Posts Categorized: Art

Art

Cover Art | Two covers for BLACKVEIL by Kristen Britain

By Aidan Moher February 7th, 2011
UK Cover
BLACKVEIL by Kristen Britain
US Cover
BLACKVEIL by Kristen Britain

Two very different takes on Blackveil by Kristen Britain. I’ve never read Britain’s Green Rider series, but in my younger days I was always very attracted to the cover for the titular first volume, Green Rider. I mean… who didn’t think a disappearing ghost horse was cool?

The US cover features art from Donato Giancola, one of my favourite Fantasy artists and hits on every note that originally drew me to The Green Rider. It’s a Fantasy cover to the nth degree, but sometimes I like that. Still, my tastes have grown in the past 13 years and, as much as I can appreciate the US cover, the UK cover appeals to me much more and matches just as well with the series’ previous UK covers (Green Rider, First Rider’s Call, The High King’s Tomb); I imagine those four look mighty fine side-by-side on a bookshelf.

Either way, Britain’s not done poorly in either region.

Art

An Aside | GRRM’s A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE being adapted into a comic book

By Aidan Moher February 2nd, 2011

Jon Snow from the comic adaptation of GRRM's A SONG OF ICE AND FIRERevealed on GRRM’s blog, to coincide with the release of HBO’s television adaptation of his A Song of Ice and Fire will be a comic book adaptation. It seems crazy, frankly, given the depth and complexity of the novels, but I’m comforted to see that friend-of-the-blog Daniel Abraham is scripting and adapting the comics. Few authors have Abraham’s ability to pack a lot of action and story into a small space. Not only is Abraham a fantastic writer, he’s also close friends with GRRM, which should ensure a good line of communication between the original source material and the adaptation. Abraham’s already adapted several of Martin’s other novels into comic books.

Martin on the release date:

The first issue of the monthly comic is scheduled to be published by Dynamite Entertainment in late spring 2011. The graphic novel compilations will be published by Bantam.

And the artist:

Tommy’s previous credits include FARSCAPE for Boom! Studios, the movie adaptation THE WARRIORS for Dynamite Entertainment, and TALES FROM WONDERLAND, THE WHITE KNIGHT, RED ROSE, and STINGERS from Zenescope Entertainment. He holds a BS in Studio Art and also works as a graphic designer. Patterson lives in Western Kentucky with his wife and daughter.

Of course, now this just adds fuel to the GRRM-should-be-chained-to-his-chair-until-he-finishes-A Dream of Spring crowd. For those of us who are a little more optimistic, and enjoyed the comic book adaptations of The Hedge Knight and The Sworn Sword, this should be another fun way to experience Martin’s Westeros.

Art

An Aside | China Mieville’s web comic: LONDON INTRUSION

By Aidan Moher January 28th, 2011

Via Battle Hymns, I ran across this cool project from everyone’s favourite New Weird/Cephalopod/Space Opera crossover writer, China Mieville:

Posted on Mieville’s Tumblr, Rejectamentalist Manifesto, the web comic, titled London Intrusion, features many of the same strengths and elements seen in Mieville’s prose fiction: it’s urban, it’s weird and it’s filled with shades of grey (hah!)

China Mieville's web comic: LONDON INTRUSION

At the time this article is being written, Mieville has published eight ‘parts’, each written and illustrated by himself. A many of many talents, no? For a writer known to take readers to strange and unexpected corners of the world (whether ours or a secondary world he’s crafted), it should be fun to see Mieville work in a medium that’s completely unshackled from expectations of sales, publishers and marketing departments. If his ‘mainstream’ prose is weird, I can only imagine what he’s got in store for London Intrusion.

Art

Cover Art | THE MOOREHAWKE TRILOGY by Celine Kiernan

By Aidan Moher January 25th, 2011
THE MOOREHAWKE TRILOGY by Celine Kiernan

Oh my. Celine Kiernan‘s US/UK covers are nice enough in a pedestrian kinda way, but this set of covers from Australia blows them clear out of the water. It’s great to see a publisher take an idea and execute it so surely. Seriously, click on the image above to see them int their hi-res glory. The seamless black and white artwork from Elise Hurst is beautiful, and the touch of colour in the title is just enough. The only thing I don’t completely love are the Roman numerals cluttering up the titles. I haven’t been so enamoured with a set of covers since I first saw the UK covers for Joe Abercrombie’s novels.

Unfortunately, any excitement and motivation to read the series stirred up by the covers is stamped down again by the fact that the protagonist of the series is named ‘Wynter’. So close, Kiernan. So close.