Bringing Discworld To Roundworld

We will be offering a panel at NADWCon on Bringing the Discworld to the Roundworld.  This will be a panel discussion about the Discworld "artefacts", maps, images and collectables  and what it took to bring the Discworld to life. Many of the Discworld images we love are by Paul Kidby and Bernard Pearson.   On hand will be representatives of PJSM Prints, a company that represents many of Mr. Kidby's Discworld works. Also present: The Cunning Artificer himself. Bernard Pearson, and his partners at the Discworld Emporium.  Before he started the DW Emporium Mr. Pearson worked at Clarecraft the company that made so many wonderful Discworld figurines.

If you haven't already discovered these books, or, if you need a gift for a Discworld fan, I think you'll like these books:

Art of Discworld by Mr. Paul Kidby

 In THE ART OF DISCWORLD, Terry Pratchett takes us on a guided tour of the Discworld, courtesy of his favourite Discworld artist, Paul Kidby. Following on from THE LAST HERO, THE ART OF DISCWORLD is a lavish 112-page large format, sumptuously illustrated look at all things Discworldian. Terry Pratchett provides the written descriptions while Paul Kidby illustrates the world that has made Pratchett one of the best-selling authors of all time. Here you will find favourites old and new: the City Watch, including Vimes, Carrot and Angua, the three witches - Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick - and the denizens of the Unseen University Library, not forgetting the Librarian, of course: they're all here in sumptuous colour, together with the places: Ankh-Morpork, Lancre, Uberwald and more ...No Discworld fan will want to be without this beautiful gift book.

and The Last Hero, an illustrated "Discworld fable" by Terry Pratchett and Paul Kidby

A new Discworld story is always an event. Terry Pratchett's The Last Hero is unusually short, a 40,000-word "Discworld Fable" rather than a full novel, but is illustrated throughout in sumptuous color by Paul Kidby.

The 160 pages cover the series' longest and most awesome (but still comic) journey yet, a mission to save all Discworld from a new threat. An old threat, actually. Aged warrior Cohen the Barbarian has decided to go out with a bang and take the gods with him. So, with the remnants of his geriatric Silver Horde, he's climbing to the divine retirement home Dunmanifestin with the Discworld equivalent of a nuke--a fifty-pound keg of Agatean Thunder Clay. This will, for excellent magical reasons, destroy the world.

It's up to Leonard of Quirm, Discworld's da Vinci, to invent the technology that might just beat Cohen to his goal. His unlikely vessel is powered by dragons, crewed by himself and two popular regular characters, and secretly harbors a stowaway. Before long we hear the Discworld version of "Houston, we have a problem...."

Kidby rises splendidly to the challenge of painting both funny faces and cosmic vistas. As Pratchett puts it, The Last Hero "has an extra dimension: some parts of it are written in paint!" New characters include Evil Dark Lord Harry Dread, who started out with "just two lads and his Shed of Doom," and a god so tiresome that his worshippers are forbidden chocolate, ginger, mushrooms and garlic.

Pratchett's story alone is strong and effective, with several hair-raising frissons contrasting with high comedy; Kidby's paintings make it something very special. Not to be missed.

I also recommend a visit to Mr. Kidby's website. which features the whole range of his art work.  

Enjoy.

Dj