Subject: (urth) Lupine Fan Art

From: James Wynn <thewynns at earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 11:57:55 +0000

PMorris33 at aol.com wrote:
>> Has anyone noticed that there is not much "fan art" connected with
>>Wolfe?  I've seen the lovely archives of Tolkien fan art at Berkeley.
>>At least a 20 year old collection.  And I've seen the interesting
>>collections for Ian Banks and Peter F. Hamilton.
>>
>>But why hasn't Wolfe inspired the same kind of fan art?
>>
>>Thanks Pippin

>There was a book published some years ago, called REALMS OF FANTASY
>(I think), written in part by Robert Holdstock (I think), in which ten of
>the most famous fantasy worlds were described along with illustrations
>by various artists, and I believe that Urth was the tenth world
>depicted.  It's been some years since I've seen the book, but I don't
>recall being particularly impressed with the illustrations.
>
>(The other worlds I remember being in the book were Tolkien's
>Middle-Earth, Moorcock's Melinbone, Le Guin's Earthsea, Donaldson's
>Land, and Peake's Ghormenghast.  That leaves four more that I can't
>remember, though.)
>
>I know Pippin's question was about "fan art," but there hasn't been a
>tremendous amount of "professional art" related to Wolfe either.  This
>Holdstock book is the only Urth-related artwork I've seen (other than
>the covers, of course).
>
>Charles

Ohmygosh! I complete forgot about this book sitting on one of my shelves. I
bought it coincidentally about 2 months before I read tBotNS for the first
time at a friend's recommendation. Each section has an article by the
authors (Malcom Edwards and Robert Holdstock) discussing the topic. It seems
to be out of print.

Here's a run-down of the topics and the illustrations:

Urth
Illustrations by Michael Johnson
The best fantasy illustrator of all those featured in this book IMO was
reserved for "The Book of the New Sun."
My favorite picture is of the Baldander's castle with the Hierodules' ship
parked over it.
It also includes:
The Botanical Gardens
Father Inire and his mirrors.
Nessus from a distance across the Gyoll. (Not my particular vision of the
city but well-done anyway.)

This topic is actually the last in the book, and the article is decently
insightful considering "Citadel of the Autarch" had only been released the
year before this book's publication. The authors compare tBotNS favorably to
LotR.
The article also mentions William Hope Hodgson's "The Night Land".

Middle Earth
illustrated by Paul Monteagle
Unimpressive illustrations in the world of available Tolkien fan art.

Gormenghast
illustrations by Ian Miller
These are actually nice illustrations reminiscent of David Day's
illustrations in "A Tolkien Bestiary".

Hyborea (The Realm of Conan)
illustrations by David O'Connor
Unimpressive illustrations. But then, for me, there's no worthwhile Conan
art after Frank Frazetta.

Melnibone
Illustrations by Mark Harrison
Yeoman's work but nothing I would hang on a wall or anything.

Earthsea (Le Guin)
Illustrated by Stephen Bradbury
Well-done but in a remarkably "dated" style

The Land (Thomas Covenant Chronicles by Donaldson)
Illustrated by Mark Harrison
The illustrations are okay but mostly unremarkable. Nice picture of Lord
Foul's towers.

Mars
illustrations by Dan Woods
Very nice illustrations.

Discusses:
Leigh Brackett's "The Sword of Rhiannon"
H.G. Well's "War of the Worlds"
Phillip Farmer's "Jesus on Mars"
E.R. Burroughs' novels
C.S. Lewis' "Out of the Silent Planet"
Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" and "Thrilling Wonder"

Lost Worlds
illustrations by Bill Donohue
Discusses:
A.C. Doyle's "Lost World"
James Hilton's "Lost Horizon"
H. Rider Haggard's various novels
E.R. Burroughs' novels
Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth"
also
Abraham Merrit, Dennis Wheatly, Gary Kilworth, Richard Cowper, Robert
Holdstock, and a mention of the French movie "Le Vallee" (which was
unremarkable except for its Pink Floyd soundtrack)

Atlantis
illustrations by Chris Foss
Two nice illustrations. I wish there were more.

Discusses:
Plato
Thomas More's Utopia
Sir Francis Bacon's "The New Atlantis"
Abbe Charles-Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg
Jules Verne's "20K Leagues Under the Sea"
R.E. Howard's "King Kull"
Jane Gaskell's Atlan saga
Tolkien's "Silmarillion"

~ Crush

P.S. I posted all of Charles' post because I wasn't sure how many had seen
it
but me. But its not my SOP
:-)

---

From: consuelo jalees <con_j at hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 03:47:52 +0000

> >>But why hasn't Wolfe inspired the same kind of fan art?

hello there,

with regards to fan art, i have some home grown stuff here:

http://www.thisoneis.com/artwork_01
http://www.thisoneis.com/artwork_02

please don't be too harsh with it, i am an amateur :)

i was very inspired when first reading the BotNS and got the idea into my 
head to try and do some illustrations as if they were designs for an 
imaginary film of the series. something i intend to carry on with.

kind regards,

consuelo

---

From: Charles Reed <cmreed at link.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 07:49:13 +0000

Crush,

I'm not a big art connoisseur, but I do get a Tolkien calendar every 
year (going back to 1974), and I have to admit that I'm little bit a 
Frank Frazetta fan. 

James Wynn wrote:

> <snip>

Thanks for the recap.  I looked through this book briefly in a used book 
store some years ago, and sort-of regret not having picked it up.  I 
might need to look around for it again.

>illustrations in "A Tolkien Bestiary".

I've got the BESTIARY, but have yet to read it.  Sadly, I can say the 
same thing about lots and lots of books.

(One of my favorite rhymes is from a wonderful little book called 
WHISKERS AND RHYMES, and goes like this: 

   Books to the ceiling,
   Books to the sky.
   My pile of books
   Is a mile high.

   How I love them.
   How I need them.
   I'll have a long beard
   By the time I read them.)

>art after Frank Frazetta.

Frazetta is the king.  But have you checked out the new Conan comic 
book, published by Dark Horse?  It's written by Kurt Busiek, with art by 
Carey Nord and coloring by Dave Stewart.  The art is unlike any comic 
book art I've seen before -- you could almost describe it as "raw" -- 
and I'm really digging it.  Everything about the book is amazing in its 
"channeling" of REH's Conan, and I would go so far as to say that it 
compares very, very favorably with Frazetta.  They're only up to issue 
7, so back issues shouldn't be too hard to find, and I'm sure a trade 
paperback will be out shortly collecting the first few issues.  If you 
can spare $3.00 a month, you ought to check out an issue or two, 
although I believe the next issue is going to have a "guest artist" 
instead Nord.

Charles

---

From: Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 14:10:59 +0000

> http://www.thisoneis.com/artwork_02

try
	http://www.thisoneis.com/artwork_01.html

	http://www.thisoneis.com/artwork_02.html

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
Lead Playtester, GURPS Ultra-Tech for 4/e
< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >

---

From: consuelo jalees <con_j at hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 04:19:52 +0000

>
>In a message dated 9/18/2004 12:04:00 PM Pacific Standard Time,
>urth-urth.net-request at lists.urth.net writes:

>Let's put this fan art up on the official website.  (Assuming that the
>artist gives permission)
>
>Pip
>
>
yes, that is fine with me

consuelo