| Talzhemir |
Back in the dark ages, TSR created the Deities & Demigods book. Mr. Michael Moorcock gave permission for the Elric-of-Melnibone mythos to be used in D&D but, at the same time, permission was also granted to Chaosium to produce the Stormbringer game. (Nothing underhanded going on; it was just an unfortunate mix-up.) The very first printings of the Deities & Demigods book contained the gods of the world of Melnibone, but then they had to be removed. (TSR was later acquired by Wizards of the Coast, of course.)
The original illustrations, by Jeff Dee, were destroyed. Now, with the kind permission of both Wizards of the Coast AND Michael Moorcock, they're being re-created.
Jeff was only 17 when he drew the originals. The new versions show a seasoned artist's precision and skill. These are not re-imaginings, however; they maintain the exotic stylized proportions that were the trademark of Jeff's early works: long long legs with oval thighs, big hands, pointy chins, and so on. Jeff's famous pictures would go on to inspire thousands of others, many of whom are professional full-time artists today.
You can get a sense of how far PRINTING has come since those early days. The original D&D pictures were reproduced using the 'photostat' method, essentially making a photo of the art. To the artist's dismay, much of the detail was lost. You can get a sense of the difference between "art prints" versus printed material in books in the 1970's.
To show you the difference between the old and new, here's a link to Jeff's DeviantArt gallery.
http://fav.me/d4e41mn
Prints who back this project can acquire sets of prints. If you would like to collect some sets yourself, here's the link:
http://tinyurl.com/elricpics
(There's also a list of characters from the book series that were not drawn. The higher the backer amount raised, the more of them that get NEW illustrations.)