Flame Tree Fiction

Our amazing illustrated title Cthulhu is now available as an iBook. As iPads and iPhones are amazing devices to view images on, in today's blog we're going to look at a handful of great images from the book.

Following Marvel's recent announcement that Thor will now permanently be a woman in the superhero universe, there was some surprise from onlookers. The change is intended to bring a larger female readership to the comic behemoth by speaking directly to an audience 'that long was not the target for superhero comic books.' 

We love all things fantasy at Flame Tree, which means that aside from reading and making awesome books, we also like putting our feet up and watching some great telly. Over the next few weeks we'll be building up to some of the best fantasy TV series that will be on the box next year.

Leslie J. Lee is an American concept artist currently working for Section Studios, a prestigious company based in Los Angeles who have designed and worked with franchises as big as Toyota. The quality of her art is reflected through her achievements, as she has designed for Netflix an online movie website known for its phenomenal success. She has also designed for the ever popular Game of Thrones television series, which was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. The complexity of her drawings is breathtaking as the detail she provides is highly admirable. As seen below she presents us with strong and independent characters, each with their own elements of individuality. We are privileged enough to have her explain in depth and step-by-step just how much effort goes into each and every one of her masterpieces.      

In an artistic genre populated by muscular heroes, blood-soaked warriors and impossible vistas, Michael C. Hayes is just one of the talented host of artists that we feature in our upcoming book, Fantasy Art: Warriors and Heroes. Though his work is canonical, his paintings are also innately artistic. Lending equal attention to superhuman fighters and composed portraits of his characters, Hayes' work is a must-see for any fantasy art fan.

Tattoo art, like most forms of art, covers an eclectic range of styles, subject matter and messages. Of these sub-categories, Old School is one of the most instantly recognisable. The clear lines and iconography relevant to sailing lore have evolved into a popular style for those with a love of inked skin. Conversely, style has evolved on the other end of the spectrum into what is being dubbed 'New School'. An anthesis to its older brother, New School tattoo art relies less on a rigid style and is more commonly associated with experimentation, natural colours and subtle messages.

There’s something very steampunky about cinema itself. The medium was invented in the Victorian era, and early projectors and cameras were intricate, archaic devices with hundreds of moving parts. This ethos of incricate moving parts laced with a strong emphasis on style is what makes steampunk appeal to so many people worldwide, and why too it has capured the imaginationof Hollywood filmakers. 

The stars have aligned, oceans have parted; and now Cthulhu no longer dreaming lies dreaming in the depths, but is here. We're incredibly proud of our amazing illustrated title, now available in hardback print and also digitally via the iBookstore. The powerful and terrifying images of Cthulhu look astonishing on the iPad, each colour popping because of the device's high-res screen. These illustrations also look incredible in our print book; we've used high-quality, glossy paper, so that each image stands centre stage in all its glory.

'Cthulhu Mythos' is a term originally coined by August Derleth and has since come to represent the overall shared characters, themes and elements from the works by H.P. Lovecraft, his protegés and other writers influenced by him. It's an intertwined universe that spans across several fantasy fictions without being explicitly detailed or made relevant by the plot.

It's fair to say Matthew Lewis's 1796 novel is a challenging read. Even for a book so old, it's not so much the language that is hard to digest but the shocking detail in which Lewis paints a saintly figure's fall into depravity. Though religion has come be to inexorably tied to gothic fiction, The Monk is really one of the first novels that didn't shy away from the often disturbing elements of faith, and the shocking repercussions of straying from such a strict path. That is what is so interesting and compelling about this book: how religion, a universal and identifiable part of many people's lives, can be manipulated and exploited into a tale that transports us away from the security of what we know, and land us into a terrifying world of desire and bloodshed.