Josh Kirby
Ronald William "Josh" Kirby (born November 27, 1928 in Waterloo , Lancashire , † October 23, 2001 in Shelfanger near Diss , Norfolk ) was a British draftsman and artist, who mainly through his book cover illustrations for Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels got known.
Life
Kirby studied at the Liverpool City School of Art . After graduating, he first worked on film posters for a London art studio, but after a few years he became self-employed as a freelance artist, mainly drawing book cover illustrations of all kinds.
He married in the 1960s and moved to Norfolk to a 400 year old country rectory. In the following years he presented numerous exhibitions in London and even Berlin . Famous works such as film posters for The Return of the Jedi Knights , Krull , Beastmaster and the well-known "copy" of Pieter Brueghel's Tower of Babel for the Monty Python film The Life of Brian were created .
He first came into contact with Terry Pratchett in the late 1980s when the British book publisher Corgi commissioned him to design a cover for The Colors of Magic . This was the beginning of the highly successful collaboration with Pratchett, from which the quote comes: “ I only invented the Discworld. Josh created it. ”(German:“ I just invented the Discworld. Josh created it. ”) Josh Kirby drew a total of 25 book covers for the Discworld series and other books by Pratchett, thus decisively shaping the image that readers had of Discworld.
“I am a painter. That's what I do. I paint. "
"I am an artist. This is what i do I paint."
In 1996 he received the British Fantasy Award for best artist.
After Josh Kirby's death, Paul Kidby continued to work on the book covers for Pratchett's novels.
Own artbooks and books
-
The Josh Kirby Discworld Portfolio , Paperback, 2001, ISBN 1-85585-895-9
This large-format art book with 29 × 42 cm actually offers enough space for Kirby's detailed drawings for 28 full-page illustrations, which mainly show book covers for Terry Pratchett's books. -
In the Garden of Unearthly Delights: The Paintings of Josh Kirby , Paperback, 1991, ISBN 1-85028-154-8
Also large-format art book, also focusing on Discworld themes. -
A Cosmic Cornucopia , Taschenbuch, 1999, ISBN 1-85585-731-6
Although also produced in a large format and with a large, good selection of Kirby's works, each with short anecdotes, this artbook does not offer much space for the individual works , sometimes only a quarter of a page, which often means that they don't really come into their own. In addition to many Discworld themes, it also includes other works by Kirby, such as a portrait of Hitchcock , book covers for Ray Bradbury , Edgar Rice Burroughs and the like. a.
Tom Holt wrote a foreword for this book.
Web links
- Josh Kirby - The Original Discworld Artist
- Josh Kirby in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b The L-Space Web: Josh Kirby (1928-2001) .
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Kirby, Josh |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Kirby, Ronald William |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British draftsman and artist |
DATE OF BIRTH | November 27, 1928 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Waterloo , Lancashire |
DATE OF DEATH | October 23, 2001 |
Place of death | Shelfanger at Diss , Norfolk |