Always Wear Your Best Suit
- ALWAYS WEAR YOUR BEST SUIT - A black ink and gray pencil drawing on an 11 x 14 size coquille board. It appeared in "Dragon Magazine," No.148.
While working on this drawing I thought about the works of the great fantasy writers like Tolkien, Leiber, Howard, Merritt, and Hodgson. I must tell you something though, I have been fortunate to have illustrated the works of those great writers, with the exception of one; J.R.R. Tolkien. But I was offered a chance to do so by a book publisher who was going to reprint "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
Tolkien however, objected, he wanted to illustrate the books himself! Later on I learned that Tolkien had also objected to Frank Frazetta illustrating his books. That is truly a sad thing, Frazetta's artwork would have added immensely to the books. But, I don't recall seeing any Tolkien illustrations in his "Lord of the Rings" book trilogy either! Perhaps it is best that no one illustrate the books, sometimes, "images" of the story and it's characters are better left to the imagination of the reader.
And yet, how lucky we are that along came movie maker Peter Jackson to adapt "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy , and "The Hobbit" books into the wonder-filled movies that they are. How many of us could possibly "visualize" those books the way he does for us in his magnificent films?
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