Flame Tree Fiction

Dystopias have been invading our screens for decades, although there has been a recent influx of great dystopias. They come in all kinds of forms, including TV shows (the ever-popular 'The Walking Dead' is starting up again in October!), films (Mockingjay Part 1 is released in November!) and books (there are so many YA dystopias being published I don't know which to get excited about first!). But what is a dystopia? We know there must be something fundamentally broken about society. But in what way should it be broken? Must there be a totalitarian leader and cameras watching your every move?

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.' 

Image via totallyuselesstrivia

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.

Pulp fiction found in pulp magazines – commonly known as 'the pulps' – was a great way to get a quick dose of fiction in the 19th century, similar to short story collections or comics/graphic novels. The pulps were printed on low quality paper (known as wood pulp, which is where their name came from) with ragged edges, and would be around 128 pages long, filled with not only fantastic stories but also sensational art. They covered a wide range of genre fiction, including amongst many others: adventure, sports, sic fi, romance, horror, gangster and detective/mystery stories. Beloved characters such as Tarzan and Zorro started out in the pulps and many of the writers we consider classics today had their stories featured in them.

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.      

So it seems everywhere I look at the moment are zombie pictures, visions of the walking dead – sometimes relatively unscathed and human-like; mostly fairly bloodily down the road of decay – whether in art, film or on TV. Having been immersed in making a book on zombies has obviously contributed to my high intake of undead depictions, but even when I decide to read something apparently non-zombie, my thoughts return to these shuffling, grasping creatures. Going through my other half’s eclectic collection of books the other day, looking for something new to read, I plucked out John Wyndham’s The Day of The Triffids – a 1951 post-apocalyptic science-fiction tale of worldwide blindness enabling the rise of some rather nasty, stinging, lurching, carnivorousplants…

Awakening to A Changed World

OK, so first of all, the post-apocalyptic thing is there – a trope much beloved of zombie-filmmakers – but more specifically, I experienced much déja-vu in the opening scenes as the protagonist wakes up in hospital to discover he has been abandoned by his carers and no one is left, save for some desperate, groaning, shuffling people wandering the wards... Where had I seen this before?

The danger, mystery and beauty of vampires means they have an eternal allure a world apart from zombies or other horrors, and as well as reading about them or watching them on screen, gothic fantasy art affords a whole world of imaginative vampiric visions created by talented artists.

Today’s Zombie

In the last decade, Zombie pictures, movies and games have entered the mainstream in a big way. The Walking Dead has not only seen huge success in its comic book form, but also in the tv show adapted from it. Even an actor as well loved as Brad Pitt produced and starred in a film adaptation of Max Brook’s World War Z. Yet even as the genre grows, it is important to remember that it owes a huge debt to the the wonderfully twisted mind of George Romero.

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.