AKRATIC WIZARDRY: A blog wherein I scribble about role-playing games (Mythras, Against the Darkmaster, Dungeons & Dragons [esp. old school], Swords & Wizardry, Into the Unknown, Middle-earth Role-playing, Lord of the Rings Role-playing, Adventures in Middle-Earth, Crypts & Things, Call of Cthulhu, etc.) and RPG settings (Middle-earth, Cthulhu Mythos, Greyhawk, Lyonesse, Ukrasia, etc.). I also write about fantasy and science-fiction films, novels, art, TV shows, and the like.
"The Hobbit illustrated by Where the Wild Things Are creator Maurice Sendak? It almost happened, but didn't, and all because J.R.R. Tolkien got miffed, putting a stop to what might have been the greatest edition of The Hobbit ever."
Thanks to Chris Robichaud for the link!
ReplyDeleteI keep checking the calendar ... no its not April 1, so Akrasia can't be pulling an April Fools joke on me now ...
ReplyDelete:D
I'm not too upset by that turn of events, since it would have conflated my images of Tolkien's stuff with Sendak's. But I wonder from that image whether Gandalf would be depicted at almost the same height as a hobbit ...?
ReplyDeleteI would love to have seen such an edition of *The Hobbit.* I think Sendak's style would have fit the story very nicely.
ReplyDelete"I wonder from that image whether Gandalf would be depicted at almost the same height as a hobbit"
ReplyDeleteGood point, although my initial impression was that Gandalf was kneeling in the picture.
Frazetta began to do illustrations for LotR, but he caught flak from Tolkien fans.
ReplyDeleteIt would have been a masterpeice. How brittle was Tolkien? Getting so upset because an artist hasn't read all three thousand words of his novel? And trashing some guy because of the error of his editor?
ReplyDeleteSilliness upon silliness.
"Frazetta began to do illustrations for LotR, but he caught flak from Tolkien fans"
ReplyDeleteI love Frazetta's work! To me, Frazetta's portrayal of Conan cannot be surpassed.
But Frazetta would not be a good at all fit for Tolkien's LotR, IMO.
I think Frazetta's LotR drawings are among his best ink work.
ReplyDeleteThey aren't 100% faithful to the source material, but that is to be expected. Frazetta didn't provide illustration, he provided inspiration. ;^)
Frazetta made a crack about how he thought Edgar Rice Burroughs fans were particular until he had a run-in with Tolkien's fans. =)
"I think Frazetta's LotR drawings are among his best ink work"
ReplyDeleteCan any of these drawings be found online? By any chance would you have a link to them? I'm intrigued.
Here you go. Some of these you've probably seen and just didn't know they were LOTR peices. There's another of dwarves marching that isn't on that page, but might be online somewhere.
ReplyDeleteI real dig the Sendak pic.
There is also a finished ink drawing of Gollum not found on the above site, which is similar to his painting of Gollum. I've also seen another finished ink drawing of the hobbits traveling as a group. I have no idea how many finished LotR works Frank's done.
ReplyDeleteIn the above site, the picture of Gandalf looks to be truncated and altered. In Frazetta's book Testament, there are three short guys following Gandalf, which I assume are supposed to be dwarves, although they look more like gnomes to me.
Thanks for the link, Trey. And thanks for mentioning these pictures in the first place, Bree Yark!.
ReplyDeleteSome of those pictures -- Gandalf, the Hobbit (Bilbo or Frodo?), and Gollum -- are great. But the two pictures of Eowyn seem very un-Tolkienesque to me (too 'cheesecakey'; not that there's anything wrong with that, especially for 'swords & sorcery' pictures, but it's not right for Middle-earth IMO).
ReplyDelete