# John Howe - Maker: Illustrator - Date: b. 1957 - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/john-howe/ > The Canadian illustrator and armor enthusiast whose dragons, wizards and grim fortresses helped design Peter Jackson's Middle-earth, and later Amazon's Second Age. **Why it matters:** Howe carried the tradition of Tolkien illustration from 1970s calendars into film, and his practical knowledge of arms and armor gave screen fantasy a new standard of physical plausibility. ## Quick answers **Who is John Howe?** The Canadian illustrator and armor enthusiast whose dragons, wizards and grim fortresses helped design Peter Jackson's Middle-earth, and later Amazon's Second Age. **When was John Howe born?** John Howe was born in 1957 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. **What is John Howe known for?** John Howe is best known for The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. **Why does John Howe matter to fantasy and games?** Howe carried the tradition of Tolkien illustration from 1970s calendars into film, and his practical knowledge of arms and armor gave screen fantasy a new standard of physical plausibility. ## Life John Howe was born on August 21, 1957, in Vancouver, British Columbia. He drew from before he could go to school, and by adolescence he was a collector of fantasy paperback covers, prizing those by [Frank Frazetta](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/frank-frazetta/), Barry Windsor-Smith, and Bernie Wrightson. Reading *[The Lord of the Rings](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-lord-of-the-rings/)* as a teenager was a revelation, and so were [the Brothers Hildebrandt's](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/the-brothers-hildebrandt/) Tolkien calendars, which he credited with giving him "a real spark": they showed him that [Tolkien](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/j-r-r-tolkien/) could be painted at all. He made his own versions of the calendar scenes, drawings he believes have not survived. A year after finishing high school he moved to Strasbourg, France, and enrolled at the École des arts décoratifs. He later described the three years wryly: the first spent not understanding much, the second at odds with what he did understand, the third eager to get out. His earliest commissions, including political cartoons, comics, advertising, and animation, were by his own account miserable, redrawn so many times that nothing of his remained. The one piece he says survives from that period is a Tolkien painting, *The Lieutenant of the Black Tower of Barad-dûr*. He settled in Europe, and his work has drawn ever since on its castles, cathedrals, and museums of arms. ## Work Howe built his reputation through the 1980s and 1990s on Tolkien calendars, book covers, and children's books. His Middle-earth is darker and more kinetic than the Hildebrandts' and more muscular than [Alan Lee's](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/alan-lee/): Gandalf striding through a storm, Sauron armored in black iron, and above all [dragons](https://www.lanternhall.org/bestiary/dragon/), which he painted so often that he eventually wrote a manual on them, *Forging Dragons* (2008). Between 1996 and 2003 he re-illustrated the maps for *The Lord of the Rings*, *[The Hobbit](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-hobbit/)*, and *[The Silmarillion](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-silmarillion/)*. He illustrated Reiner Knizia's *Lord of the Rings* board game and Knizia's *Beowulf: The Legend*, painted mythological subjects from [Beowulf](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/beowulf/) onward, and produced covers for [Robin Hobb's](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/robin-hobb/) novels and illustrations for a 2005 limited edition of [George R. R. Martin's](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/george-r-r-martin/) *A Clash of Kings*. He has also painted cards for *[Magic: The Gathering](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/magic-the-gathering/)*. His picture books include retellings of *Rip Van Winkle* (1988) and *Jack and the Beanstalk* (1989), and his collected work appears in *Myth and Magic: The Art of John Howe* (2006). Howe is a member of the Company of Saynt George, a living-history group, and knows how armor is made, worn, and fought in. That expertise mattered when [Peter Jackson](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/peter-jackson/) hired him and Alan Lee as the chief conceptual designers of the [Lord of the Rings trilogy](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/lord-of-the-rings-film-trilogy/) (2001–03). Accounts of the production tend to associate Lee with landscapes and elven architecture and Howe with armor, weapons, and the fortresses of the enemy, though both worked across the whole design. One of his calendar paintings even migrated whole into the film. His image of the four hobbits hiding beneath a tree root from a Black Rider, used in the 1987 Tolkien Calendar, became a scene in *The Fellowship of the Ring*. The painting itself, it was later noticed, had unwittingly echoed a scene in [Ralph Bakshi's](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/ralph-bakshi/) [1978 animated film](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-lord-of-the-rings-1978-film/), an example of how tightly the visual traditions of Middle-earth are braided together. When Guillermo del Toro and then Jackson developed *The Hobbit* films (2012–14), both consulted Howe and Lee to keep the look continuous. Howe also contributed to the 2005 film of *[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-chronicles-of-narnia/)* and to Guillermo del Toro's *Pan's Labyrinth*. In 2022 he returned to Middle-earth as a concept designer on Amazon's *[The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-rings-of-power/)*, a production made under an entirely separate rights deal but still, tellingly, wanting the man who had helped define the look. ## Legacy Howe is a bridge between three generations of fantasy imagery. He grew up on Frazetta's paperbacks and the Hildebrandts' calendars, turned that inheritance into a more historically grounded style, and then helped fix it on film for a global audience. The practical, battered, functional look of Jackson's armies, in which armor is riveted, dented, and built for real fighting, owes much to his insistence that fantasy objects should look as if they could exist. That sensibility runs through twenty-first-century [Fantasy Film](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/fantasy-film/) and television and through the concept art of big-budget fantasy games, where "grounded" design has become a selling point. He also embodies a long-running conversation in this museum between tabletop, page, and screen: a Tolkien painter who worked on a board game, collectible cards, children's books, and two separate Middle-earth productions. For many readers, Howe's Gandalf striding through the rain simply is Gandalf. ## Facts - As a boy in Vancouver, Howe collected paperback covers by Frank Frazetta, Barry Smith and Bernie Wrightson. - He said the Brothers Hildebrandt's Tolkien calendars gave him 'a real spark' by proving Tolkien's books could be illustrated. - A Howe painting of the hobbits hiding from a Ringwraith, used in the 1987 Tolkien Calendar, was turned into a scene in Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring. - He illustrated Reiner Knizia's Lord of the Rings board game. - He belongs to the Company of Saynt George, a living-history group, and is an authority on medieval arms and armor. - He worked as a concept designer on Amazon's The Rings of Power (2022), two decades after Jackson's trilogy. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Howe_(illustrator)) - [Official site](https://www.john-howe.com) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.