A selection of four Images taken from British Artist Ian Miller’s Illustrated compendium “Green Dog Trumpet and Other Stories” (published by Dragons Dream 1978) a book I’m lucky enough to own.

Green Dog Trumpet and Other Stories contains 5 abstract visual tales, each with a loose narrative but no written dialogue – this works splendidly, forcing you to attempt intense studies of  meticulously detailed, chaotic compositions. I tend to find that with each new browsing I notice something new, and it’s hardly surprising – even though some of the illustrations are small there amazingly intricate, worlds you can totally lose yourself in.

As I’ve mentioned in the past Ian is one of my favourite artist’s I feature on the blog, mainly because as a style of illustration it’s just so out there. In fact,  fairly recently on a trip to the cinema I caught Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland re-imaging which (superflous 3d aside) looked, as you might expect visually stunning – once again reminding me of certain close similarities between Miller and Burton’s work. I wonder if there paths have crossed at all ? or if Burton and his team have referenced Miller in the same way Roger Dean was obviously referenced by James Cameron and his Designers for last years SF blockbuster Avatar… Just a thought!

Continuing on with the freaky portraiture I thought I’d start 2010 with a piece I’d earmarked and scanned right back when I first began this blog, and I guess some extremely sinister character art from blog favourite Ian Miller, is as good a way as any to kick off a new decade!

This Illustration is scanned from one of the few Fighting Fantasy books I still have in my possession – FF28 “Phantoms of Fear” – published by Puffin back in 1987 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantoms_of_Fear. The game plot revolves around a hopeless near suicide mission (is there any other sort?) battling through a blighted forest and eventually infiltrating a vast demonic fortress… The adventure takes place in both the physical and dream worlds, but what really makes it stand out are of course Ian’s fantastical warped illustrations, I can’t think anyone else better to illustrate a chaos tainted army of darkness. If your a fan of Ian’s I definitely recommend checking this rarity out, its available on Amazon for next to nothing: http://ow.ly/WWP2

If your new to Ian’s work I’ve run several posts already: Ian Miller & Also check Ian Millers home site/portfolio http://www.ian-miller.org/

Nothing like a bit of Ian Miller to break up the flow of the blog, probably because in terms of style there’s no one else anywhere near him…

This amazing image is originally scanned from David Days “The Characters From Tolkien” book, that’s the subject of a larger post featured over on Jeff’s superb Ski-ffy Blog http://ski-ffy.blogspot.com/search/label/Ian%20Miller

Ski-ffy has a huge selection of original Sci-Fi material (not the crap stuff) loads of retro goodies not found anywhere else….

Ian Miller’s official site: http://www.ian-miller.org/ well worth a visit!

Even by Ian’s own meticulous standards this stunning character Illustration features an insane level of detailing, trippy stuff indeed, love the helmet in particular!.

Image taken directly from Ian’s regularly updated official site http://www.ian-miller.org/ featuring many more samples, full biography, Ian’s prose and poetry plus the chance to buy some of his original art – do check it out…

These superbly nightmarish pen and ink visuals were preliminary character studies for the 1994 James Herbert Graphic novel “The City” Illustrated by Ian Miller in his indomitable scratchy Gothic style – a really great demonstration of the detail achievable with dip pen, brush and ink.

The City is the fourth installment of Herbert’s popular Rats Series, It maps a chilling post-apocalyptic future where the pathetic remnants of mankind scrape out an existence in ruins under the new order – The Rats! available here on Amazon – thats just got me thinking, what the difference between Post-Apocalyptic and Steampunk?

Images featured courtesy of Ian Miller, via his http://www.ian-miller.org/ portfolio site.

A lone sentry stands guard against the backdrop of a gloomy Citadel… Warped Gothic fantasy that could only of spawned from the pen of British Artist and Writer Ian Miller.

Ian’s 30 year career has seen him produce work spanning from Book Covers & Graphic Novels (for Authors Philip K Dick, H.P.Lovecraft, James Herbert etc) to Pre-Production film work on major Hollywood films such as Shrek and Coolworld. What’s best about Ian’s work? well there’s nothing else quite like it – A Roger Dean Acid trip gone bad, psychedelic gothic, with a twisted sense of humour. Read a bit more on him at wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Miller_(illustrator)

See more of Ian’s masterful work http://www.ian-miller.org/

A series of bleak Illustrations from renown British Fantasy Illustrator Ian Miller. This Image is part of “The Triwag Chronicles” taken from the book “The Green Dog Trumpet” published in 1979 by Dragon’s Dream.