DRAGONMOUNT

It's hard to believe it's the end of June already.  Yikes! The denizens of our General Wheel of Time Discussion forum would like to know the following:  How many times have you read The Wheel of Time?  I love how our forums cater to everyone, from those who have just discovered the series for the first time to those who have read the books fifteen times or more. One of my bosses (yes, Jennifer Liang, I'm looking at you) will probably be disappointed if I don't feature the following thread, so here I go.  If you have seen Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, please report to this thread in the Movies and Games Discussion forum and see if you agree with the review posted there.  I know opinions of this movie can be quite diverse. The Ogier Social Group would like to know which time periods interest you the most.  Whether you'd like to study them or live in them, I'm sure you have a favorite or two.  You can learn a lot about people from their responses to this question.   If you miss cage match season and want something to tide yourself over until next year, the White Tower & Warders Social Group is hosting a mini cage match featuring only Warder characters.  This thread will tell you everything you need to know. Here's something I've never seen before.  It's a role play from a Fade's point of view.  Read Awakening and see if you can handle seeing the world through the non-eyes of a Fade. Until next time, folks!

To preface, I know almost nothing about comic strips, comic books, storyboarding, and the difference between Japanese manga and the American graphic novel. If you're deeply passionate about the distinction between these unique and beautiful forms of storytelling-through-art, you may be appalled by my treatment of them over the next two weeks. Being the ignoramus that I am, I plan to just lump them all together to bring you the best of what I'm going to call "multi-panel" Wheel of Time art.   Each of the works featured today and next week either represents or reinterprets a scene from The Wheel of Time. Follow the links or click on the images for the full-size versions.     1. Maradon by liruichen   Scene: Towers of Midnight, Chapter 32, "A Storm of Light". Rand rescues the city of Maradon by singlehandedly destroying an army of Shadowspawn.   The artist submitted this for the "Badassery" contest hosted last summer by the Wheel of Time fan art group on deviantART. I have to say, it was one of my favorite submissions. This painting gives me more chills than the scene in the books did.       2. Apocalypse Perrin: Redux by johnplaystuba   Scene: Knife of Dreams, Chapter 30, "Outside the Gates," and Towers of Midnight, Chapter 47, "A Teaching Chamber." Perrin rescues Faile from Malden. Later, he recounts his adventures to Mat and Thom.   If you liked Perrin's story arc in the middle of the series (what the artist refers to as the "Plotline of Doom"), you may not want to read this hilarious reinterpretation of it. BE WARNED--his construal is probably not for diehard fans.       3. Page 100--The Shadow Rising by Kimiko (Nadia Attlee):   Scene: The Shadow Rising, Chapter 4, "Strings." Mat moans to Thom about being stuck in Tear.   Just a bit of well-executed cuteness.       4. Wheel of Time 10 page 2. Lines by Andy Tong, colors by Nicolas Chapuis (BoOoM)   Scene: The Eye of the World, Chapter 14, "The Stag and Lion." In one of the many dreams the three boys have of Ba'alzamon, he attempts to turn Rand to the Shadow by encouraging him to drink from a jeweled goblet.   A discussion of multi-panel adaptations of the Wheel of Time wouldn't be complete without including a page from the official Wheel of Time comic book adaptation by Dynamite Entertainment. This is my favorite of the pages posted online by the colorist before the text was added.  

We recently received the following exciting news from our friends at Ta'veren Tees:      

It's time for more wallpaper!  After a quiet month from them, Tor.com will now continue to post eBook wallpaper for each Wheel of Time book.  It's one of many ways in which they are celebrating the countdown to the final book. This week, the featured eBook wallpaper is for The Path of Daggers. The artwork is by Julie Bell. Here is the image:   Go here to download different sizes of the wallpaper and to read more about how this art was created. How do you like the art for this eBook?

Before we begin, I would like to express my gratitude to all the fathers out there.  Father's Day was yesterday here in the USA, so I hope the dads out there got a chance to relax and be spoiled.  I would also like to give a shout out to my father, who has been one of my biggest supporters and has instilled in me many of the values I hold most dear. Here's an interesting question from our General Wheel of Time Discussion forum:  What characters does Brandon Sanderson write the best?  We've heard more in the past from those who criticized his portrayal of some characters, so it's nice to see a more positive approach to this topic. The Black Tower Social Group has started a new monthly discussion series.  This month, they are talking about role playing.  This looks to be a very informative discussion. The Wolfkin Social Group is discussing camping this month.  Have you done much camping in your life?  If so, where?  Did you enjoy it? What would the Band of the Red Hand do with a scared potential recruit they found in the forest?  Find out in the role play A Boy and His Toys. Some of you may know that JordanCon will be hosting DeepSouthCon next year.  This year's DeepSouthCon was this weekend, so if you want to hear about the exploits of the JordanCon representatives who attended this year, check out the JordanCon Twitter account.

I'm afraid it's been a hectic week, so the best I can do is feature the best anonymous Wheel of Time painting I've ever accidentally stumbled across. Have you seen it before?       I found an unattributed thumbnail of this emotionally charged depiction of Rand while reading the post on angreal in the Wheel of Time wiki earlier this week. It took me a while to puzzle out the signature, which just says "SCRAPS." It took me a bit longer to hunt down the artist's blog, which appears to be entirely anonymous.   As of the time I am writing this, the blog has been visited only 183 times since 2008, and a handful of those visits are mine. The painting itself, which has been online since 2010, only has one comment, which (startling to me, but then again I'm not one to split hairs about canon) is only lukewarm. Since I've dedicated this entire week to this single painting, you can probably guess my opinions on it. Basically, I think it's genius. Also, it gives me the willies.   With a little help from Google, I actually did manage to find out more about the artist. However, the fact that I had to go digging in the first place suggests he has an interest in keeping his professional and Internet personas separate, so I think I'll play it safe and keep mum on that topic. Besides, it adds to the mystery, doesn't it?   Speaking of impressive artists that are virtually unknown in the Wheel of Time fan art community, I'd like to thank everyone for your enthusiastic reception of Josh Hass's amazing painting of the Myrddraal. Your praise has inspired him to do a second Wheel of Time piece, which I will undoubtedly feature when (and if--no pressure, Josh!) it is finished (for details, see the comments from that post). It's extremely exciting to see Dragonmount and Fan Art Friday foster the creation of new art.   If you know of other paintings like this one or the one by Josh Hass (i.e. those by stunningly talented artists on the edges of the Wheel of Time fanverse), please leave a comment with a link!   Lastly, I apologize for my brevity (by which I am of course referring to the lack of images, not a lack of words). Next week, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Welcome back, everyone!  Things seem a little quieter than usual because it's exam and graduation season, but we still have plenty for you to do around here. The famous science fiction writer Ray Bradbury sadly passed away on June 6th.  Come pay your respects in our General Discussion forum here. I was shocked to find there was no thread in our Entertainment Discussion area of the boards for the recent Tony Awards show, so I just started one.  Surely I'm not the only Broadway geek here! The Black Tower Social Group has posted the June edition of their newsletter, the Tainted Times.  I haven't seen one of these in awhile, and they have lots to report, so be sure to check it out. The Ogier Social Group recently posted their June literary topic.  Who do you think is the best support character for a protagonist? The Wolfkin Social Group is playing a game of Caption This!  The rules are simple:  for each picture posted, come up with a funny, silly, or otherwise amusing caption.  Wolfkin members who post the best ones can earn points for them. Our friend and fellow Wheel of Time fan Kristen Nedopak is still seeking funding for her Skyrim video parodies.  Go here to read more about these awesome videos and donate!

While I applaud the Wheel of Time art community for its inexhaustible creativity, the pace with which it produces works that reduce me to a doe-eyed fangirl does hamper my plan to eventually feature every great Wheel of Time fan artist out there. For this very reason, I have not yet had the pleasure of featuring any art by Tanya Wagemann, a.k.a. fee-absinthe. Stumbling across one of this Chilean artist's perky, colorful character studies always brightens my day.   Since yinz don't read the Fan Art Friday blog to hear me wax poetic, I'll go ahead and (mostly) let her work speak for itself!     1. Wonder Trio These portraits really highlight the artist's ability to capture the essence of each character. I'm also impressed by her attention to detail in the costuming.       2. Leane This one stands out for me because of its use of textures and patterns.       3. Elayne doodles What can I say? All these expressions are just so Elayne.       4. Hedonism This is the first of two depictions she's done of Graendal. I can't feature the second because it contains mature content, but if you're curious and are not put off by busty-yet-tastefully-rendered women in diaphanous gowns, you can find it here (You may need a deviantART account to view it. Go ahead and sign up! It's easily worth the cost, which is nothing at all ).       Not only is fee-absinthe actively producing fan art for the series (something that sadly cannot be said of many of my other favorite Wheel of Time artists), she also takes commissions. Unfortunately, her journal on deviantART indicates she currently has tendonitis and has had to take a break from new commissions. We hope she gets better soon! If you have an original character you've invented and would like to see painted, be sure to keep an eye on her journal for updates.

It's time for another audiobook giveaway! Here are the rules again for those who aren't familiar with our giveaways: This month, we will be giving away a copy of The Shadow Rising. Click here for a clip from the audiobook.   This month's question is: How did you discover the Wheel of Time series?  You have until Wednesday, June 13th to answer in the comments section. Good luck!  

Over the last several months, there have been many exciting announcements about A Memory of Light, the highly anticipated final volume in The Wheel of Time series. In case you've missed our previous coverage, here's what we know so far.   Brandon Sanderson finished the first draft of the book on December 21st, 2011. It was immediately turned over to Team Jordan for review. Brandon anticipates needing at least a dozen drafts before the book is ready for publication.   Tor announced that the hardcover and audiobook releases will be on January 8th, 2013. The eBook release will be April 9th. If Tor follows their usual pattern, the paperback mass market release will be approximately one year after the hardcover release.   We anticipate that Brandon and Harriet McDougal will both go on a signing tour for the hardcover release, however no cities have been announced yet.   Also in December, series artist Darrell K. Sweet passed away, leaving the cover art for A Memory of Light unfinished. You can view his draft on our A Memory of Light info page.   Michael Whelan was announced as Mr. Sweet's replacement. More info about Mr. Whelan's cover can be found here. Tor.com has posted the full cover, as well as notes from Whelan on the process and some of his rough sketches.   Orbit Books, the UK publisher who publishes the WoT books, has also released their cover.   At this year's JordanCon, Harriet read to us a portion of the prologue of A Memory of Light. While no recordings were allowed, Tor and the Jordan estate have graciously allowed us to reprint the text of the preview. If Tor follows their usual pattern, there will be an eBook version of the complete prologue available for purchase sometime between now and the release date. Orbit has also released the jacket text for the book. We believe the same text will appear on the US editions as well. We have reprinted the text here for your convenience:       A Memory of Light information and discussion A Memory of Light discussion forum. (Beware, some threads have prologue spoilers!) A Memory of Light info page Listen to or read Chapter One of A Memory of Light Our friends at TarValon.net are re-reading the series and giving away free audio books in preparation for the release. Follow us on Twitter: @dragonmount or "Like" us on Facebook.Please consider pre-ordering the book through one of our international Amazon affiliates, and help support our website.