Kevin's Watch

Hi all, new to the boards here, please pardon my indiscretions,

I just started rereading all the TC books to prime my pump for the new chronicles (it's been SO long since I read the first two chronciles).

1) I was wondering if anyone's come across some good artist renditions of some of the creatures of The Land, such as the Waynhim, Cavewights, ur-viles, etc.? If so, I'd love some links to them to show my wife (in an attempt to get her interested in reading them for the first time).

2) I'm sorely disappointed in the quality of the maps in the paperback copies of the first two chronicles. The ink appears to be almost smeared, rendering the text on the map barely legible. Are there any good repoistories of Land maps online? I searched these boards and found links to a book available at Amazon, but I don't have the patience to order it right now. I've also seen links to a colored (yellow background) map, but it's not quite printer-friendly, either.

Thanks in advance for any tips,
Oyjord.

PS: Bless you, SRD, for a new chronicles!

Welcome to the Watch, Oyjord! I was very disappointed by the poor quality of the paperbacks as well (I'm assuming you mean the new ones with the ugly colors). Unfortunately, I don't know of any site that has a comprehensive and legible map of the Land. Even SRD's own website doesn't have such a thing. An "official" online map of the Land is definitely something I'd love to see on SRD's site.

"Good artist renditions" of creatures of the Land must number between rare and non-existent, I think. A special limited hardback edition of Gilden-Fire (the famous "outtake" from The Illearth War) features some minimalistic but evocative illustrations of Bloodguard, Lords, Ranyhyn and ur-viles in action, done by Stephen E. Fabian. I like his drawings, but his style--at least in that book--seems to turn the world of the Land into something more closely resembling Frank Herbert's Dune. The Bloodguard could be mistaken for Fremen...but they're both cool, so I'm okay with that.

There is a "coffee table" book called Realms of Fantasy which has a section devoted to the Chronicles that offers full-color paintings of places in the Land, beautifully done by Mark Harrison. Some of these have been scanned and posted in the Album section of the Watch. He didn't do any creature drawings, though.

Dutch is a Watch member who has done some wonderful and whimsical pencil drawings of scenes from both the Chronicles and the Gap books. Here's a link to some of his work: www.foxden.net/~dutch/PencilLand.html

theland.antgear.com/artwork.html

Also, to see other covers for TCOTC, including the Michael Whelan ones, the Darrell Sweet ones, and the covers for the French editions by Boris Vallejo, click the link in my sig.

Nice collection of covers edge.....

Uh...who's the half naked chick on two of the French covers--not really what I expected Elena to look like-I thought she usually wore a Lord's robe.

Thanks!

I don't know who that could be if not Elena - I can only assume that Boris Vallejo prefers the women he depicts to be half-naked. Or maybe it's a French marketing thing.

On that subject (TC covers, not half-naked chicks) - if anyone has or knows of any covers I don't have there, please let me know.

I'm currently working on a Beastiary.

Thus far I have an ur-vile and argula drawn.

I’m thinking the French publisher is recycling covers. I’d swear I’ve seen those before. Two of ‘em on Red Sonja books and the third probably on a Conan. All from around the mid 80s.

Wow, well spotted, Lurker Raver! I'm impressed!

Did a bit of investigating - 2 of them are indeed from Red Sonja. Here's one of them, titled 'Invictus', which is listed on Boris Vallejo's site under the category of 'Conan the Barbarian':

www.imaginistix.com/details.cfm?Id=334

And the other one, titled 'Snow Giant', was apparently originally an illustration from the 'Berserker Base' series (and not, as far as I can make out, anything to do with SRD's 'Berserker' chapter.

www.imaginistix.com/details.cfm?Id=627

And that certainly explains why it's hard to identify them with any character from TCOTC!

Now I'm wondering about the 'Lord Fouls Fluch' and 'De Letzte Walstatt' covers (what is that, German?) which portray an armoured horde with strange creature, and a 'Ming The Merciless' type character, respectively. Maybe those are also recycled?

LOL, that one on the top row, far right... why is Ming the Merciless in the Land?

Looks just like the character from the Flash Gordon movie

Will the real Despiser please stand up?

Die letzte Walstatt.....The Wounded Land?

'Die letzte Walstatt' (Chronik von Thomas Covenant dem Zweifler 3) = 'The Power That Preserves'.

I started work on a picture of Kaseryn for danlo, but it was so hard. Intend to draw Ur-Viles.

LOL The Despiser is Ming the Merciless

I always pictured Kaseryn as sort of looking like that.

Ming the Merciless Good grief.

And people complain about the Darrell Sweet covers...

I kinda pictured Kaseryn like that too...maybe a little more like Jafar from "Aladdin"...

I've always envisioned Patrick MacNee (the Avengers) as the voice of the Despiser...

And no, I don't think he should look like Ming the Merciless...

MrKABC wrote:I've always envisioned Patrick MacNee (the Avengers) as the voice of the Despiser...

And no, I don't think he should look like Ming the Merciless...

Sort of like when Patrick was the Ultimate Evil in the original Battlestar Galactica

Creator wrote:

MrKABC wrote:I've always envisioned Patrick MacNee (the Avengers) as the voice of the Despiser...

And no, I don't think he should look like Ming the Merciless...

Sort of like when Patrick was the Ultimate Evil in the original Battlestar Galactica

Exactly!! Imagine Patrick MacNee's voice saying, "Be silent, or I will roast you before your time..."

Howdy! First post.
I picked up a book by one of my favorite illustration-artists, Wayne Douglas Barlowe, called Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy. It is a follow-up to his Hugo-nominated Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials of the late seventies, which illustrated beings from many science-fiction classics. The Guide to Fantasy is a collection of depictions of beings from classic fantasy. On pages 28-29 may be found an illustration of Drool Rockworm, the cavewight. On first sight I thought "What the hell was he thinking?", but after some reflection and a re-reading of SRD's description, I can see it. Barlowe took the description of Drool's head as "like a battering ram" to an unexpected conclusion, but his cavewight design is strangely effective. Seeing this image makes it easier for me to imagine the antlike Sunbane-warped cavewights that make an appearance in The Wounded Land. There are problems with the illustration. In it, the Illearth Stone is held completely within one of Drool's fists, so that all that is visible of it is green light leaking through his fingers. I got a strong impression from the books that the Illearth Stone was quite a bit larger than that. The Giant-Ravers held flakes from it in their fists, and the flakes were clearly visible. Also there is a side-illustration of the Staff of Law which might work with the description of it from Lord Foul's Bane, but the desciption of Vain sliding the metal heels of the destroyed staff onto his wrist and ankle from The Wounded Land could not possibly work with Barlowe's design. Still, his work is interesting and informative. The two Guides are not Barlowe's best work. If you are curious about this artist, I can solidly recommend his book Expedition, which is a travelogue of an exploration of another world's ecosystem, and Barlowe's Inferno, which is a travelogue from Hell. It is terrible, beautiful, and not for the faint of nature.