BRANDON SANDERSON ...

Is an American science fiction and fantasy author known for his prolific output and large fictional universe called the Cosmere. Among his many works, he is probably best known for The Stormlight Archive and Mistborn series, but it is his lesser known series called Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians that he should be more known for as it is almost a parody of fantasy in general and from the title alone you should be able to tell that it is not your usual book series. 

                                                        © Brandon Sanderson                                           © Brandon Sanderson                                                                                                                      

The narrator of the series is one of the most overbearing you will ever encounter, and if you thought that the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events was contrary and difficult then you need to read the series as about half of each book is entirely composed of the narrator's diatribes. It is a five/six book series and is illustrated throughout by Hayley Lazo. The story is somehow still very engaging and clever despite the silliness and still works very well thanks to Sanderson's skill.

Here is a link to Sanderson's website: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/ and Hayley Lazo's: https://www.studiozealot.com/about

MARK SIEGEL ...

Is an author and illustrator of several children's picture books and Graphic Novels, he lives in New York and is also the founder and creative director of First Second Books. Among his award winning picture books such as Oskar and the Eight Blessings and Sailor Twain or the Mermaid in the Hudson, Siegel also produced a much longer work in the form of five Graphic Novels called 5 Worlds. He cowrote the series along with his brother Alexis Siegel and the art was drawn by three artists in total, who are: Xanthe Bouma, Matt Rockefeller and Boya Sun.

Impressively the series is very consistent and well paced despite the number of artists, like the title of the series itself, and is extremely vibrant and packed full of character and design from each artist.

                                                                                                              © Mark Siegel

                                                                                                             © Five Worlds   

Incidentally the series actually inspired the art design for the new Netflix series of She-Ra, called She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. 

His latest project is with his wife Siena Siegel and is called Tiny Dancer.

Here is Siegel's website along with each artist's that worked on the Five Worlds series: home - Mark Siegel: Stories with Vitamins (marksiegelbooks.com), x b (squarespace.com), Matt Rockefeller, Boya Sun - Illustration. Couldn't find one for Mark Siegel.

 STEPHEN COLLINS ...

Is a London based illustrator and comic artist whose strips have appeared in the Guardian Weekend magazine and Prospect Magazine. He has also created a Graphic Novel called The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil.     

                                                                                        © Stephen Collins   

                                                          © Stephen Collins                                    

A collection of his strips were released as Some Comics by Jonathan Cape who also published The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil. He has also illustrated a series of children's books called Baby Frank. He is now currently working on a new Graphic Novel called Susan Wogan's Journey To The Stars, which will be released by Faber and Faber.

You can find his work HERE: https://www.stephencollinsillustration.com/about/ on his website.

 JOHN FARDELL ...

John Fardell is a British author and cartoonist. He has worked for Viz magazine among others, where he contributed various comic strips and illustrations. He has since written and illustrated a series of children's adventure books called: The Seven Professors of the Far North, The Flight of the Silver Turtle, and The Secret of the Black Moon Moth. They are very exciting and well told stories with an unusual amount of science and research to them. Fardell's illustrations work well with the text and are very engaging.

                                  © John Fardell                                                             © John Fardell

He has published a couple of children's picture books as well called: Manfred the Baddie, The Day Louis Got Eaten, and Jeremiah Jellyfish Flies High.

You can buy his books HERE https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seven-Professors-Far-North/dp/0571221556 from Amazon.

SUSANNA CLARKE ...

Is a British fantasy novelist best known for her debut novel Johnathan Strange & Mr Norrell which I consider to be probably the best fantasy novel written as it combines the realistic historical detail of a fantasy novel like The Lord of the Rings with great characters like Harry Potter. The story is set in an alternative 19th century England against the background of the Napoleonic Wars and follows the exploits of two magicians as they attempt to return magic to England. The novel has smoky illustration's that complement the text well throughout.

 

           

© Johnathan Strange & Mr Norrel Susanna Clarke      © Johnathan Strange & Mr Norrel BBC

It was turned into a BBC TV series that despite a limited budget really captured the spirit of the book well and somehow managed to adapt all of it into just seven episodes. Clarke has also written a collection of short stories called The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories and a short novel called Piranesi. She is currently working on a new novel set in Bradford England.

Here is a link to her books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B001JP2KUS/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=1232f998-e2dc-4636-910e-108edda56f5f

 

 LINK'S AWAKENING ...

You may know Link from The Legend of Zelda and Hyrule but in amongst the typical games of our hero saving Zelda and fighting monsters is a much more unusual game that was only the fourth Zelda game produced. It is called Link's Awakening and is a very inventive and different take on the Zelda universe even when compared to all the various iterations there have been. I actually wish that there were more Zelda games like this since there could be more adventures outside of the typical medieval fantasy context of the other games.

                                                       © Link's Awakening Nintendo    

                       

                                                              © Link's Awakening Nintendo          

       

         The game is actually quite silly and has tongue in cheek references to other Nintendo and Zelda games. 

Link's Awakening was actually remade by Nintendo into a full color fully updated game and even more surprisingly it looks just as good as the original if not better.

Here's a link to the UK Nintendo store where you can buy the new version of the game:  https://store.nintendo.co.uk/en/the-legend-of-zelda-links-awakening-70010000020034 

 GUILLERMO DEL TORO ...

Is a filmmaker probably best known for works such as Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy. But it is his earlier movies that are more interesting to me, and that I find more accomplished. In his first movie Cronos, you already had all his signature style, although it is sometimes too badly lit to tell what is going on properly. Its story was interesting and worked well with the visual style of the movie. His next film The Devil's Backbone is my favorite though and it is here where style and story really come together well, because although Pan's Labyrinth is more well made in the sense of props and art design the story does not work as well with the fantastical elements and art style as it does in The Devil's Backbone.

  © Cronos  

© The Devil's Backbone             

He has produced many other movies and TV series such as: Pacific Rim, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, The Shape of Water, Pinocchio, and is now currently working on a soon to be released Frankenstein Movie.

Here's a link to Amazon where you can buy his work.  

 MARTIN STIFF ...

Is a British comic writer and artist. He is often called Britain's best kept secret and he runs a design company called Amazing 15. He has published two graphic novels to date called The Absence and Tiny Acts of Violence respectively. They are both digitally drawn but Stiff's style is very well honed and suits the medium well. He was previously a playwright and now continues to work on more projects, the latest of which is called Five Points. And is written with Simon Furman. 

© Martin Stiff

You can buy it HERE: Five Points (Warren Mackie Casefile): Amazon.co.uk: Furman, Simon, Stiff, Martin: 9781803525921: Books from Amazon or HERE: Five Points (Warren Mackie Casefile) – The Shift Anthology Shop from theshift.store.

 

 JOSHUA MOWLL ...

Joshua Mowll is a British author and illustrator of children's fiction and he is known for the insanely detailed and comprehensive design he puts into all his work. His most famous work is called The Guild of Specialists trilogy and is a series of adventure books much in the vein of Indiana Jones but better researched. The series is actually presented in the context of old journals and technical blueprints with plenty of illustrations. This all adds to the realism of the plot and unlike most other attempts at adding extras like this they all work well together and add to the momentum of the plot. This is probably because Mowll used to work as a Graphic Artist for The Mail on Sunday.

                                                                © Joshua Mowll

He has done some other work as well which you can see on his website here: https://joshuamowll.wordpress.com/

      

 BILL WATTERSON ...

The artist behind Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson is known for his reclusive nature and lack of public appearances so it is quite a special surprise that he has actually come out of retirement and produced a new piece of work, his first since Calvin and Hobbes and his first in over 28 years. It is called The Mysteries and is a fable for grown ups about what lies beyond  human understanding. The story was a collaboration between Watterson and another artist called John Kascht who is a caricaturist. 

© Watterson and Kascht

Here's a link to Kascht's website: https://www.johnkascht.com/content.html?page=1

And here's the link to the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mysteries-Bill-Watterson/dp/1524884944

 DAVID LLOYD …

David Lloyd the artist more well known for his work on V For Vendetta with Alan Moore and for his highly realistic and detailed art style has now produced his own work in the form of a small volume called Kickback that is a gritty Crime-Noir set in a nondescript American city. It is a short but clever story and has plenty of twist and turns. The art is in his usual style but this time more experimental and mixed with colour, photographs and digital effects.

                                                                    © David Lloyd

You can buy it from his website which is:The home page of V for Vendetta co-creator David Lloyd (lforlloyd.com) And he has also started a weekly online comic called Aces Weekly which serializes many different artist's work and is entirely online. Their website is here:♠ Aces Weekly

UPDATE: I just received an update from David Lloyd himself! Providing me with this link to the book's Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/app.kickback/

UK & US purchase options here, here and here. 

 HAYAO MIYAZAKI ...

Hayao Miyazaki while although more well known for his world-reknowned animated movies such as Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke and as co-founder of Studio Ghibli also deserves attention for his lesser-known works.

The first of these is Nausicaa which should really be considered his Magnum Opus and by far dwarfs any of his other work. It is a manga that he serialized in Animage over the course of 12 years between work on movies.

The second is called Shuna's Journey. It is much smaller and more in the style of a picture book, whereas Nausicaa is much more in the style of a picture book, whereas Nausicaa is much more of a biblical epic from history.

They both, Shuna especially, contain many elements that draw clear comparisons with other characters in his movies and although both enjoyable on their own are worth reading just to see how all his ideas developed.

                                                                   © Hayao Miyazacki

                                                                   © Hayao Miyazacki

He are links to Shuna's Journey and the Nausicaa box set, both on Amazon.

You may also be interested to know that Nausicaa was turned into an animated movie by Miyazaki himself that was pre-Studio Ghibli and that Miyazaki produced one other Major movie before Ghibli called Lupin 3^rd: The Castle of Cagliostro.

Being the busy man he is Miyazaki also produced one other comic that was serialized and which predates both other books being very early on in his career. Here's a link to the entire story.

 J. R. R. TOLKIEN ...

Tolkien may be more well known for his larger works like The Lord of The Rings and The Silmarillion but he also published a number of short stories that if not quite so epic or grand are just as well crafted and worthy of attention.

They are: 

Leaf by Niggle (a semi-autobiographical story on creativity and spiritualist fairytale)

Smith of Wootton Major (a fairytale about the passing on of knowledge and journeys into faerie)

Farmer Giles of Ham (a charming story that has similarities to The Hobbit and satirizes academia) 

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (a collection of poems that follow the further exploits of the character)

The last three are illustrated by Pauline Baynes who also did the illustrations for C. S. Lewis's

Narnia Series. Here are a few examples:

                                                                © The Chapin Library of Rare Books.

The stories are all short but rich in imagery and incident. The poems – all of which do not involve Tom Bombadil – are really good and Tolkien's expertise as a poet is often overlooked. I will not go into detail about each story as they are widely available and already well studied and described, but will say that they each stand on their own really well and you do not need to have read any of his other works to enjoy them. They paint a much richer picture of Tolkien and stand well alongside his other works.

If you like any of these stories you may be interested to know that Tolkien wrote many other pieces of literature and poetry for which I would recommend going to Wikipedia or tolkienateway.net for a more comprehensive list. 

Here is a link to the complete box-set of stories, not including Leaf by Niggle but instead including Roverandom, a short story Tolkien wrote for his son Michael about his toy dog's adventures after he lost him.

And here is a link to Pauline Bayne's website where you can see some of her other artwork.

 GAREN EWING ...

Is a British artist and illustrator and he has designed various games and posters for companies but it is his work as a comic artist that deserves attention. He has already produced one comic called The Rainbow Orchid that is part of a larger ongoing series called The Adventures of Julius Chancer, much like The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé. His style is in the European Ligne Claire style of comic art which means 'Clear Line'. This is the perfect term, as you can see just how clear and neat Garen's work is in this style.

 © The Guardian 2013.

He actually has an ongoing Julius Chancer comic that is currently being created and serialized on his website called The Brambletye Box and you can support him on Patreon If you want.

Here is a link to his website where you can see and buy his work:

https://www.garenewing.co.uk/work/juliuschancer.php

WHAT THIS BLOG IS ABOUT ... 

Well, in the following posts I am hopefully going to be able to show and detail to anyone who may be interested, the amazing and surprising things I have found by researching the various authors and artists that have interested me. They are from many time periods and genres but will tend to be either obscure works by well known writers and artists, or more obscure but great works by little known masters of their craft. I hope you enjoy reading about them!