A Great Fantasy Art Collection (1996)

Nov 4, 2023 3:20 PM

DavidHoag

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79988

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1080

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18

Enjoy!!

The value of this for me is that those of the literary works cited here that I know are so good that I can use the others as a qualified list if suggestions for further reading.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Ooh, DnD encounter ideas.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I love Wayne Barlowe but #3 looks nothing like the alzebos I’VE seen.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Hey! I have a copy of this but it's water damaged. It's nice to see these images with their original clarity again. :)

2 years ago | Likes 14 Dislikes 0

The art style reminds me of the 2nd Edition Monster's Manual. The editions that came after were better set up for games and customization but the classic 2nd Edition had a lot of style and charm.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

#14 man, I need to go back and finish that series. Had a pair of books that were meant to be the complete thing, and then Roger apparently added a few more books to the series. The dick. Now I need to track Those down, and find the time to make myself sit and read through them, all to be transported to a world of fantasy and whimsy, like some asshole. "Oh I made a delightful fantasy series dealing with multiversal travel in a somewhat realistic way, that you can easily lose yourself in" fuck off

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I -LOVED- this book back when I was kid. Some of the monsters seriously freaked me out though (I'm looking at YOU Red Death and Vodyanoi!)

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I have a copy of this (it’s missing the dust cover)

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#1 The Alzabo is much more frightening when you find out it absorbs the minds of things it eats and can mimic the sounds they make. Imagine you dad went out for food once and hasn't been back in hours. You hear steps outside of a beast far too large to be your dad and casts a shadow far too large for a human, but then you hear your dad, clear as day, asking if you can come outside and check the car battery for him.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I have a copy of this

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I had Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials as a youth, this is a wonderful surprise!

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

That rendition of a griffin immediately makes me suspicious of how accurately any of these reflect what they're supposed to be depicting.

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

#28 was not expecting Mercedes Lackey on here! Kerowyn is my favorite character of hers!

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

#25 everything reminds me of her

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I used to have a book like this with sci-fi characters. It was awesome!

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Amazing

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

hell yeah

2 years ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 0

This is an amazing collection..... Wholly cow I am grateful for your post

2 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

I see a tiddy nipple! Nice! Also, it's nice to see a reference to Tailchaser's Song. These days everyone is all about Warrior Cats, but I grew up with Tailchaser.

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I had this book. Got me into other books. At the same time I had the Shannara trilogy and was happy to see something from there even if it wasn't exactly as I had envisioned it. Fun stuff. It's been 25 years or so.

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

So that's the players from the East, now let's take a look at the West at this year's college bowl!!

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

dude where's Shrike from Dan Simmons' Hyperion cantos?

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I clicked on post expecting some well known book covers or something and end up getting Barlowe’s epic art book in it’s entirety. Very awesome,now post his alien one.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I did. I also posted as much of Barlowe's "Hell" paintings as I could find, and the S.Petersen's Field Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors... and the entire book of Gnomes by Huygen/Poortvliet. I'll post more great finds from the 70s when I can. The Gnome book post was 230 images... took too long, but I enjoy disseminating cult classics in their entirety.

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I posted the Fantasy characters book by Barlowe without having actually read the book. I am unsure whether there is text/story to go along with each picture, but I'm hoping there is. I bought a first edition from Abebooks and I'd love to see some text to go along with the color images.

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Didn't he also do a similar book on ScFi aliens?

2 years ago | Likes 36 Dislikes 0

I was just thinking this. My dad had that one.

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

My dad owned both the books and I remember reading them separately and making the realization

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

they uploaded it before this one, in fact

2 years ago | Likes 23 Dislikes 0

He's done at least two more Barlowe's Guides books; one with Cthulhu mythos creatures and one with famous sci-fi creatures. I suspect he's done others by now as well.

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

He's done two -- Extraterrestrials and Fantasy.

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I stand corrected; he did the Elder Things in his Extraterrestrials book, and then there was S. Peterson's Field Guide to Cthulhu Monsters, which was done in Barlowe's style, and I conflated the two. Mea culpa!

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

No problem.that said, I’d love to see more from him.

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I've read Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers, but I don't remember the Eastern Efrits. Powers is an interesting writer.

2 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

They attack him late at night in Vienna wearing odd stilt shoes (so they don't contact the ground), he almost dies but a wound causes his blood to run down his sword and his weakness causes the swords tip to touch the ground and that in effect makes it so his blood is touching the ground so he cant be further weakened by their otherworldly flute music.

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

The "don't touch the ground" thing reminds me of Anubis Gates and the clown on stilts there.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I remember the sword Caladbolg. I named my Paladin in World of Warcraft Calad as a result. This has, unfortunately, lead to guild mates referring to me as DJ Calad. I guess I played myself. Not sure if that worse than the guild mate who would always pronounce it Salad to get my goat.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Griffins are winged protoceratops? I don't HATE his idea but it seems more basic than cat-eagle.

2 years ago | Likes 28 Dislikes 0

There's a whole idea that the concept of griffons was started from people seeing protoceratops skulls and not knowing what they were looking at. I don't find it entirely convincing, but it's kind of interesting.

2 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 0

Oh yeah, I get that. It's just that, as someone who loves both dinos and mythical beasts the design was kind of meh.

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Heard the same thing regarding the origin of the idea of cyclops after the discovery of old elephant/mammoth skulls so i believe it.

2 years ago | Likes 13 Dislikes 0

Yup. Learned that in Zoo Books when I was a kid!

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I heard that one, too. Having seen what those skulls look like, it seems plausible to me.

2 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Is this basically a page for page post of the book?!

2 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Not quite, each page opposite the full color ones has a description of the person/creature and their place in their source material.

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Which they had in a different post, was sad the information wasn't given with these :(

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Thank you for this new cornucopia of wonders. I didn't know that Barlowe also drew some of T. Pratchett's characters.

2 years ago | Likes 66 Dislikes 0

Also these, I have several boxes unopened

2 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

Wow ! I didn't even know those existed.

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

More to come! :)

2 years ago | Likes 19 Dislikes 0

So based on your recent posts I can assume you're really into romcoms and mystery novels...

2 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

How do you get these crisp, high quality images @op?

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I just comb the internet. The latest post of Wayne Barlowe's Hell pictures came from what MAY be Barlowe's own site, but it's hard to tell sometimes, especially when the sites are really amateurish.

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0