“My images are the stuff of dreams and apparitions, the tremors that touch the skirt of day. Unspoken thoughts, stored memories, drawn up to be aired and then twisted by fancy.” -- Ian Miller, 1989

Today marks the seventy-fifth birthday of Ian Miller. While not a marquee name here in the States, I guarantee that many readers of the DMR Blog have seen his artwork over the years. Intricate, grotesque and very recognizable, Ian’s style is uniquely his own.

Ian Miller grew up mainly in London and Manchester. His mother did costuming/millinery work for the theatre and film industries, which gave Ian an early impetus toward the fantastical and unreal:

"My interest in the story-telling process and the world of make-believe was greatly enhanced by my mother's involvement in the theatre and motion-picture industry. I enjoyed a vivid and well-stocked childhood. Vivid because my mother took me to the cinema every Saturday afternoon, and well-stocked because I owned a toy box, full to overflowing with theatrical props and clothing from an array of theatre and film productions..."

Miller broke into the UK magazine and paperback market in the early 1970s. He was soon crafting covers for the likes of Hodgson, Lovecraft and Bradbury. Ian then moved to San Francisco, where Ralph Bakshi approached him about working on Wizards. Miller has always called that period of doing production work on the film a turning point in his professional development.

Returning to England, Ian did more book covers, but he also moved increasingly into the burgeoning field of roleplaying game illustration. He hooked up with Games Workshop and its co-founder, the legendary Steve Jackson. That soon led to numerous jobs illustrating Warhammer, White Dwarf, Warhammer 40,000 and Fighting Fantasy. Miller made a lot of lifelong fans during that era. In the American market, he did notable work for Shadowrun and Magic: The Gathering. Ian also managed to work in a job as art director at Interzone magazine. He had the bit in his teeth.

While I'd seen his work here, there and everywhere for years, it wasn't until I bought the Lovecraft collection, Black Seas of Infinity, around 2001 that I really became aware of Ian as an artist. Gazing upon the intricate gothic surrealities of that cover, I realized that here was an artist to take note of.

Miller's style, which he refers to as his 'Tight Pen Style', emphasises fine detail and a restricted use of color. He achieves this using a pen-and-ink and wash technique executed on line board. All of this is something he views as a result of both his lifelong short-sightedness and Northern European proclivities:

"Although short-sightedness must have influenced my close-worked pen style I think it is also true to say that this obsessional regard for surface details is very much in keeping with the Northern European Art traditions. (...) [In Northern Europe] the emphasis revolved more around temporal scenes and a concern for mood and things observed close in. (...) It is also to do with the collective mind and racial memories, which touch at the roots of each successive generation."

Two of the main artistic influences that Ian cites are Albrecht Durer and Arthur Rackham.* I can easily see the influence of both. Durer lends the vaguely 'medieval' feel that Miller's work--especially for Warhammer--often has. Rackham contributes much of the intricate unworldliness that one sees in so many of Ian's illustrations. As he said in 1989:

"Somebody once called me medieval. I’m not really sure, even now, whether that was a compliment or an insult?"

I have to say that I’m more than a bit surprised, looking over Ian’s bibliography at ISFDB, that he has never illustrated Michael Moorcock’s works. Considering how much Moorcock influenced Warhammer and also adding in that Miller is a big fan of Peake’s Gormenghast—just like Moorcock—it would seem a match made in Tanelorn. I could definitely see Ian tackling Stormbringer or The Jewel in the Skull. Perhaps the best match would be The War Hound and the World’s Pain. Alas, that ship has probably sailed off into the Seas of Fate.

While this blog entry is titled 'The Art of Ian Miller', I have not had the pleasure of owning—or even perusing—the 2014 collection by that name. Reviews of it can be found here, here and here.

Happy birthday, Ian.

*Both artists were also admired by Lovecraft.