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The art of Ian Miller

Ian Miller would have to be one of my all time favourite artists, actually maybe only second to the great Salvador Dali. 

Ian Millers style has been described as gothic, surreal and nightmarish and his lengthy and successful career has seen him doing work for H.P Lovecraft and Tolkien book covers, posters, magazines, magic card games and games workshop. He’s even done album covers for bands like the death metal group Ulthar. 

A couple of years ago I got my hands on a book filled to the brim with his art and today, as I’m having the day off, I thought I’d have a proper read through. 

I was pleasantly surprised to read that he had done the illustrations for my favourite author, James Herbert, on his graphic novel The City (a sequel to The Rats). I didn’t even know about the graphic novel to be honest so that was a surprise too. 

As I read on further I decided I wanted to take a few snaps and share some of the amazing art of Ian Miller with my lovely blog buddies. 

I find millers work to be incredibly inspiring and maybe, looking at his work, you might even see the influence it’s had on me. Probably not with my 40k Orks haha but maybe with other projects like HellGate, Turnip28, napoleonic zombies and other bits and bobs. 

Who knows maybe you’ll feel inspired by his work too 😊

Cheers

IRO 

36 thoughts on “The art of Ian Miller”

  2. Yep, I’m a big fan of Miller (much like yourself I’m also a big fan of Dali). Actually, speaking of Dali I went to a museum of his work in Paris a few years ago, absolutely brilliant stuff. One of my favourites, and well worth looking up, was a little picture of a beetle – just completely normal, nothing surreal about it at all. However if you looked at it upside down, or saw it reflected in a mirror, it turned into a self-portrait of Dali – incredibly bloody clever. Anyway, returning to Miller, it was him and Adrian Smith who defined the look of Chaos in my mind and really set me up to love those factions. I’ve seen some of his Tolkien stuff and again it absolutely fits the bill, can’t imagine a better artist to tackle Lovecraft either.

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    1. Ahh yes I’ve seen the Beetle and funnily enough I saw it in the UK at a smaller exhibition of his in 2008. Mostly focused on his sketches. Have I told you about the link with Dali and the artwork from the War of the worlds vinyl LP artwork? If not I’ll email you. Miller is just brilliant. Actually you came to mind as I was studying the book because I’m pretty sure I saw a Khorn symbol in there

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  4. I love Ian Miller stuff too. I’ve got the James Herbert book he did- rather good. Remember buying it when it came out back in the 1990s. I also recently picked up a Tarot set done by Ian Miller. What is the title of the book you’ve got on him?

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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  7. I have a lot of art books by different comic artists, but their style is a bit different than this. Probably the closest is Kev O’Neil who recently passed. Probably my favorite British illustrator would be Russ Nicholson, who I discovered in one of the early D&D books “Fiend Folio”.

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      1. It was a bit of an eye opener to me when I first saw the Fiend Folio, which was primarily British illustrators. Nicholson’s work was similar, but different in its own way.

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  8. I never knew about the graphic novel! Rats, Lair and Domain have always been 3 of my favourites. Ian Millers work is sublime. The Rivers of Death piece that graced the cover of the wfrp 1st edition is one of those that really influenced me? As was his depiction of Middenheim.

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  9. I wasn’t familiar with Ian Miller’s work so I definitely learned something here. I’m not a fan of Dali but I like Miller’s work quite a bit for what that’s worth. I’m not sure that he inspired you though. I think he took your essence and drew it haha. It nails your hobby aesthetic so well!

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  11. Oooh… I likes me a bit of Ian Miller. He did the covers to the Winter of the World trilogy by Michael Michael Scott Rohan, which is a good read. And I always associate him with WFRP, as he provided covers for several of the hardbacks. I love his intricate detail and cross-hatching.

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