Josh Kirby
Ronald William " Josh " Kirby ( born November 27, 1928 in Waterloo, Lancashire, † 23 October 2001 in Shelf Anger near Diss, Norfolk ) was a British illustrator and artist who primarily for his book cover illustrations for Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels was known.
Kirby was born in 1928 in Waterloo in the English county of Lancashire. He studied at the Liverpool City School of Art After graduating, he worked for a London art studio of movie posters, after a few years, however, he started his own business as a freelance artist and drew mainly book cover illustrations of any kind
In the 1960s he married and moved to Norfolk in a 400 year old rectory in the country. In the following years he presented numerous exhibitions in London and even Berlin. This famous works were created as movie posters for The Return of the Jedi, Krull, Beastmaster and the famous "copy" of Pieter Brueghel's Tower of Babel for the Monty Python film Life of Brian.
In the late 1980s he finally came for the first time with Terry Pratchett in contact when the British book publisher Corgi commissioned him to paint a cover for The colors of magic. This was the beginning of the highly successful collaboration with Pratchett, from which the quote is: " I only invented the Discworld. . Josh created it " ( German: ". . I invented the Discworld only Josh who created them " ) Total recorded Josh Kirby 25 Book cover for the Discworld series and other books Pratchett and shaped so decisively the image that the reader is Discworld made .
" I am a painter. That's what I DO. I paint. "
"I am a painter. That's what I do. I paint. "
After the death of Josh Kirby sat Paul Kidby its work on the book covers for Pratchett's novels continue.
My Artbooks and books
- The Josh Kirby Discworld Portfolio, Paperback, 2001, ISBN 1855858959
- In the Garden of Unearthly Delights: The Paintings of Josh Kirby, paperback, 1991, ISBN 1850281548
- A Cosmic Cornucopia, Paperback, 1999, ISBN 1855857316