2025 Calendar Artist Revealed

January 22, 2024 at 8:51 am

2025 Calendar Featuring Eddie Mendoza!

From Skagos to Qarth, the Water Gardens to the Nightfort, journey across Westeros and Essos with artist Eddie Mendoza, who brings us both new takes on some of the classic series locations as well as never-before-seen locales. With thirteen stunning illustrations, including a bonus fold-out poster, experience the full majesty and sweeping vistas of the Seven Kingdoms and Essos.

And if you want to see more of Eddie’s amazing work check out his website.

Enjoy.

Preorders are now available for Eddie Mendoza’s 2025 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar

THIS MESSAGE HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE MINIONS OF FEVRE RIVER

Current Mood: pleased

Tags: artwork, calendar, song of ice and fire

All Hail Our Artists

June 2, 2019 at 8:04 am

I am a lucky guy in a lot of ways… one of them being that I get to work with some of the greatest SF and fantasy artists in the world.

ASFA has just announced this year’s finalists for the Chesley Awards, and I’m thrilled to note that Wild Cards and A Song of Ice and Fire both have artists among this year’s finalists.

Michael Komarck has been doing spectacular Wild Cards covers for Tor for years now, with way too little recognition, so it’s great to see that his cover for LOW CHICAGO is a finalist for Best Cover Illustration, Hardcover. Marko Kloos’s Khan is the featured character.

The redoubtable John Picacio has no fewer than three nominations on this year’s Chesley ballot… all great, but of course my favorite is the illustration he did for “EverNight,” a Wild Cards story by Victor Milan on Tor.com. It’s been nominated for Best Interior Illustration.

John tells me he was especially pleased by this nomination. “I want to celebrate Vic, and I want people to remember him and his story.”

I speak for the whole Wild Cards Consortium when I say how lucky we are to have amazing talents like John Picacio and Michael Komarck bringing our characters to life.

Meanwhile, that other series of mine is also well represented on the Chesley ballot, with a nomination for John Jude Palencar’s 2019 Ice & Fire calendar as Best Product Illustration. You can see the cover here, but there’s a lot more stunning Ice & Fire art inside. JJP is one of the premiere artists in the field, and a joy to work with.

The entire list of this year’s Chesley nominees can he found here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17afhGHSQ1c22ogC_LNr2wdx0qxD3SefO_90Sl94keqs/edit#

Congratulations to all the nominees. I love fantasy art, and it’s nice to see some great work being recognized.

(Signed copies of LOW CHICAGO and the 2019 Palencar calendar are both available from the bookstore at the Jean Cocteau Cinema. Vic Milan’s “EverNight” can be found and read on Tor.com, along with lots of other great Wild Cards stories).

Current Mood: happy

Tags: a song of ice and fire, artwork, awards, calendar, wild cards

Hugo Recommendations – Best Professional Artist

February 18, 2019 at 1:19 pm

Nominating for the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist is always especially difficult. There are so many terrific talents working in science fiction and fantasy just now, it is next to impossible to settle on just four or five as being worthy of a nod. Nonetheless, that’s the way it works, so…

Once again, I’ve had the honor of working with some astounding artists during the past year. Let me bring a few of them to your attention.

MICHAEL KOMARCK, who has been the cover artist for most of the Wild Cards books since Tor revived the series, once again excelled this year, with knockout covers for both LOW CHICAGO and TEXAS HOLD ‘EM. Take a look:

Komarck is a meticulous craftsman who always takes great care to get the characters right. I can’t imagine anyone capturing Bubbles or Khan any better than he did on these covers. It is truly past time that Komarck got another Hugo nod.

We had so many Wild Cards titles released last year that Tor brought in other artists to spell Komarck. One of them was DAVID PALUMBO, who did the art for the reissue of ONE-EYED JACKS, featuring the Oddity. Palumbo was also the artist for Bantam Spectra’s illustrated edition of NIGHTFLYERS: the cover and the gorgeous interior plates were all his.

Of course, no discussion of Wild Cards artists would be complete without a mention of JOHN PICACIO, who illustrates all of the stand-alone Wild Cards stories that appear on Tor.com. Here are a couple of the pieces he produced last year, to illustrate Victor Milan’s “EverNight” and Max Gladstone’s “Fitting In.”

The biggest book I published during 2018 was not a Wild Cards mosaic, however: it was FIRE & BLOOD, the first volume of my imaginary history of the Targaryen kings of Westeros…. published on November 20 by Bantam in the US and HarperCollins Voyager in the UK in a stunning hardcover edition (still in the top ten on the NEW YORK TIMES bestseller list, some two months after publication, I am pleased to report). The edition was extensively and lavishly illustrated by DOUG WHEATLEY.

Last… but certainly not least… let me draw your attention to JOHN JUDE PALENCAR, whose powerful (and disturbing) paintings for the 2019 SONG OF ICE AND FIRE calendar make it one of the strongest and most unforgettable in what I like to think has been a very distinguished series. (Though the calendar covers 2019, it was first released at Comicon in July 2018, so the artwork therein is eligible for this year’s awards). JJP’s take on Westeros and its denizens is like none other, and I have already arranged to buy several of his originals for my own walls.

(If you are one of the many who no longer uses wall calendars, but loves great art, you can get signed copies (signed by me, not the artist, alas) of the JJP calendar from the bookshop at my Jean Cocteau Cinema).

So there you are: Michael Komarck, David Palumbo, John Picacio, Doug Wheatley, John Jude Palencar. Keep them in mind when making your Hugo nominations. I know I will.

Current Mood: artistic

Tags: a song of ice and fire, artwork, awards, bantam spectra, calendar, hugo awards

A New Year and a New SoI&F calendar!

January 23, 2018 at 2:15 pm

Minion Raya here,

It’s a brand new year, and we’re proud to announce next years Song of Ice and Fire official calendar. 2019’s calendar will feature the stunning work of John Jude Palencar, who will bring his uniquely haunting visions of the SoI&F world to your home eleven months from now.

Check out some more of Jean’s work here at his website http://www.johnjudepalencar.com.

The calendars will be available from Random House, Amazon and other book seller later this year, so be sure and look them before the supply is gone.

Check out this cover art exclusive featuring a forlorn unnamed member of the Nightswatch. Keep and eye out for updates on John Jude Palencar’s 2019 calendar.

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE MINIONS OF FEVRE RIVER.

Current Mood: geeky

Tags: artwork, calendar, song of ice and fire

Not in San Diego

July 22, 2016 at 2:46 pm

I hope that everyone in San Diego is having fun at Comicon. HBO has a big presence there, I know, and a lot of our cast are on hand for the GAME OF THRONES panel and the usual endless rounds of signings and interviews. Also, Bantam is bringing out the 2017 ICE & FIRE calendar, which is always a great event. And Gary Gianni, who illustrated THE KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS, has a table and is selling a cool new sketchbook of his artwork.

Makes me wish I could be there as well.

But I’m not.

Now, normally, I would not feel the need to post about where I’m not and what I am not doing… only I am getting reports from friends in San Diego, and friends of friends, that I have been sighted at the con.

It’s not me.

Really. It’s not. It’s some other old fat guy in a Greek sailor’s cap and pair of suspenders, maybe. Who may or may not be consciously cosplaying as me.

((And you have no idea how weird it feels to be typing that sentence. Way back when the show was first starting, there were a couple of Daenerys Targaryen cosplayers at San Diego, and I thought that was way cool. Fans dressing up as my characters, hey, hot damn! Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that anyone would ever want to dress up as me. But now I seem to encounter it wherever I go. Witness this picture from my 2013 trip to Australia.

Anyway… just for the record… I have a big Wild Cards event at the Jean Cocteau Cinema this weekend, with nineteen writers turning up from all across the country, so as much as I would like to be at comicon, I am not there. Accept no substitutes!!

((And just to be clear, no, I do not disappove of fans cosplaying as me. I do find it surreal, but hey, what they hell, have fun… so long as they don’t actually pretend to be me)).

Moving right along… one thing that is at comicon is the new ICE & FIRE calendar, with art by Didier Graffet. It’s gorgeous. Grab a copy if you’re at the con. And if not, the calendar should be available at your favorite local bookstore or online bookseller, and will certainly be available through the Jean Cocteau.

Tags: bantam spectra, calendar, comicon, travels

NEW 2017 SoI&F Calendar Artist Didier Graffet #GrrMinion

February 4, 2016 at 8:31 pm

This is Minion Raya speaking to share some exciting news on behalf of GRRM.

George is proud to be the first to announce production and progress on the official SONG OF ICE AND FIRE calendar for 2017 which will feature art by the deeply talented Didier Graffet. Although this year has only just begun we couldn’t wait to share a preview of Didier’s fantastic work for next year’s calendar.

And here it is, the New Cover for 2017.

And this compelling depiction of the Battle of the Blackwater is just the beginning!

Keep an eye out for more announcements and updates about next years calendar.

Fun fact, the piece below we actually have hanging in our office library and also how we first became familiar with Didier’s work. It was on display at the World Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention during their renowned yearly traveling art show. No relation to Westeros, just an outstanding painting and a good taste of what's to come.

Links to the rest of Didier’s work to get your imagination flowing.

French site: www.didiergraffet.com

English site: www.didiergraffet.com

-THIS MESSAGE HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE MINIONS OF FEVRE RIVER-

Tags: artwork, calendar

The Calendar Is Coming

July 9, 2015 at 1:45 pm

I won’t be at this year’s San Diego Comicon, alas. Had to miss the fun, but there’s too much work to do, and I know that HBO and Random House and Tor have matters well in hand, with lots of great events and promotions.

Which is not to say I won’t be represented: the 2016 edition of the Official SONG OF ICE AND FIRE Calendar will be making its debut at San Diego. I was lucky enough to snag an advance copy.

This year the artwork is by the amazing and talented French artist, MAGALI VILLENUEVE, whose past work includes some terrific contributions to Fantasy Flight’s games and the WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE concordance. Check out more of her work at http://magali-villeneuve.blogspot.com/ and http://www.magali-villeneuve.com/

The calendars will be available at the Random House/ Bantam/ Del Rey booth at San Diego, so be sure and look them before the supply is gone. Magali has done some gorgeous work here; I expect you will love it as much as I do.

Tags: artwork, calendar, song of ice and fire

Calendars Are Coming!!

February 28, 2013 at 4:45 pm

Got some exciting news for those of you out there who still use calendars… ((yes, yes, I know we have this interwebbie thing now, nobody needs to hang paper on their wall any more to know what day it is, calendar sales are way way down, I don’t care, I am a dinosaur and a proud dinosaur and I LOVE calendars, so there))

The 2013 Ice & Fire calendar, with its spectacular artwork by Marc Simonetti, has done very well indeed, thank you. (And I hope all of you remember Marc when it comes time to make your Hugo nominations for Best Professional Artist).

The 2014 Ice & Fire calendar, illustrated by the amazing Gary Gianni, is almost complete. Those of you who were at Chicon may have seen some of Gianni’s paintings at the Brotherhood Without Banners party, since he was kind enough to display half a dozen of them exclusively for the BWB and their guests. He’s working on the twelfth and final painting now, and we expect the calendar to debut at this summer’s San Diego Comicon.

Which means that is time to get cracking on the 2015 Ice & Fire calendar, and we’ve done just that. I am absolutely thrilled to announce that the artwork for the 2015 calendar will be provided by a man who truly needs no introduction, the Hugo-award-winning artist extraordinaire DONATO GIANCOLA.

If you are one of the six or seven people in fandom unfamiliar with Donato and his artwork, I suggest you remedy that lack immediately by paying a visit to his website at www.donatoart.com

Needless to say, I am a huge huge fan of his painting. This will not be Donato’s first visit to Westeros. Years ago, he did a gorgeous painting of Melisandre of Asshai as the cover for the special Westeros issue of DRAGON magazine. Ever since, I have been wanting him to do more… and now at last it seems I’ll get my wish.

Oddly enough, only a week ago or so I was in DC, enjoying the amazing exhibition of Pre-Raphaelite art that has just opened at the National Gallery. Looking over Donato’s on-line gallery with that so fresh in mind, it occurs to me that his own paintings could have fit right in with those of Millais, Hunt, Rossetti, and the other stalwarts of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

My friends at Bantam tell me that Donato is already hard at work, “far into reading the entire series, studiously taking notes, making thumbnails, etc.” I expect we’ll see some gorgeous things from him.

He has some tough acts to follow, of course. But hey, he knew the job was dangerous when he took it. I expect he is equal to the task.

And I must say, I am very pleased and proud with what our annual Ice & Fire calendar has become. Michael Komarck (2009), Ted Namisth (2011), John Picacio (2012), Marc Simonetti (2013), Gary Gianni (2014) and now Donato Giancola… if you love great fantasy art, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Current Mood: null

Tags: a song of ice and fire, bantam spectra, calendar

Not a Blog

2025 Calendar Artist Revealed

All Hail Our Artists

A New Year and a New SoI&F calendar!

Not in San Diego

NEW 2017 SoI&F Calendar Artist Didier Graffet #GrrMinion

The Calendar Is Coming

Calendars Are Coming!!

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