David Wenzel, Gimli concept print
After The Hobbit graphic novel was completed plans were made to publish The Lord of the Rings in graphic novel format as well. A lot of pre production work was developed for the project. Even though the publisher was very gung-ho on the project the ultimate decision rested with the Tolkien estate, which ultimately decide they did not want any derivative versions of J.R.R.'s writing on the market. The artist has been holding onto sample pages, sketches and some prints since that event and he feels the time is right to start letting some of them onto the market place. The first items are prints of the Nine (Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippen) that were developed to establish the first look of the main characters. (Other views of the characters and many of the dark forces were also conceived.) This print shows Gimli the dwarf dressed in mail and brandishing his axe. The print's outside dimension is 13'x 19"/27x47 cm. It is a giclee print on archival paper printed with archival inks. It is signed in the lower right corner by the artist David T Wenzel.*
