Once upon a time Mithril Maniac / Myth’Image

A une certaine époque…une autre histoire.
Du temps de l’apogée de Myth’image, il y a presque 30 ans aujourd’hui, il n’était pas aussi aisé qu’aujourd’hui d’accéder aux illustrations traitant du ” Seigneur des anneaux” de JRR Tolkien. Malgré une bonne connaissance des écrits du professeur, il n’était pas toujours facile de mettre en couleurs nos petites figurines issues de l’imagination fertile de Chris Tubb. Même si ce dernier parvenait le plus souvent à transcrire assez fidèlement en 3D les personnages du SDA ou de Bilbo le Hobbit, une tâche non moins ardue nous attendait, nous autres les peintres, leur mise en couleur !
Nous jetions alors notre dévolu sur les trop maigres livres illustrés du SDA ou bien ceux d’Héroïc fantasy (Ah, Frank Frazetta…), attendant fébrilement la fin de l’année pour mettre la main sur le calendrier Tolkien, les Post Cards ou encore The Tolkien Diary. Une institution pour nous !
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Parmi nos illustrateurs préférés, il y avait Alan Lee, Ted Nasmith et John Howe.
En 1995, nous avons eu le grand privilège de rencontrer John Howe qui fut invité par la médiathèque de St Herblain (limitrophe de Nantes) à exposer ses illustrations durant presque deux mois !!!
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Dieu existe, et nous l’avons rencontré !!!
(Enfin il y en a plusieurs, nous en avons rencontré tant d’autres !!! :lol:)
Et cerise sur le gâteau, les organisateurs de l’exposition nous ont demandé de mettre à leur disposition notre collection de figurines Mithril. Le nirvana ! S’afficher aux côtés de John Howe…Impensable !!!
Le reste fut tout simplement « magic » puisque, pour ma part, le jour de mon anniversaire, j’ai eu la possibilité de passer une journée entière avec John Howe, qui, chose qui n’était pas pour me déplaire, parlait couramment français, ayant étudié en France à l’Ecole des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg. Cela m’a permis d’échanger toute une après midi, de l’interviewer pour notre fanzine Mithril Maniac, de faire dédicacer nos calendriers et autres Tolkien Diary.
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Nous avons également participé à un dîner en compagnie de certains représentants de la municipalité et de la médiathèque de St Herblain. Dîner qui fut précédé d’une petite lecture de « Bilbo, le Hobbit » par un acteur professionnel, puis de recevoir à la fin de cette soirée, quelques petits cadeaux de la part de la médiathèque de St Herblain et de John Howe. Nous étions aux anges !
Lorsque nous avons appris quelques temps plus tard que John Howe et Alan Lee participaient au grand projet de Peter Jackson, comme directeurs artistiques, nous en fûmes ravis !
En 2002, nous avons eu l’occasion de le recroiser brièvement cette fois-ci, aux”Utopiales” (festival de science fiction) de Nantes. Nous étions en compagnie d’un très grand peintre de figurines français, Jérémy Bonamant Teboul, qui le connaissait également. Les Utopiales projetaient un documentaire sur John Howe.

En y repensant aujourd’hui, je mesure combien nous avons été vraiment chanceux de côtoyer, même furtivement, certains grands noms de l’illustration tolkieniènne (ce mot n’existe pas, je viens de l’inventer, c’est un néologisme !).
Issue du dernier calendrier Tolkien 2021, une illustration de Ted Nasmith. Ce calendrier m’a fait replonger dans mon monde d’alors…
La scène représentée a déjà été mise en 3 D par Chris Tubb, mais quelle est-elle ? Toujours aussi joueur, Fabrice ! 😆

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PS : Vous savez quoi ? John Howe collectionne les calendriers Tolkien ! Et à l’époque de notre rencontre, il les possédait tous !
Ah la collectionnite !

At one time … another story.
In Myth’image’s heyday, almost 30 years ago today, it was not as easy as it is today to access JRR Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” illustrations. Despite a good knowledge of the professor’s writings, it was not always easy to color our little figurines from the fertile imagination of Chris Tubb. Even if the latter most often managed to transcribe fairly faithfully in 3D the characters of the SDA or The Hobbit, a no less arduous task awaited us, the painters, their coloring.
We then set our sights on the too meager illustrated books of the SDA or those of Heroic fantasy (Ah, Frank Frazetta …), feverishly awaiting the end of the year to get our hands on the Tolkien calendar, the Post Cards or even The Tolkien Diary. An institution for us!
Among our favorite illustrators were Alan Lee, Ted Nasmith, and John Howe.
In 1995, we had the great privilege of meeting John Howe who was invited by the media library of St Herblain (bordering Nantes) to exhibit his illustrations for almost two months !!!
God exists, and we have met him !!!
(Finally there are several, we have met so many others !!! :lol:)
And best of all, the exhibition organizers asked us to make our collection of Mithril figurines available to them. Nirvana! To appear alongside John Howe… Unthinkable !!!
The rest was quite simply “magic” since, for my part, on my birthday, I had the opportunity to spend a whole day with John Howe, who, something that was not to displease me, spoke fluent French. , having studied in France at the School of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg. It allowed me to talk for a whole afternoon, to interview him for our fanzine Mithril Maniac, to have our calendars signed.
We also took part in a dinner in the company of certain representatives of the municipality and of the St Herblain media library. Dinner which was preceded by a short reading of “The Hobbit” by a professional actor, then receiving at the end of the evening some small gifts from the St Herblain media library and John Howe. We were in heaven!
When we learned some time later that John Howe and Alan Lee were participating in Peter Jackson’s great project, as artistic directors, we were delighted!
In 2002, we had the opportunity to meet him again briefly this time, at the “Utopiales” (science fiction festival) in Nantes. We were in the company of a very great French figurine painter, Jérémy Bonamant Teboul, who also knew him. The Utopiales were showing a documentary on John Howe.

Thinking about it today, I can see how lucky we were to rub shoulders, even furtively, with certain big names in Tolkienian illustration (this word does not exist, I have just invented it, it is a neologism! ).

From the latest Tolkien 2021 calendar, an illustration by Ted Nasmith. This calendar made me dive back into my world at the time …
The scene depicted has already been put in 3D by Chris Tubb, but what is it ? Still a player, Fabrice: lol:!

PS: You know what ? John Howe collects Tolkien calendars!And by the time we met, he had them all !
Ah the acute collection !

Un vieux truc, mais qui a toujours de la “gueule”

https://minismodels.pagesperso-orange.fr/galerie_page03.htm

An old thing, but which still has the “mouth” !
Rough translation.:rolleyes:

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Hello Master Milo.
Only M 262 & 303.
The haradrim rider was painted by Hervé and for the other two, we recognize the style of Jacques.

More than thirty years ago now, the discovery of the version of Zalg, painted by Jacques, in the window of a role-playing store, had deeply marked me.
Zlag was surrounded by a few other references from the series “Le mont Gundabad”, in French, and the whole had its effect on apprentice painters like me.
Like other painters before him, Jacques explored new painting techniques. This consisted in brushing the entire figurine entirely with black, then after having removed this black film as much as possible, coming into the cool, affixing the other colors. It was his dark period …
At the time, I did not yet know Jacques, but I remember that my motivation to be able to exchange with this virtuoso of oil painting, was only increased tenfold.
The meeting was organized by the manager of the role-playing game store, who sold the Mithril figurines individually and not in their original blister pack, which considerably increased the bill !
Fortunately, there was another store in my hometown that did not practice this policy. Gwénaël, his manager, systematically put the entire series aside and allowed me to buy them in several installments. A real lifeline for the student that I was without too much means.
I still have these series in their original box, directly from PAI (mithril.ie).
Gwénaël was a wonderful model maker specializing in GT cars. Paying homage to him here is only fair. It was he who first put my foot in the stirrup to paint figurines, in acrylic.

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