originally posted by Laneth Shadow-Walker
Hey all,
I was wondering if anyone knew who did the cover-art, as shown in the following links:
http://www.beholder.hu/?m=bolt&cikk=4494&PHPSESSID=fddcbc6a26ed7aec74f8f0a8994d3 0f3
(I believe this cover to be Fugitive Prince)
http://www.beholder.hu/?m=bolt&cikk=4493&PHPSESSID=fddcbc6a26ed7aec74f8f0a8994d3 0f3
(And again, but with a different cover)
I was wondering if anyone could fill me in on the artist's details, if it wasn't actually Janny herself?
I simply did a Google image search on "s'Ffalenn" and got these images on the first results page…2nd & 3rd results…
I'd never seen them before, so I was intrigued!
These covers are not my work - but the translation is quite legit - I had not see them, thanks for the links…they're actually quite nice.
Perhaps the Gryphon might add them to the Book list?
originally posted by Meredith Lee Gray
A few weeks ago I stumbled across them in the same manner, too, Laneth. I had a classic "WTF" moment. I didn't think they were Janny's work, but I'd never seen them before, which surprised me.
I thought it actually looked like maybe the artist had read the book. I mean it was an attempt to pull something from the story, at least.
Here are the others, btw (along with ones Laneth posted):
Grand Conspiracy - You've got Dame Dawr speaking to Ellaine, with Gace Steward being his normal creepy irritating self.
Grand Conspiracy, part 2 - And I'm not really sure what to say about that one.
Fugitive Prince - Meant to be Asandir near the Grimwards? IDK. Something to do with them I think.
Fugitive Prince again? Koriathain magics?
Warhost of Vastmark - That scene were Pern invades… Just kidding of course.
WoV again - a frollicking Centaur. But look, at least he has antlers.
Ships of Merior - The scene where Arithon "attacks" by shadowing the leopard that swallows Lysaer's light and then ir gleams through his eyes before the light winks out… Not exactly how I pictured it, but props for going there!
SoM again - Supposed to be one of the F7 I guess. Sethvir? A little tubby…
Curse of the Mistwraith - Lysaer! Ha, I love this cover. Those soldiers are very "Ooh! Ahh!"
CotM part 2 - Arithon! Well, obviously not THE Arithon, like Janny has so consistenly depicted him. But I like the setting and spirit of it.
originally posted by Blue
What would really be nice would be to get larger images of these, AND figure out who the artist is. NOT that I would replace Our Miss Wurts, by any means, I would just like to know WHO, and see their cover depictions in more detail.
originally posted by Trys
Thanks for the links. I have the covers to four of 'em (CotM and SoM) on the website but it's nice to have the rest. As an FYI, if no one knew, these are the Hungarian editions.
originally posted by Hunter
I really like these - Grand Conspiracy part 2 - Arithon ala Conan, or it Braveheart?, was rather funny…
The leopard was fantastic…
The artist clearly had read the novels and these are very good intepretations of various scenes from the novels.
originally posted by Mark Timmony
Wow those covers are quite nice - good to see the artist has read part of the book too!Well some of them anyway.
originally posted by Theresa
Hunter - I really wonder if that rather beefy gentleman on GC 2 is meant to be Arithon. I mean, the artist managed to get him pretty well on Curse 2… Jieret, maybe? He's rather important to GC…
I'd like to find a way to get copies of these, truly…
originally posted by starstorm
I started searching on names from the book credits on the page, and figured out that the artist is
(link removed). There are nice big versions of the covers there 
~Anna
originally posted by Theresa
And here is (link removed). 
I still don't see all of them, but there are more than on the other sites.
originally posted by Hunter
One image, called Empire 2, has to be Mara of the Acoma… Another is called Sethanon… seems to have done covers for many translated novels.
It could still be Arithon as the beefy gent, the image in the Grimward with the skull has a gent with brown hair rather than Arithon's black…
originally posted by Blue
Thank you, Starstorm and Theresa, for the links!
Now, I just wish I could read Hungarian, or that they had an English language version of the site.
Very interesting artist, I would say! It would be nice to see his (her?) work on covers available in the US. Janny, of course, being the ultimate authority on HER work!
Speaking of which, what did you think of Vida's interpretation of the characters and situations, Janny?
originally posted by Meredith Lee Gray
According to Raymond E Feist's web site here, L’szl’ is a he.
The mystery painting of the "beefy" fellow is titled "Ashore" at the RPG art site. So… make of THAT what you will.
The one with the Koriathain/sorceress person is called "Hoops" or "Doors". The one with Sethvir (?) is called "Magician" or "Conjurer"? Something like that. One with khadrim (?) is something like 'winged lizards'. The one with the leopard is difficult–he calls it "Szellem Vihar", with szellem meaning 'spectre, shadow, ghost, genius, spirit' and vihar referring to a storm or tempest or tumult (apparently those words that have different meanings based on context and so on). The one with Lysaer is "Lord of the Light". Anyhow, I thought it was interesting. He really must have read the books. (Hurrah for on-line translation web sites!)
He also has some other interesting pieces on that site (the one Anna linked to), one called "Mobbing" showing a person (presumably a wizard or sorcerer) standing on a wagon, performing some magic while an angry crowd is surrounding him. Hmmm. Why does that ring a bell?
originally posted by HJ
Yeah, I think they're really interesting and very accomplished, and I agree that they demonstrate a good deal of faith with the story. Of course it's not like having original artwork by the author and inventor of the whole world and all its characters, but isn't it fascinating to get someone elses visualisation of the events/characters.
I've got a couple of sketches I did of Arithon from before publication of Grand Conspiracy… for Brits, that was the first time we had the man himself depicted on a book cover and so for some of us it was the first visual image of him we'd ever seen. My efforts weren't too far off Janny's depictions, can you believe! Always been pretty proud of that.
originally posted by HJ
May I ask a question of Janny and Trys… Where did you two meet and how did the relationship (Webmaster/Author) come about. Trys, I know you've been metioned by Janny in at least one dedication and I'm sorry it's late and I'm too tired to go and find which book(s). I apologise if this is a subject long ago discussed but I've been regularly reading this website for the last 6-7 years and don't remember ever seeing it mentioned. Please, guys, spill the beans on how this wonderful thing came about…?!
And why the name Trys? And why the name "The Gryphon"?
I could speculate, but I'd rather just get it straight. Thank you, with much love and respect…
H x x x
It began with my plunge into an internet forum on GEnie…the particular details from there are the Gryphon's to relate.
Once in a great while, we have somebody fly through that was a part of that discussion thread.
It was a good batch of people, and at least in this case, has resulted in this really wonderful, lasting friendship.
originally posted by Trys
HJ,
It's a bit of a an involved story but…
Christmas time, 1993 (I think I got the year right), I was a manager at the company for which I worked and my boss, who valued his people, gave each of his manager some token of gratitude for their work. He made an effort to buy each manager something that he know would be truly appreciated. Knowing that I read SF/F he bought a gift certificate to B. Dalton's Book store.
Now while the gift certificate was greatly appreciated B Dalton's was in the 'bad' mall. That is, the town I lived in had two malls, one on the west side and one on the east side of town. I lived on the western edge of town and getting to the west side mall was easier. Getting to the east side mall was a traffic headache. So I had that gift certificate for several months.
Finally in early spring of '94, I decided I better get myself to the 'bad' mall and use the gift certificate before it expired. So off I went.
Once there I found nothing that I wanted to specifically buy and I had previously looked at this book by someone named Janny Wurts, entitled Curse of the Mistwraith. So I picked it up, read a few paragraphs and decided to buy it. It could go on the TBR (to be read) tower when I got home.
Now at this time of the world, online access was extremely limited. There was AOL, Compuserve and GEnie… and maybe a few others of which I was unaware. I was a member of GEnie (the GE stands for General Electric). GEnie had three SF/F forums. One for authors, one for media, and one for fandom. I was active in Misty Lackey fandom areas.
One of the fun things I did while involved with Misty fandom was develop an online character. That character came into existence when I was an AOL member (that was before my Genie days). The character was a gryphon (Misty has gryphons in some of her worlds) and he acquired the name Trystane as none of the other variations of Tristan were available as screen names on AOL (not even Drustan which surprised me).
Now having acquired CotM, the next time I went online I inquired if anyone was familiar with Janny Wurts's work. I was told that Janny was a GEnie author. That is, she was a GEnie member and had her own Author's Forum topic and she would no doubt welcome a gryphon. So off to Janny's topic I went and needless to say I was warmly received.
This prompted me to move the book off the TBR tower and read it. Now GEnie had topics where you could go and post and not worry about spoilers so I this I did with CotM and how nice that the author herself read these posts and interacted.
Now as Janny was finishing writing Ships of Merior she posted online that she needed to get the glossary from CotM into electronic format. I remember someone posting that their spouse could definitely do that. Now I had a scanner and OCR software but I was in no way going to shoot off my mouth and say I could do this. Instead I went and did it. Having the file in hand I was able to send it to Janny.
With SoM finished and ready to turn it in Britain decided to split the book as they could/would not bind such a large book. So Ships of Merior, the first half (the second half came out as Warhost of Vastmark) came out in Britain and I received an autographed copy of that book compliments of Janny.
Come autumn of 1995, Don and Janny were attending World Fantasy Con in Baltimore. Since Baltimore is only about four hours away from me by car I decided to attend so that I could meet them. But misfortune befell with the theft of the artwork that Don and Janny were bringing to the con to display in the artshow. I did get to meet them though.
This did lead to one good thing. At the time I had a small webpage that I was playing with so I got images of the stolen art and with permission created a Stolen Artwork page, the descendent of which can still be viewed on their webpages. This was the birth of the Janny Wurts Official Webpage which eventually led to Don getting a site.
So that’s the story. I met Janny through a series of serendipitous events which on reflection could not have been, in my opinion, “accidental”. In other words, if things happen for a reason, and I believe that they do!
Oh, as Trys(tane) is a gryphon and he is the guardian of these demesnes, Janny often refers to him as “The Gryphon” more of an appellation than a Name. But since he is my alter-ego, The Gryphon also refers to me – Jeff Watson
originally posted by Blue
Wow!
Thanks for the insight into the Gryphon's origins!
originally posted by HJ
Thanks Janny and Trys. Wow, the rest is history…
Keep up the good work both of you.
x H
originally posted by Annette
No idea who the cover artist is, but I recently went and collected pictures of all the German hardback covers.
(link removed)
And thanks Trys for that interesting look at how you and Janny met and how your online identities came about, had always wondered about The Gryphon one.