For the first time, a body of John Howe’s work is presented with more than 250 of his paintings and sketches, celebrating the life-giving vision of a prominent contemporary artist of the imagination. Myth and Magic takes the reader on a journey through John Howe’s world: from his beginnings as a student to his most recent work.
John Howe was born in 1957 in Vancouver, Canada. In 1976, he moved to France for three years and studied illustration at the École des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg.
He worked as a designer for animated television productions and as an illustrator of comic books, as well as contributing to numerous children’s books in France. He is perhaps best known for his extensive collaborations on J. R. R. Tolkien–related projects, including calendars, book covers, maps, and posters.
Since 1983, he has presented his work in solo exhibitions. In 1998, he spent several months in New Zealand working on Peter Jackson’s film trilogy The Lord of the Rings as a conceptual art consultant.
In 2001, he was awarded in Berlin at the “Game of the Year” competition for his work on the board game The Lord of the Rings. John Howe lives in Switzerland with his wife Fataneh, also an illustrator, and their son Dana.
It even reveals some of his early unknown works. All of his paintings inspired by Tolkien’s works, such as The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and The History of Middle-earth are included here, complemented by the stunning artwork he created for dragon books, myths and legends, for children’s books he wrote and illustrated, to numerous covers for books by some of the greatest writers of fantasy. John Howe gives us additional entertaining informative commentary on how he makes his works.
The Magic of Myths is also proud to feature in the volume the Tolkien expert and author of the Official Guide to the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Brian Sibley, as well as leading fantasy writers such as Robin Hobb and Robert Goldstock; it also includes a revealing confession from the Oscar-winning actor Sir Ian McKellen about the challenge of playing John Howe’s Gandalf. The exclusive foreword to the volume is by Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.