Marion Zimmer Bradley: Controversial & Visionary

Author Marion Zimmer Bradley was an ingenious, prolific writer, known for her generosity with both professional and beginner writers, but who was notorious for her controversial attitude and visionary ideas.

At a time when female characters were portrayed as either weaklings or wantons, when there were few women writers and they were best known for writing sugared romances, Marion Zimmer Bradley was responsible for helping create the modern Science Fiction and Fantasy genres, with strong female characters, daring plots, and delicate social questions.

Dehong He: Breath-Taking Fantasy Art

Dehong He is a very talented Chinese illustrator, who works with concept art for games.

His style is very clean and realistic, full of intricate details and often based on Chinese folklore.

About his choice for fantasy imagery, Dehong He said that it "gives me the biggest possible stage to work with. It’s as if you’re God, you can create a new world."

Dehong He's ability impressed his parents when he was very young, and when he was a fine art student at university, he started working with comics and a year after finishing college, he moved on to work as a concept artist for games.

About his work process, Dehong He says that he puts "my work’s quality and the themes which I express first. Style comes second. With the passage of time, I think, my own style will emerge naturally." [1]

Below is a selection of his artwork. Visit his site for more.

Official site: http://www.hdhcg.com/

Ladyhawke: A curse between a werewolf and a hawkwoman

Ladyhawke is a 1985 movie, directed by Richard Donner, with Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Broderick, Rutger Hauer and John Wood, among others.

It has a fantasy plot about a captain of the guard (Hauer) who fell in love with a young lady (Pfeiffer), who was loved by a bishop (Wood), who was a dark magick sorcerer (interesting twist that a priest was the story's villain), and cursed them so that she would be a hawk at day and he a wolf at night, keeping them forever apart. In the end, with the help of a thief (Broderick) and an exiled priest (Leo McKern), they find a way to break the curse.

The movie has a beautiful photography, with soundtrack by Andrew Powell from the Progressive Rock band Alan Parsons Project, and though the visual effects are a bit outdated (the werewolf transformation scene was done by superposing images of Hauer and a black wolf, as seen below), it still retains its beauty and interest.

Interesting detail: In Ladyhawke, the werewolf turns into a wolf not a "wolfman", which makes me wonder whether Twilight writer Stephenie Meyer got inspired by this movie...

Below is a selection of snapshots of the movie and the trailer. Cheers!