[Terez]

http://www.tor.com/b...-michael-whelan

Also, I so totally called this.

[QuickTidal]

With them announcing the reprinting of the entire series in physical format using the new art from the ebook covers, it was pretty blatantly hinted at that Whelan's art would grace the print cover as well as the ebook one. Just sayin'

[Terez]

I called it then too. Just saying.

[QuickTidal]

Terez, on 27 February 2012 - 05:39 PM, said:

I called it then too. Just saying.

Alright Gloryhound.

[Terez]

I know; I'm overimpressed with myself as usual. From the comments:

Irene Gallo said:

Michael is not working with the same concept that Darrell was. It seemed fairer to both artists to let their work be judged on their own merits.

I do hope we can show the sketch at some point but, that will have to be approved by those above me and, again, I’d like to give Michael the space to have his cover judge on its own before showing Darrell’s beginnings.

I was just talking to Tom Doherty and he mentioned to me, again, how pleased he is that Michael is on this and how sorry he is the Darrell isn’t. We’d like to honor both artists.

[Illuyankas]

I like the idea that they revealed the publishing date before they mentioned Whelan so people would get used to the idea of waiting nearly a year instead of yelling WHY CAN'T WE GET, LIKE, A SHITTIER ARTIST WHO CAN PAINT SOMETHING IN LESS THAN A YEAR or something.

[Terez]

Greymanekas, on 28 February 2012 - 03:42 PM, said:

I like the idea that they revealed the publishing date before they mentioned Whelan so people would get used to the idea of waiting nearly a year instead of yelling WHY CAN'T WE GET, LIKE, A SHITTIER ARTIST WHO CAN PAINT SOMETHING IN LESS THAN A YEAR or something.

Yeah, I agree it was a smart move. And poor Brandon had to take the hit for it, which was very valiant of him, lol. Though it's possible he didn't even have a choice. It doesn't matter either way; he's a Whelan fanboy, and already got Tom Doherty to call in a favor for Whelan to do TWOK. I gather they knew DKS was in bad shape, though, since they had Brandon send him a description of the scene for the cover so that he could start working on it earlier. I can't wait to find out what it is, especially since they showed themselves willing to go into 'spoiler' territory with the last cover, just because it was something we had been anticipating for so long. Anyway, it is a little odd that Brandon hasn't said anything about the cover publicly since it was announced. That shows they're really, really trying to separate the release date from Whelan, especially since you know that Brandon has really strong feelings about Whelan and would probably like to say something publicly about it. But then, it might be taken as being in bad taste for him to express too much excitement about Whelan when DKS's passing is so recent. Who knows? I am not good at judging the politics of this sort of thing, but I'm sure they know what's best.

[QuickTidal]

Whelan is going to do a GORGEOUS cover. I can't even think of a cover he's ever done that hasn't blown me away.

That said, I actually hope that Sweet's early sketch is NOWHERE on the final printed book. To me that would diminish what Whelan was doing. You don't ask a guy to do the art on a book and then say "Oh, but we are going to include the previous artist's preliminary work as well", that's a slap in the face, no matter if Sweet has passed away or not. My hope is that Sweet purists get to see the art at some point after the books release and maybe it shows up in a future retrospective book of art, and probably on the Dragomount.com site as well...but the printed and eBook versions or AMOL should be ONLY the Whelan cover art.

If that makes me sound cold, sorry, but it's how I feel.

[Terez]

They already came to the same conclusion, so no need for fanboy rage.

[QuickTidal]

Terez, on 29 February 2012 - 04:12 PM, said:

They already came to the same conclusion, so no need for fanboy rage.

[Slow Ben]

This news makes me happy. Big fan of Whelan, actually have 2 of his paintings on my wall.

[Deck of Dragons]

QuickTidal, on 27 February 2012 - 05:35 PM, said:

With them announcing the reprinting of the entire series in physical format using the new art from the ebook covers, it was pretty blatantly hinted at that Whelan's art would grace the print cover as well as the ebook one. Just sayin'

Just looked at the ebook covers and they are horrendous! I only like the one that is probably a Swanland cover...but that just does not fit WOT.

[QuickTidal]

Deck of Dragons, on 29 March 2012 - 07:07 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 27 February 2012 - 05:35 PM, said:

With them announcing the reprinting of the entire series in physical format using the new art from the ebook covers, it was pretty blatantly hinted at that Whelan's art would grace the print cover as well as the ebook one. Just sayin'

Just looked at the ebook covers and they are horrendous! I only like the one that is probably a Swanland cover...but that just does not fit WOT.

What? Are you being serious?

Every last one of the eBook covers are better than the crap that originally graced the covers.

You might find your opinion in the minority DoD.

Though if I had my way I'd get the British covers with the logo on black for them all.

[Illuyankas]

To be fair, the ones with Rand holding a rope on a boat and him sitting down doing nothing of interest are pretty naff, however most of them are much better than the Sweet versions.

[QuickTidal]

Illuyankas, on 29 March 2012 - 07:50 PM, said:

To be fair, the ones with Rand holding a rope on a boat and him sitting down doing nothing of interest are pretty naff, however most of them are much better than the Sweet versions.

An absolutely fair point. Indeed.

[Deck of Dragons]

QuickTidal, on 29 March 2012 - 07:47 PM, said:

Deck of Dragons, on 29 March 2012 - 07:07 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 27 February 2012 - 05:35 PM, said:

With them announcing the reprinting of the entire series in physical format using the new art from the ebook covers, it was pretty blatantly hinted at that Whelan's art would grace the print cover as well as the ebook one. Just sayin'

Just looked at the ebook covers and they are horrendous! I only like the one that is probably a Swanland cover...but that just does not fit WOT.

What? Are you being serious?

Every last one of the eBook covers are better than the crap that originally graced the covers.

You might find your opinion in the minority DoD.

Though if I had my way I'd get the British covers with the logo on black for them all.

Where did I say the originals were better? Some of them were, but that is not what I am talking about. The fact that they decide to re-skin the whole series, but do so in such a inconsistent and lame way is hilarious. Most of these suck. Some are really good but none of it is consistant. Why use so many different artists? Love the Raymond Swanland cover but give me a break, Perrin does not look that bada$$ and was never ever described that way. And the layouts just suck and obscure the art to much.

[QuickTidal]

Deck of Dragons, on 11 April 2012 - 04:20 PM, said:

Where did I say the originals were better? Some of them were, but that is not what I am talking about. The fact that they decide to re-skin the whole series, but do so in such a inconsistent and lame way is hilarious. Most of these suck. Some are really good but none of it is consistant. Why use so many different artists? Love the Raymond Swanland cover but give me a break, Perrin does not look that bada$$ and was never ever described that way. And the layouts just suck and obscure the art to much.

Sorry, I assumed a dismissal of the eBook covers was an embracing of the originals. My bad.

That said, your opinion on what Perrin "looks like" is pretty subjective and beholden to what's in your head. To Swayland, that's what Perrin looks like to him, drawn in that style. To me Perrin looks different in my head. What I CAN do, is see that everyone interprets the characters in their own way...as far as I am concerned the only thing we can all collectively agree on (with let's say Perrin) is that he is a big, broad dude, with dark hair and a beard...and he wields a big hammer. The cover shows that...simply in a different style to what you have in your noggin. The base idea is fine in Swayland's piece.

As to why use so many different artists: Perhaps you are unaware but it takes each artist a significant number of months and drafts to come up with the final piece that will be added to the cover. Should you have seen the TOR site and Dragonmount were both documenting each artists vision from conception to final with sketches and early work ect. The release schedule for the eBooks was I think a year (Terez might know better)...and if you think that one artist could draw fourteen paintings and have them be even remotely good in one year (or even two years)...then you're not thinking straight my friend. So they chose a selection of various artists (most of which are a who's who of Cover Artist royalty) to each do one. I think they are are really good, each in their own way, personally. A lot of thought and work went into them and this was not just some flippant undertaking by TOR, but a concerted effort to do the books justice with covers.

The art on the majority of them isn't obscure at all (not especially in comparison with the original Sweet covers, which were all over the place and more often than not didn't show much of anything) and in most cases usually concerns either THE biggest moment, or at least A big moment in each of the respective books. In that vein I feel they scored in my eyes. I mean FIRES OF CHAOS has Moiraine's fight, LORD Of CHAOS has arguably the biggest battle in the series so far Dumai's Wells, SHADOW RISING has Mat's Rhuidean moments, CROWN Of SWORDS has arguably Nynaeve's bigger moment with her block. Those are all big fan fave moments of the series, and I feel happy that each artist put enough thought into the scene's to represent them on the covers so well.

[Deck of Dragons]

What I meant by obscured was that the layout (logo/title area etc.) takes up like far more than the originals so even if I like the art, not enough of it is visible. What they should do is slowly re-release the hardcovers with new Whelan art on them all. Pay him a ton of money to re-do all the novels since he is finishing it anyway and give him a 9 book contract to finish off Stormlight Archives as well.

[QuickTidal]

I'm going to assume you people saw this, but here is the preliminary rough draft of what would have been Darell Sweet's art for the cover of AMOL.

While it is less obnoxious than a lot of his other covers...it still suffers from the same stuff his art has always suffered from...and I still find it kind of meh. I'd like to see this appear on the inner dust jacket or something though, as a tribute to the man.

[Terez]

QuickTidal, on 24 April 2012 - 08:29 PM, said:

I'm going to assume you people saw this, but here is the preliminary rough draft of what would have been Darell Sweet's art for the cover of AMOL.

While it is less obnoxious than a lot of his other covers...it still suffers from the same stuff his art has always suffered from...and I still find it kind of meh. I'd like to see this appear on the inner dust jacket or something though, as a tribute to the man.

That's not going to happen. They said so when it was announced that Whelan was doing the print cover.