The Dead Marshes

The Dead Marshes (Detail)

Preparation for New York Comic Con has been a bit more hectic than I had planned (Hope for the best, prepare for the worst?).  Things with my day job have calmed down, I’ve taken on a couple of commisions, and things have been going smoothly enough for me to get this finished.

This is a picture of Frodo, Sam, and Gollum traveling through the Dead Marshes in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Gollum explains that a great battle had taken place here, and that the corpse candles are the ghosts of fallen heroes and will lead an unsuspecting traveler to a similar fate.  Frodo, captivated by one of the lights begins to make for it, but Sam calls him back to reality. (In the movie, Gollum saves him after he falls into the water).

This one has “Empire Strikes Back” syndrome (of course it was written way before the second real Star Wars movie was penned).  Although it is a turning point of sorts, life becomes crappy for most of the characters involved for the better part of the book. This one is not exactly uplifting, but at least Legolas doesn’t shield-surf down the stairs of the Hornburg.

For all your uplifting adventure needs try The Hobbit. I detoured to that recently (3rd? 4th time?) while waiting for an Amazon shipment.  I know it might seem blasphemous, but I think I prefer it to JRRT’s opus. It is more folksy and endearing. Less serious. We need more of that these days.