Image: The Hound & Sansa By Arantza Sestayo/Penguin Random House.
While we have to wait an unspecified amount of time to get The Winds of Winter in our hot little hands, Random House is releasing a huge illustrated edition of George R. R. Martin’s first A Song of Ice and Fire book, A Game of Thrones, on October 18th. The gilded tome arrives in time to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the book series. It contains 73 chapter header illustrations and eight beautiful color plates. Vanity Fair has been given an exclusive first look at ten of the stunning images. Check a few of them out below, and head to Vanity Fair for the rest.
The new illustrated volume is 896 pages in length, hardcover, and contains an introduction from John Hodgman. There are also behind-the-scenes stories about Martin and how the new edition came together. Vanity Fair talked with Random House Executive Editor Anne Groell, who’s been editing Martin’s books from the very beginning, to get her insight. According to her, there has been some confusion over the years when it comes to visually interpreting Martin’s work.
For example, at one point, Martin kept passing on artist Tony Patterson’s renderings of the Iron Throne, saying “Oh, no. That’s totally not right; that’s sort of what HBO did. Mine is much bigger and more tangled.” Groell dug into the novels, looking for the source of GRRM’s displeasure. “I ended up going through all the books and pulling every description of the Iron Throne that talked about how it was big and hulking and bestial,” she said. “I sent all of this to George, and I said, ‘O.K., tell me what I’m missing.’”
The Iron Throne By Marc Simonetti/Penguin Random House.
He (Martin) finally said, ‘It’s 10 to 16 feet off the ground, with steps going up to it like a slide.’ I said, ‘O.K., nowhere in the books does it say that!’ It’s what I like to call the ‘invisible-head syndrome,’ that authors always think you can see into their head and see the vision that they’ve got. But if it’s not on the page, you’re not going to see it.
Martin is partial to artist Marc Simonetti’s version of the Iron Throne (seen above). Not all of the images in the book are new (Simonetti’s illustration is several years old) but the versions Groell selects best represent Martin’s own intimate conceptualization of the world he created. This is what makes the new hardcover such a fresh and valuable resource for Game of Thrones fans.
Ned Stark’s Execution By Magali Villeneuve/Penguin Random House.
Groell worked with Martin and his assistant, Rhea Goldman, to select “eight iconic scenes from the book” and commissioned new full-color, full-page plates, including the above illustration of Ned Stark being executed. It was tricky to decide which chapters could be serviced perfectly by existing art and which deserved new images.
I made a list of all of the images we [already] had that were relevant to just A Game of Thrones. Then I went through the book, chapter by chapter, and tried to figure out, ‘Where would our existing art be able to go? Then, what does that leave me?’” Though it’s an action-packed book, not every chapter in A Game of Thrones inspired an iconic scene.
The Hound & Sansa By Arantza Sestayo/Penguin Random House.
The new illustrated edition artwork will look a bit unfamiliar to fans who only watch the HBO show. The children in the books are much younger, for starters. Also, the artists have to stay away from using exact likenesses of the actors due to legal restrictions. Still, when dealing with a character with an extremely distinctive physical look, such as the heavily-scarred Hound, the similarities are fine so long as they are drawn directly from descriptions in the book.
It will be interesting to compare images from the HBO show with the George R. R. Martin-approved interpretations of the same characters and locales. Groell has made some artists go back and fix image details to match the book descriptions. However, discrepancies do exist, although only eagle-eyed fans may spot them. For example:
There’s one piece where Ned is about to execute (Sansa’s direwolf) Lady, so he’s approaching Lady with a sword, and although the artist drew the scene with Ned’s sword in his right hand, the composition was more dramatic if the image was reversed.
The Red Keep at King’s Landing By Ted Nasmith/Penguin Random House.
Groell also says that the illustrated edition may prove a boon for fans who can’t get enough of Westeros’ architecture. Martin worked with artist Ted Nasmith to create “definitive” versions of the buildings found in A Game of Thrones.
As well as being as being beautiful, the new edition offers a wonderful opportunity to revisit this story with fresh eyes while we all wait for The Winds of Winter. Despite recent rumors, Random House told Vanity Fair to ignore any “leaks” about Winds online. “Once we have a publication date for The Winds of Winter, the world will know.”
Drogo Gives Viserys His Crown By Levi Pinfold/Penguin Random House.
And how long might it take Martin to complete Winds? Groell offered some advice. “I know it sounds strange to say that you have to be very lean and spare when he’s writing these giant books, but considering he’s writing giant books, these are actually quite controlled novels—even though it might not seem like it.”
And is Martin planning to write books beyond the final installment, A Dream of Spring? “Seven books for seven kingdoms. That’s what George is aiming for.”
Via http://winteriscoming.net/2016/09/15/10-fantastic-images-from-upcoming-illustrated-volume-of-a-game-of-thrones/
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