing was my playing with image repetition to emphasize a point - in this case his looooong tail. Since Chinese art tradition is the closest I get to Japanese art, I also tried to have each non-written element continue beyond the edge of the icon -- the implication is that this is a window on the world and does not contain it. Yadda. It sounds pretentious now that I'm typing it but it wasn't meant that way. It was my trying to capture a style.

I wish I understood them better. I'm sorry I can't be more helpful :(

Awww. *hugs* You're more helpful than you know. Just going through and explaining the icons in response to your comments made me realize that I try to pack a LOT of meaning into an icon; that meaning is typically visible to just me. I haven't incorporated as much meaning of late and that could be the true source of my discontent. It's something for me to think - and ramble on and on - about. :)