Brian Sibley and Pauline Baynes are names which will be instantly familiar to many Tolkien fans. Author, broadcaster and screenwriter Sibley scripted a radio version of The Lord of the Rings for the BBC, and his wonderful book The Maps of Middle-earth was illustrated by John Howe. Sibley also wrote The Making of the Movie Trilogy for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies, and the three ‘Official Guides’ for his Hobbit trilogy.
Artist Pauline Baynes, who died in 2008, worked with Tolkien himself, creating maps and illustrations for his works. Many fans will have had her art work on their walls, as she illustrated Middle-earth posters in the early seventies. Her work adorned covers of various editions of the Professor’s works, and she first collaborated with Tolkien when she illustrated Farmer Giles of Ham back in 1949. She also illustrated all of C S Lewis’ Narnia books.
Baynes and Sibley were friends for many years, and together they created a tale of Osric the Extraordinary Owl. TORn’s good friend Jay Johnstone has finally been able to publish this wonderful work, in a limited edition of just 250 – with a foreword by none other than Tolkien scholar Wayne G. Hammond! Here’s what the official press release tell us:
Osric the Extraordinary Owl resulted from the collaboration of two friends: artist and illustrator Pauline Baynes and writer, dramatist and broadcaster Brian Sibley. It was a friendship spanning more than two-and-a-half decades, with many shared interests, among them the work of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis famously illustrated by Pauline and the subject of acclaimed dramatisations by Brian.
Sibley’s tale of a small grey owl in search of the courage to establish his individuality and ‘be himself’ (but which can be also be read as a ‘coming-out story’) was written in 1970 but had to wait until 2007 to find an artist at a time when Baynes was without any commissions and was wanting opportunities to keep drawing and painting. As a result she produced 22 delightful, double-page illustrations featuring not just Osric and his owl family but also an entire aviary of the most spectacular, colourful birds from black swans and peacocks to flamingos and toucans.
Baynes completed her pictures for Osric the year before her death in 2008 but ‘the extraordinary owl’ had to wait another decade to find a publisher. At the Tolkien Society’s 50th anniversary conference in 2019 noted Tolkien artist Jay Johnstone met Brian Sibley and another of Pauline’s friends, Wayne G. Hammond who, with his wife Christina Scull, is responsible for many key works of Tolkien scholarship and who, as Librarian of the Chapin Library of Rare Books at Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, has curatorship of the Pauline Baynes bequest of paintings, drawings. Out of that Tolkien encounter came the decision to finally get Osric’s saga into print.
After a delay, caused by the Covid pandemic, Jay Johnstone is now pleased to announce the publication of Osric the Extraordinary Owl. This collector’s edition hardback book is written by Brian Sibley and illustrated by Pauline Baynes, with a foreword by Wayne G. Hammond. It is designed and produced by Jay Johnstone and comes in a gilded presentation box. Each book is individually numbered and comes with signed book plates by Brian, Wayne and Jay.
Fans of Bayne’s art and Sibley’s writing will not want to miss out on this very limited release. You can find out more by clicking here.
Last year during Comic-Con, our friends at Weta Workshop unveiled a pretty sick looking statue of the Cave Troll from the Mines of Moria sequence. Flash forward a few months later, it has arrived – and we’re going to take time to look over this awesome collectible. This thing is massive, detailed, and is a piece that folks will want to stop and look at in your collection. The folks at Weta absolutely nailed this one, and as a huge fan of that Moria sequence, I’m beyond happy to own this piece. As always, we hope you enjoy the review and the pictures of what will be a grail piece for fans of The Lord of the Rings.
Yesterday we got our first official image from Amazon’s billion-dollar TV series, along with confirmation of a launch date of September 2, 2022. (It’s interesting to note that Amazon has launched many of their other big series on Labor Day weekend, including The Boys with Karl Urban, Carnival Row with Orlando Bloom, and Jack Ryan.) Amazon have also confirmed that the episodes will be released weekly; so we’ll be back to Game of Thrones style ‘event’ television.
Today we can let you know that the image is in fact a shot from the first episode, directed by JA Bayona. Our staff have all be excitedly poring over the image, and wondering what exactly it reveals. Here are their reactions, below:
Our next review is going to take a look at the two most recently delivered figures from Iron Studio’s 1:10 The Lord of the Rings statue line. These awesome pieces capture the sequence we see at Balin’s tomb in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. So far fans can snag Legolas, Gimli, Boromir, Armored Orc, Swordsman Orc, Archer Orc, and of course the Cave Troll. As you will see in this review, they’ve done an excellent job of capturing Middle-earth’s odd couple, Legolas and Gimli, as well as creating a couple of great collectibles. If you’re a fan with limited space and budget, then these collectibles will be right up your ally. Currently, Legolas and Gimli are listed as in stock from our friends at Sideshow, for $140 each. The rest of the line set is currently on pre-order.
The incredibly secretive billion-dollar TV series release confirms a launch date of September 2, 2022, for what has been filming for nearly 18 months in New Zealand. Looks like post production, VFX work and more will take more than a year to complete.
First OFFICIAL photo: Amazon’s LOTR
Here is the first official pic of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings, the biggest TV series in history, from showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne!
Curiously, the announcement begins with “yet-to-be titled”, which means the actual series may be called something new. Fandom has been split on this idea – The Lord of the Rings is the biggest selling book of the 20th century, and a well-known brand, familiar in all languages; and the Second Age story is of Sauron, who is the actual lord of the rings. On the other hand, casual viewers might be confused by naming the show the same as the feature films, where they might expect a reboot going in.
Our friends at Asmus Toys have launched a new line of collectibles that I believe fans are really going to love. Starting this Fall, fans will be able to acquire what Asmus is refering to as limited articulation figures. The first collectible that fans will be able to snag is the Balrog; which, as a fan of this character, makes me very happy. It’s really exceptional looking. If space is an issue don’t fret, because this statue is coming in at 11 inches tall with the wings. (Other figures Lurtz and the newly teased Azog will both be in the 8″ tall range.) You can get the Balrog right now at Sideshow for $110, which is a great price point for collectors. If you’re looking to get something that is cool, doesn’t take up a ton of shelf space, and has a price point that may enable you to collect them all, I think you’ll want to check this out.
