samandfrododioramaLast week, Sideshow Collectibles revealed a small thumbnail of their upcoming Comic-Con 2009 Exclusive – ‘Mount Doom’ Sam and Frodo Diorama. In the latest edition of Sideshow TV (Sideshow’s video podcast), they have revealed many more views of the piece. While the podcast covers all of their Comic-Con 2009 exclusives, the Sam and Frodo portion is around the 4 minute mark. Check it out! [Feedburner] [iTunes] [Comic-Con Exclusives]

Fantasy Art Worksop Weta is pleased to host one of the world’s most acclaimed Tolkien illustrators and designers, John Howe, for a book signing at the Weta Cave. Currently visiting Weta Workshop, John Howe was of course also one of the principal designers on Peter Jackson’s The Lord Of The Rings. John Howe will be signing two of his fantastic volumes and a postcard. Continue reading “John Howe book signing at the Weta Cave in Wellington”

John Rhys-DaviesJohn Rhys-Davies (born May 5, 1944) is an English-born Welsh actor and vocal artist. He is perhaps best known for playing the charismatic Arab excavator Sallah in the Indiana Jones films and the dwarf Gimli in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, in which he also voiced the ent, Treebeard. He also played Agent Michael Malone in the 1993 remake of the 1950s television series The Untouchables, as well as portraying Professor Maximillian Arturo in Sliders, General Leonid Pushkin in the James Bond film The Living Daylights, and Macro in I, Claudius. Additionally, he provided the voices of Cassim in Disney’s Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Man Ray in SpongeBob SquarePants, and Tobias in the computer game Freelancer.

sigurdJ.R.R. Tolkien’s newest posthumous work lands in retail today. The body of the non Middle-earth tale is told in two narrative poems told in the form of Norse mythology with a Tolkien lecture and an introduction from his son Christopher. Tolkien was a master of the forms of Old Norse and Old Englsih poetry while for most of us, that brilliance is likely to go unappreciated, there is still treasure to be gleaned in understanding the author and the traditions that led him to construct his own cosmology.

The Guardian in the UK published a faxed interview while while reviews are popping up like mushrooms. Read some here, here, and here.