a throne swords

“I don’t give a shit if it’s 1,000 or 8,000 swords It really is the Iron Throne the way I see it”

made of “Before being an illustrator I’m a fan. I’m a reader,” says French artist Marc Simonetti. And as a fan, it made sense for the artist to get in contact with the man who came up with the ideas he was depicting.

“George said to me that in the book the throne had to be massive, so that the king was high above his subjects, and to have the look and feel of a hunched beast, all twisted metal… In a way,” admits Marc, “it’s an impossible thing to represent.”

“As a prose writer I’m describing things in my book not as a technical writer would, but in more metaphoric terms,” explains George. “The throne is huge and it’s hunching and it gives this impression of dominance. The artist needs to translate those abstracts – how to make it look like a giantlike beast, and all that stuff.”

Marc’s first stab at the throne was for a Mexican book cover. Wanting the metal ‘beast’ to stand out, he picked a classic environment. “I used pictures of the papal throne in the Vatican as reference.”

For World of Ice and Fire – the most recent release – he went back to George for feedback. “It’s said that it’s made of 1,000 swords, and in the beginning I worked to make the throne exactly 1,000 swords,” says Marc. “But George he said, ‘I don’t give a shit if it’s 1,000 or 8,000!’” The character of the thing was everything. Once Marc got that, the author had to admit, “it really is the Iron Throne the way I see it.”