The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Todd Klein tells me that he has a new signed print coming up on his site very soon, Drawing the Sword. I’ve loved Todd’s previous signed prints (with Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and Alex Ross) and had to treat myself to them; they’re lovely meetings of art, storytelling and Todd’s wonderful sense of design and calligraphy. For Drawing the Sword he’s collaborated with J.H. Williams III on a theme that is clearly close to Todd’s heart and which is also one of the most enduring of our shared mythic tales, the Arthurian romances. In fact you should also check out Todd’s four-part ‘making of’ series on his blog (starting here, links to the next part at the end).

As you’d expect from Todd he offers up a fascinating glimpse into the process of creating the design, melding the art and text into one, the choices for colouring, fonts and so on. But he also delves into the Arthurian legends, discussing various sources (such as Malory, whose text features in the print) and inspirations from much, much earlier art forms, including a glimpse at a hand-lettered version of Malory’s Morte d’Arthur (which also inspired Boorman’s film Excalibur) and more modern interpretations of the ageless myth such as TH White’s books and Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations – its a fascinating article in its own right, actually, literature and art and myth and poetry of a tale that’s lived in our collective well of myth and story for century after century and still inspires a longing and nostalgia for a lost golden age which probably never was but is no less a potent dream for that. I fully intend to return to it after work when I can read it at a more leisurely pace and take it in a bit more and highly recommend you bookmark it for a read too – even if you’re not fascinated by Arthurian legends its a wonderful piece alighting on our literary history and some of the images Todd’s added in are things of beauty.

(a segment of the gorgeous looking Drawing the Sword borrowed from Todd’s site, text by Malory, design by Todd Klein, art by J.H. Williams III)

The Drawing the Sword print by J.H. Williams and Todd Klein will go up for sale on Todd’s online shop (click the Buy Stuff button) from Saturday 20th of June at noon (EST); I’d imagine it will sell as quickly as the previous signed works by Moore, Gaiman and Ross (third and second printings of the first two are available if you missed them first time) so you should make a point of ordering it early.