"Doomed to Die" Book News!

I know what it means to win the lottery now, because a million to one shot has happened. 

TLDR Version! “Doomed to Die: An A-Z of Death In Tolkien” based on my Inktober series from 2024 is going to be published by HarperCollins UK this fall! AHHHHHHHHH!!!

Gold foil on the cover! AHHHHH!

Order here from Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego!

Or on Amazon!

Or Barnes and Noble!

If you’re interested in the full story…

In October of 2024, I posted a bunch of art during Inktober. I had the fun idea of mashing up two of my favorites: Edward Gorey and J.R.R. Tolkien.  Every year I would do the first post as a Gorey “Gashlycrumb Tinies” homage, the poem that wonderfully details the demise of 26 children (my favorite being “N is for Neville who died of ennui.” 

In a flash of inspiration I will never fully understand, I thought “A is for Arwen, done in by sorrow,” picturing in my head that beautiful scene in the Lord of the Rings movies where Arwen stands grieving at Aragorn’s tomb. Then immediately after, I thought “B is for Boromir, pierced by many an arrow,” and realized I was on to something. In a flash, I got online with some references and had all 26 names and verses written, and I knew this was going to be fun.

A little backstory: I hadn’t drawn anything in like two years at that point. I don’t know why. Drawing has been a part of my life since I could remember, but I had burnt out. Nothing seemed to work, and besides doing my day job in video and graphic design, I just didn’t have the urge to draw.  I doubt the pandemic period helped much, sapping away inspiration from many of us, I’m sure. But I had recently started doodling some comics just for myself based on Tolkien’s Blue Wizards, and I was re-discovering the simple joy of creation for its own sake. I determined I would do the comic, “The Wizard Blues” simply for me, and no one else.  

Added to that, I had discovered more of the online Tolkien fandom and was starting to get to know some of these amazing creators, watching in awe as they nerded out about “The Silmarillion” in ways I never thought I’d hear outside of very specific circles.  It was joyous to see these mostly pretty young people just so into Tolkien’s lore, creating videos, gathering really large followings, some of them making an actual living at it!  Glorious. 

So it was in that state of mind I came up with the idea of exploring how Tolkien characters died, and doing it in a complex and detail inking style as a challenge to myself.  I got a jump start on it in September because I knew I’d need to front load them if I was going to do justice to the style I saw in my head.  I figured I’d post one a day in October and hope for 20-30 likes from my Tolkien nerd buddies. It was just so nice to be doing something for the sake of creation. It had been a long time. 

The change happened about 10 days in.  I was getting a lot of really nice likes and comments on the posts.  Like I figured, 30, maybe 50 likes.  So much fun! I loved that some people were really responding to it, loving the mash up.  Then, I figured I would make a reel of A thru J and post that.  I had been on Instagram for a long time, but don’t think I’d ever actually made a reel.  Was literally in bed that morning and figured “that could be fun,” so I put together a slide show and added some LOTR music to it and posted it.  Neato!   Technology is fun!

I went about my day and checked Instagram later around noon. A few hundred views! Wow! That’s amazing. Back to my day.

Around 3pm, that number was a few thousand views. Cool! That means people are sharing it when they see it.  Back to my day. 

That night, around 15,000 views.  I start to suspect maybe I’m on to something. I’ve been online since there WAS an online, and I’ve posted a couple of things that did ok.  But 15,000 views of something I did?  New territory.  

The next morning, over 50,000 views.  Now I suddenly have the first inkling of “hey….could this become a book I Kickstart or something? Maybe I could sell a hundred or something.” 

That reel eventually got over 400,000 views. That is honestly 399,900 more than I expected to get, but obviously, I was on to something.  Several other reels as the month went on got huge views as well.  For the first time, I experienced the fun of “going viral.” 

I thought maybe I could Kickstart this myself, but was concerned about the legality and copyright issues involved in using Tolkien characters. The Gorey part was more of an homage, but I knew enough about the publishing world and the Tolkien folks to know that they are very cautious about the rights to the material, as well they should be.  

A quick visit to the Tolkien Estate website led me to a very convenient discovery that there was only one place that officially publishes all of Tolkien’s works; HarperCollins UK.  I couldn’t find any particular email to send a feeler letter out to, and I knew that sending any such request to an email like “info at harpercollins” would go nowhere fast. Luckily, I had at least one industry card to play. 

I knew that Terri Libenson, author and artist of the “Everything Emmie” books, was published through HarperCollins US.  I’ve known Terri for a number of years, so I asked her if she could ask her editor at Harper if maybe they knew a person or two I could reach out to in the UK, figuring that an email directed TO specific people in that organization would have better luck.  Terri, being the utterly sweet and awesome person she is, did so, and a couple of days later, I had a name to send my “hey, I did something that people seem to like, are ya interested?” email to, which was all I could hope to do.  You have an idea, you package it up, you take your swing, and you see what happens.  That’s all that’s in our control as artists, so I did that, hit “send,” and figured that was all I could do.  

Not long after, I got an email from that person, who forwarded my request to another person more closely involved with the Tolkien publishing. Then, someone named David Brawn at HarperCollins UK wrote me.   It so happens that David Brawn is THE GUY when it comes to the Tolkien publishing arm of HarperCollins. He’s worked with the estate for over 30 years, and has had a hand in publishing everything that has come out in that time, meaning, of course, I had several books on my shelf that he was involved in.   I had tossed a dart into the air, and it hit the bullseye over in London. What are the odds? 

His email was the greatest rollercoaster I’ve ever been on.  It starts off with something to the effect of “I looked up your work on Instagram, and after 30 years in this job, it’s very rare to encounter something as fresh as this.” 

I can NOT explain to you how amazing that felt to see.  I quite literally gasped and felt emotion welling up in my eyes.  I mean…holy cow. Talk about a visit from the Validation Fairy.  

Then the rollercoaster continued, this time downward.  “It is completely unpublishable.”  My heart sank.  But, in a “well, I figured as much, but how amazing to get this email I will treasure forever.”  

But, the rollercoaster continued, as rollercoasters are wont to do.  To sum it up, basically he loved the idea and was going to pitch it to the Estate in a meeting he was going to have with them in the coming weeks. He was very honest about it, saying that it would be very unprecedented for the Estate to authorize a book of this kind.  However, it was a glimmer of hope I could never realistically have hoped would happen even at this point, and so the journey started.  

Obviously, if I’m writing this and you’re reading it, the Tolkien Estate did indeed authorize a book of this kind.  I re-drew some of the art, we tightened up the words, and we pitched it to them after they had made some comments, and lo and behold…they approved it.  I re-drew every one of them in a 4X4” square format over the next three weeks, pouring all I could into them, remembering my mantra of “do this because you can do it for the sake of doing it.”  I wrote over 5,000 words in "The Appendices of Doom" that goes into detail about each character's demise and where it occurs in the books. I truly believe the purity and intention of this whole project is what drove it forward.  “Do what you love,” they say. In this case at least…they were right.

And so, here we are. A fun mash-up concept, a deep love of Tolkien and his many characters, and a renewed desire to illustrate has turned into a book coming out this fall from HarperCollins, authorized officially by the Tolkien Estate. I am happier than Tom Bombadil in a field of marigolds. Happier than Samwise Gamgee farming potatoes. Happier than Fëanor holding the Silmarils in his hands.  Happier than…well, you get the nerdy idea.

I have a lot of people to thank, but really, it’s the people who reacted to the posts on Instagram that fueled this fire. I couldn’t believe the response, and I hope that many of them will add this book to their collection and get enjoyment out of it.  I hope people who might not know some of the characters I cover in the book get the urge to read deeper into the Tolkien legendarium. Or that people who only know the most excellent films will be curious to read the books that were their source of inspiration.  

And specifically, the deepest thanks to the Tolkien content creators who have become friends and who continually amaze me with their passion and knowledge. They spread the word, they welcome new fans and Tolkien nerds with open arms, they set the tone for all of this. 

I don't know where this path goes from here, but I can tell you this much: if all that comes from this is a published book in my hands, and one that I can occasionally see on the shelves in a bookstore, then I will be the happiest man in the world. Quite literally a lifelong dream has come true. I have pitched more books in the series, and if this book does well, who knows where the path goes. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to do some signings, or go to a convention as a guest and not a participant or moderator. Or maybe this is all it will be. But what a journey.

I suffer, like most artists, deeply ingrained imposter syndrome and the fear that anything I create is just another average voice in the throng, another piece from a hack, nothing special. Now, I can smile at the Imposter Syndrome demons, invite them in for tea, and then tell them politely to go back to the darkness that spawned them, because they'll never take this book from me. There is real power in creation, and I am thrilled that I'll be able to look over from my desk and see the spine of my book staring back at me.

Thank you for letting me play in your most awesome sandbox, Professor Tolkien. I hope this is something you would have enjoyed.