Infographic: Disworld Reading Order Guide

"The Disworld Reading Order Guide" by Krzysztof Kietzman

In case, like me, you're thinking about how you should finally get around to reading that Discworld series everyone's always raving about, let me share with you this really useful chart that I found. Discworld is kind of a collection of loosely connected sub-series, which can be intimidating when you're standing in the aisle of a book store.  This chart very helpfully shows you where you can start reading the series.

Click through to download versions of the chart in other languages, including Spanish, Italian, and German.

Posters: The Neverending Story

"The Neverending Story" by Marc Simonetti

This is a gorgeous poster for my favorite kid's books. I think Simonetti did a fantastic job capturing the wonder of the book in this poster. Honestly, I don't know why there aren't more fan tributes to this franchise.

Posters: The Lord of the Rings Quotes

The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings Tribute by Danika Maust

Posters: The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings by Colin Morella

Prints available for purchase from RedBubble.

Posters: The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings Series by Felix Tindall

Prints available for purchase from Society6. US$17.68

Artist: Dejan Delic

Illustrations by Serbia-based Dejan Delic
A Song of Ice and Fire Series

Here's a series of very color illustrations inspired by George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.  These would look great on a deck of playing cards.

Posters: Lord of the Rings

Lord of the Rings Triptych by United Kingdom-based Matt Ferguson

Part of Ferguson's solo art show, "Distant Lands," March 27th, 2015, at Bottleneck Gallery.

Humor: Fantasy New Year Resolutions

"New Year’s Resolutions" by G. D. Falksen

Here are some New Years resolutions that I can get behind!

Cards: Fandom Christmas Paintings

"Hobbit Christmas Card" by Russia-based Lena (Nokeek)

Prints available for purchase from RedBubble.

Lena has created an absolutely gob-smacking assortment of Christmas cards featuring gorgeous canvas painting of your favorite fandoms decked out in holiday motifs.  My favorite is the TARDIS wrapped in the Fourth doctor's scarf, but the portrait of Bilbo's front door hung with a wreath lends me a whole new appreciation for those round Hobbit doors.

Short Film: Murphy

"Murphy" by ISART DIGITAL

"Murphy" is a fantasy film set during the invasion of France that follows the story of a British paratrooper with the unfortunate luck of landing in the middle of a forest.  When the injured soldier is eventually found by an adorable magical creature, things don't turn out the way you expect them to though.  All the little guy wants is to help the soldier out, but he just makes things worse and worse.

"During the Second World War, an English paratrooper crash-lands in a forest leaving him wounded. He meets a creature that tries its best to help him. However, the ordeal is just beginning…"

Sketches: Inktober Monsters

"Inktober day 9." by Isvoc

Isvoc is another artist participating in Inktober this year.  Isvoc is posting daily sketches, and they're fantastic.  Any one of them would look right at home in the D&D Monster Manual.  Here are the ones that have already been posted this month. 

"Today, it’s furball time! :) Some very weird khimera."

Artist: Max Desmetrre

Illustrations by Montreal, Canada-based Max Desmetrre

[ BlogSpot | DeviantArt ]

Max Desmetrre is an environment concept artist from France who has worked on the new Prince of Persia for Ubisoft.

Artist: Maciej Kuciara

Illustrations by Los Angeles-based Maciej Kuciara

[ ArtStation | BlogSpot | DeviantArt | Facebook ]

Maciej Kuciara is a concept designer working in both the film and video games industries. He's recently been involved with Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy, X-Men: Days Of Future Past, and the Wachowskis' sci-fi epic Jupiter Ascending.  He has also worked on Naughty Dog's highly anticipated Playstation 3 exclusive The Last Of Us.

Artist: Aleksi Briclot

Illustrations by Aleksi Briclot

[ ArtStation | CGSociety | DeviantArt | Facebook ]

Aleksi Briclot is a concept artist and illustrator creating art for video games, magazines, graphic novels and comics. Aleksi also works in the world of tabletop gaming and has done covers for the Mage, Vampire and C.O.P.S role-playing games.

Artist: Yohann Schepacz

"The Ice Cream Man"

Illustrations by Yohann Schepacz

[ BlogSpot | CGSociety | Concept Art World | Facebook | GorillaArtfare | Tumblr ]

Yohann Schepacz is a Senior Concept Artist currently working at Eidos Montreal. Yohann also works at OXAN his own design studio dedicated to concepting and painting imagery for films, print media and video games.

Artist: Svetlin Velinov

Illustrations by Svetlin Velinov

[ CGSociety | DeviantArt | Facebook ]

Svetlin Velinov is a freelance concept artist and illustrator based in Bulgaria. Svetlin has created illustrations for companies such as Wizards of the Coast, Phoenix Age and Applibot.

Artist: Aaron Miller

Illustrations by Chicago-based Aaron Miller

Aaron Miller is a former Illie nominee who creates illustrations for books, games, and more. He has been published in Spectrum, BlueCanvas, Exposé, Fantasy+, and ImagineFX magazine.

Humor: Princeless

"Princeless Book 1: Save Yourself" (2012)
Written by Jeremy Whitley and Illustrated by M. Goodwin

Prints available for purchase from Amazon and Comixology.
[ Previously: Now you know! ]

Princeless is a great, fairly new comic book series superficially aimed at kids but actually read by adults (much like Adventure Time).  The protagonist is Princess Adrienne, who has decided to rescue herself.  There are plenty of moments that mock standard comic book conventions.  Here’s one of the best.  It concerns ladies’ armor.

Link Round-Up: September 19, 2014

"Reign of Fire" by Dleoblack

25 Of The Most Creative Sculptures And Statues From Around The World

3-D Movies Aren’t That Special: 3-D doesn’t have any extra emotional impact. 

Game designer Tim Davies redesigned Voyager's original MSD, or Master Systems Display, the key bit of UI across the Star Trek franchise and Federation ships in general, a cutaway schematic usually used to display the operational status of the entire ship in a single image. [Via]

If you’re confused by Interstellar, don’t worry! There’s a game that explains it.

Millennium Falcon revealed in Star Wars: Episode VII, with a Batmobile on board

Talking With America’s Best Art Forger and the Man Who Tracked Him Down

Short Film: Shadow of Mordor

"Shadow of Mordor" directed and written by Sam Gorski and Niko Pueringer of CorridorDigital

The video effects wizards over at Corridor Digital are no stranger to making awesome video game tie-ins.  They’ve already created short films based on The Legend of Zelda, Half-Life, and Team Fortress 2 on their popular YouTube channel.

This time around, they’re tackling Tolkien in  things in an orc-ier direction with a Middle-Earth inspired video entitled "Shadow of Mordor" based on the upcoming Middle-Earth video game of the same name from Monolith Studios.  It was directed and written by Sam Gorski and Niko Pueringer.


The production value of this video game inspired action short is insane.  It’s just a YouTube project, but Gorski and Pueringer nail the look of the orcs using a mix of practical makeup and VFX wizardry.

The short film tells the story of Krimp the Orc, who is tasked with making up for his failures by his Orc Chieftain.  Unfortunately for Krimp, he runs into Talion, the main protagonist of the game this short is based on, and he gets up close and personal with his Wraith powers. You can watch the full video above, so carve out eight minutes for yourself and enjoy another superb video game in real life bit courtesy of YouTube and its stable of expert creators. You can check out a behind the scenes video after the break.