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Monday, 15 August 2011

The colour of thunder

One of the many things Jamie and I have been holding under our hats lately is The Art of Fabled Lands, a lavishly produced, full-colour, 112-page book from Megara Entertainment that would do credit to anybody's coffee table. Currently it's only available on Lulu, but often that means there'll be a listing on Amazon before too long.

Mikael Louys, CEO of Megara, describes the book thus - and I wish my French was as half good as his English:
"When Fabled Lands was first published in 1995, it amazed readers with a rich, multi-book-spanning adventure far beyond the scope of traditional gamebooks. Now it has cracked its paper shell and spread its wings in the new realm of the digital, soaring on currents not only of text, but of music and colour artwork. From a team of visual artists with many skills and styles came a storm of hard work to vastly expand the original illustrations, giving graphics for text that had until then been untouched. This book holds a beautiful fraction of the artistic creativity that forms worlds within your mind. You submerge in the wonder of the moment: what creature is it that stands in those woods? Will this rain ever cease beating upon the fields? Sifting through the Art of Fabled Lands is like adventuring in the world already. We hope you enjoy the art and this perfect accessory for Fabled Lands gamebooks owners, with new text material included."
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17 comments:

  1. JoeCrystal15 August 2011 at 17:48

    Just bought it on Lulu :) Looking forward to it, while I would not buy Ipad or Iphone game, at least we are given an chance to see what the arts are like within the game on book. :)

    I am still looking forward to Sokara - The War-Torn Kingdom source books! Not long now!

    Cheers

    Joe

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  2. Dave Morris15 August 2011 at 18:49

    Hi Joe, I've seen some of the maps and art for the Sokara book and you will not be disappointed.

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  3. Hamza16 August 2011 at 04:37

    That's a very poetic description from Mr Louys, isn't it? Also, I must say, the painting of the winged creature on the left-hand page in the photo above is fantastic.

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  4. Dave Morris16 August 2011 at 08:52

    I agree, Hamza. A lot of criticism of the app art by diehard FL fans focused on the Japanese RPG style of some of the characters, but really that was just a handful of pictures out of hundreds. I think that even those critics will discover with this book that there is a hugely impressive body of artwork here, and looking through the book really is like a holiday brochure to the world of Harkuna!

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  5. Anonymous16 August 2011 at 13:28

    Everything is true except that Richard S (for Sir) Hetley wrote the book description not me :) if you can update the blog...I don't write such a good english myself. I'm the Grand Fromage, remember.

    Mikael LOUYS
    Megara

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  6. wanderer16 August 2011 at 17:35

    Is it coming in hardback?

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  7. Dave Morris17 August 2011 at 00:31

    Good question, Wanderer. Obviously it would cost a bit more in hardback, but now that the files are all set up on Lulu there's no reason why Megara couldn't offer that as well as paperback. How about it, Mikael?

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  8. Anonymous17 August 2011 at 07:17

    As the book is quite small, I figured it's better in softback.
    (panorama format 7 by 9)
    It's already expensive enouh in softback I thought
    Mikael

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  9. Milk17 August 2011 at 08:42

    What about people who don't have iPhones, iPads or iTouch? (yes we do exist :-p) I mean there was Flapp of course but it doesn't have the graphics and soundtrack... Of course there's the book version but... I wouldn't mind having BOTH a physical version and a digital. All i know is looking at this Itunes version I get terribly jealous.

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  10. Dave Morris17 August 2011 at 08:56

    Ah, you mean that Megara could have produced a full-color print edition of Book One... Yes, good point. That'd be quite a collector's edition. How about it, Mikael? I have the text files for the pb editions all ready to go ;-)

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  11. Anonymous17 August 2011 at 10:23

    More....work...please....no.... :)

    Mikael

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  12. Anonymous17 August 2011 at 10:27

    We could ship it with a small music box playing the FL themes, too. And a bunch of tortillas for Jamie. More seriously, as you know, a lot of new art have new text descriptions AND sections due to the enhanced gameplay, so it would be very difficult to produce such a collector's version. The easy way would be to keep the original text but then it's not good too since many pics won't exactly match the text (since they are linked now to new descriptions)
    Have you thought of all that :)
    Mikael

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  13. Dave Morris17 August 2011 at 12:43

    Well yes, but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Unless any of the pictures directly contradict the original text (I don't think they do?) surely it would be possible to just use the original text with new color images? Admittedly, we have no way of knowing whether there is any demand for a deluxe full-color print copy of Books 1 and 2, so maybe the best way to do it would be to set it up as a subscription edition. If enough people said they're willing to subscribe, you could do a limited print run. Just a thought.

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  14. Richard17 August 2011 at 22:22

    Some comments from the fellow working under the "Grand Fromage." Yes, the name "Richard" would properly be attached to that writing. "S." does not and could not stand for "Sir," but that's a personal matter. (Why couldn't I have been born in the land of fish and chips?) Mikaël edited my foreword to the book for use as this product description.

    If I got you to add a "zen" label to your blog, then I'm proud.

    In the art, some pictures contradict the original books a little. Gender and number of individuals are the most common changes. Some other images have "bonus" elements, like more creatures wandering about than the text describes.

    Then there are graphics that occur within a larger section and modify the image, e.g., "Stung by a large golden insect," which would be a logistic challenge to include.

    --Richard

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  15. Dave Morris18 August 2011 at 00:13

    Ah, then I guess that would be a problem, Richard. Nobody is going to want to wade through all 679 sections to check whether the text contradicts the image - not given that there are probably only a dozen people who'd buy the full-color book anyway! A nice idea, though. When I win the lottery, maybe (after I've funded the Mirabilis and Heart of Ice movies, that is).

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  16. Joakim Waern18 August 2011 at 14:13

    This is a bit off topic but nevertheless: Where in god's name can one find information on the Walking City mentioned in the FL RPG? The name create a lot of fantastic pictures in my head, but it would be great to know something about it. Not at least for my son, whose Druid was born there... :)

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  17. Dave Morris18 August 2011 at 16:20

    Hmm, casting my mind back, Joakim, the walking cities were originally Russ's idea. I think there's been a little talk about them on the blog, but for the real skinny you're going to have to wait for the fifth RPG sourcebook, I'm afraid. However, your son might be interested in the next best thing: Philip Reeve's novel Mortal Engines. Lots of walking cities there.

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