Charlotte Mei and Chris Harnan’s Lord of the Rings magazine is everything

Fantasy fans, the moment you have been waiting for has arrived! It’s Nice That favourites Charlotte Mei and Chris Harnan have just released a brand spanking new Lord of the Rings magazine. What more could we ask for on a Friday morning? Featuring 40 pages of paintings, drawings and features inspired by Tolkien’s mystical creation Middle Earth, Lord of the Rings Magazine combines Charlotte’s signature style of pure loveliness with Chris’ equally delightful narrative illustrations.

“Me and Chris are basically both fantasy fans who love to draw,” Charlotte explains. “We started making Lord of the Rings fan art together just for fun about three years ago and recently realised that we had hundreds of drawings and paintings that we wanted to compile and share with other fans!” First coming across the first book in the fantastical saga at the age of nine on a visit to her grandmother’s house in Chesterfield, Charlotte’s imagination was immediately captivated by The Fellowship of the Ring’s plentiful lands.

Though the book was dense with about a million characters with fantasy names to remember, she became hooked and read the whole trilogy non-stop, back-to-front. “In year seven, I made an illustrated book review of the novels which was then put on display in the library,” recalls Charlotte. “I would love to see it now.” And when Peter Jackson took on the colossal role of directing the movie adaptations, Charlotte’ was “obviously stoked” and came out of the cinema “fully obsessed”. She adds on the matter, “I came out of the movie fantasising that I was Legolas, he was so elegant. In fact, one of our magazine features is a ‘Steal his Style’ guide to get the Legolas look!” Orlando Bloom, watch out.

Collaboratively working on the paintings together for the magazine, the illustrators would pin a big piece of paper on the wall and discuss their favourite Lord of the Rings moments which they would then recreate on paper. “Throughout the book, some paintings are mine, some are Chris’s and some we both worked on” adds Charlotte. “You can see both our styles coming through but it was also great to forget about how we think our work should look and just be totally playful.”

Currently available on Charlotte’s website and also at Elcaf this weekend (7-9 June 2019) this first issue marks the first in a series of totally unique and unmissable publications. They’ve already started planning the second issue which is open to submissions. “We are particularly interested in receiving fan fiction submissions,” says Charlotte, “We’d also love to get feedback from readers on features, art and writing from the people who like the first issue.” Also hoping to exhibit the original and uncanny paintings sometime soon in London, the illustrators are eager to meet other fantasy fans while basking in the delights of illustrated Aragorn and Arwen. More details to be announced on Charlotte and Chris’s social media channels soon.