I recognise all of the Tolkien images; the Mountain is iconic, though I've always found the sketch of the dwarves to be highly ridiculous. ^_^

The Swedish one is... actually I don't know what that cover puts me in mind of, but I know I've read a picture-book in exactly that style. Possibly it is the Moomins, but my immediate reaction was Noggin the Nog. Either way, pike-and-shield Bilbo in his nightcap is hilarious. As is Angry Dwarf Concert.

(WTF Gollum count: 1)

The Japanese ones I think show signs of being influenced by the Western artwork - that design of Bag-End is pure John Howe, for instance.

(WTF Gollum count: 2)

Russia, again, reminds me of something, but I don't know what. Possibly the images I've seen from the very first, 12-minute Hobbit film, which was animated in Russia. The shot of the sad dwarves looks like the faculty of Unseen University.

(WTF Gollum count:3)

The Czech one is... er... um... what was the scene were all the dwarves got naked in a river, again? o.O Must've missed that one. I love the little image of Thorin's tomb, though: "coffin, jewel in coffin, sword on top, job done!".

(No Gollum, just some rather violent head-stabbing.)

And the Sendak... can you imagine a Sendak Where the Wild Goblins Are-style Hobbit? I never knew I wanted this. :(

hS

My favourite of these might be the Jansson ones but they're all real cool in their own ways. All the unique versions of Gollum are especially interesting and I like all of them (but especially the Jansson one who is real proper ominous). They should all team up.

I remember, a while back, finding a bunch of artwork on Tolkien's stuff by a guy called Tim Kirk - I plugged a bit of it on the Discord. His stuff can be found in here.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/425793119511117824/453016377419104286/moria_well.png

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/425793119511117824/453016595141230612/road.png

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/425793119511117824/453016481748353034/riddle.png

Those are some of my favourites. They're so dreamy and colourful. Proper whimsical fairy tale stuff right there.

Part of this got linked in chat, and I thought it was worth pointing out to everyone.

So, a fellow named Austin McConnell made a video complaining about the storytelling issues he found in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (spoilers for Cursed Child).

Then, he made a followup video explaining how he'd rewrite the story while sticking to the existing costuming, sets, etc.. Said video has spoilers for the original play, and probably also spoils Nineteen Years Later, an actual, you can buy tickets to it stage play based on the rewrite. How this came to be is documented in this video, which also has interviews with the writer and actors, as well as giving you a sense of what a performance was like.

Anyhow, I thought this was interesting and didn't want to start a new thread.

- Tomash

Still the strangest.

I very much like the Japanese illustrations. They most closely match the Dwarves in my head—though unsurprisingly, the Swedish artist comes in a respectable second place.

I wonder, were these mostly done before the retcons to make The Hobbit fit better with LotR? Is that why Gollum appears so un-hobbit-like—he wasn't a corrupted hobbit originally?

I am very disappointed we don't have a Maurice Sendak-illustrated Hobbit. {= (

A friend of mine was telling me there's an annotated edition of The Hobbit that points out all the changes that were made. I'd love to get my hands on that. Has anyone else seen it?

~Neshomeh