Canadian illustrator John Howe (Vancouver, 1957) began adding images to the stories of J.R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973), and he still continues. After working with Peter Jackson on the film adaptations ofThe Lord of the Rings and ofThe Hobbit, in recent years has been working on the animated film The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim, and this Friday he landed at the Comic Strip Show to meet the media following the publication of the book Travelogue of Middle-earth (Minotauro publishing house). "I particularly value Tolkien's ecological side, and the complexity of his characters' motivations," says Howe. "It seems easy to dismiss it as, 'Well, it's just fantasy.' But he was a man who went to war when he was only 20. And most of his comrades never returned. But even though he wrote fantasy, Tolkien was a very honest author, and I think this honesty is what grounds everything he writes."