Tor.com has posted a preview of "The Creature That Had Once Been Padan Fain", one of several art pieces that will be included in the upcoming Wheel of Time Companion. "Padan Fain" is by Chesley award winning artist Paul Bielaczyc. The Companion is scheduled for release November 3rd, 2015. 

Paul Bielaczyc might be a familiar name to some of you. In addition to his award winning art, he and his brother, Mike and sister, Sara form Aradani Studios, who are popular vendors at conventions and renaissance festivals around the south eastern United States. If you've ever bought a pair of elf ears at DragonCon, Paul or Mike were probably there to glue them on for you. Paul is also the co Director of the JordanCon Art Show where he works with artists from around the country to build JordanCon's Art Show into an attraction of its own. An avid cosplayer, Paul is best known to Wheel of Time fans for his Rand al'Thor cosplay or his award winning Trolloc cosplay (that was so good, someone called the police!)  

His art can also be found on some of Ta'Veren Tees shirts and "Padan Fain" is also featured in this year's Wheel of Time calendar.  Paul was also the mastermind behind the hilarious "Rand on the Run" prank in 2014.

Oh, you don't know that one? Settle back, this is a good one. 

JordanCon owns a cardboard cutout of Rand al'Thor. You might recognize it from this picture with George R. R. Martin from ConCarolinas last summer.

In 2011, the cutout disappeared from JordanCon and was thought lost. We were all sad, and then Rand mysteriously resurfaced at the JordanCon Opening Ceremonies in 2014. After the convention, Paul wanted to keep the mystery going and took Rand home with him and created a Facebook account to chronicle it.  The cutout was the star of many adventures, some more plausible than others. 

As you can see, Paul Bielaczyc is a fantastic artist and longtime fan of The Wheel of Time. We are incredibly pleased to see his art featured in The Wheel of Time Companion and can't wait to see what other artists are included.