When I think of MERP, two artists come to mind. The first is Liz Danforth, who I will tackle tomorrow. The second is cover artist Angus McBride. Characters of Middle-Earth is an art book that collects 29 of his best paintings and, my goodness.

There have been many artistic interpretations of Middle Earth over the years. The work of the Hildebrandt brother, Alan Lee and the filmic interpretations by Ralph Bakshi, Rankin/Bass and Peter Jackson are probably the most famous. I think they all pale in comparison to McBride’s work.

There’s a little of the 60s and 70s interpretations clinging to McBride’s work, but it is the crisp, bright cleanness that really sells me. Just look at his Witch King! Look at the quality of light and McBride’s attention to realistic costuming, his perfect horses.

McBride had a long career as an illustrator of military costumes for historical publications, which give him a unique set of tools to bring to bear on the fantastic. Your mileage may vary, but I think his work is wonderful.

Of course, this being MERP, a significant amount of McBride’s time was spent developing areas of Middle Earth that have no foundation in Tolkien’s writing. You can tell which ones I mean at a glance. I don’t know how I feel about them. They certainly look cool, but not very…Middle-Earth.