Monday, August 31, 2015

Discworld - Seeing is Believing

The Last Hero is an amazing graphic novel that brings Rincewind, Leonard of Quirm and Captain Carrot together against Cohen and the Silver Horde.  It's illustrated but the amazing Paul Kidby.  Kidby is to the Discworld what Alex Ross is to comic books.

I remember getting to see Alex Ross on a panel at Wondercon once.  He mentioned how he wanted to recreate, in his style, the iconic Muhammad Ali vs. Superman book cover.  The other artists on the panel said that was huge undertaking, and Ross said it wasn't that big of a deal, you just draw it.  One of the other artists then said, "You're like Superman when someone asks him how he flies, and he says, 'You just jump into the air.'"

Every page has his incredible artwork that perfectly illustrates the characters and the Discworld.  And sometimes it is literally the Discworld that he is illustrating.  Sometimes it's artwork in the margins, sometimes it's a faint drawing behind the text, and occasionally it's an glorious two-page spread.

The story itself seems brief, but there are bleed-over references to artwork, movies,  and other things.  It is a seminal Discworld book.

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Recurring themes and Characters appearing in this book:

Albert
Ankh-Morpork
Berghodlt Stuttley “Bloody Stupid” Johnson
Bibulous, god of wine
Blind Io
Borogravia
Boy Willie
Butterflies (quantum)
Caleb the Ripper
Carrot Ironfoundersson, captain
Circumfence
Cohen the Barbarian
Death
Dried frog pills
Errol
Events in Guards Guards
Events in The Colour of Magic / The Light Fantastic
Fate
Fingers Mazda
Havelock Vetinari, patrician
Hughnon Ridcully, priest of Blind Io
Krull
Leonard of Quirm
Lord Downey, Assassins’ Guild
Mad Hamish
Mr. Boggis, Thieves’ Guild
Mr. Slant, Lawyers’ Guild
Mrs. Palm, Seamstresses’ Guild
Mustrum Ridcully, archchancellor UU
Nuggan
Offler, the crocodile-headed god
Old Vincent
Om
Omniscope
Parrot labeled "Dog" (picture)
Patina, goddess of wisdom
Ponder Stibbons
Rimfishers
Rincewind
Sam Vimes, commander, duke, knight
Sybil Ramkin-Vimes
The Agatean Empire
The Bursar
The Chair of Indefinite Studies
The Clacks System
The Counterweight Continent
The Dean
The Death of rats
The High-Energy Magic building
The Lady
The Lecturer in Recent Runes
The Librarian
The Luggage
The Million-to-One Chance
The Pointless Albatross
The Silver Horde
The Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons
Truckle the Uncivil

Unseen University

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