#bythebywater

[rachelillustrates]

Concerning Orcs.....

(Art featuring Onna Kin-breaker from my comic “Tock the Gnome,” my man Lurtz from the Jackson film version of “The Fellowship of the Ring.,” and Butterfly Hero Steven. No official affiliation or copyright infringement intended! Will be finishing this up in color eventually but liked the linework too much not to share! With spruce in Onna’s hand, for ‘hope in adversity.’)

So I’ve been doing some (more) Orc research in my continuing Tolkien obsession, and that – as always – impacts how I manifest them in my own work.

Specifically, I’ve been inhaling the backlog of “By the Bywater” episodes, which is an amazing podcast talking about “all things J.R.R. Tolkien: his work, his inspirations and impact, creative interpretations in other media, languages, lore, ripoffs, parodies, anything we think is interesting!” It is SO chill, and so good, and the people involved – Oriana Schwindt, Jared Pechaček and Ned Raggett – never fail to get me thinking and bring up SO many things I hadn’t heard about, as an (up until recently) more casual fan.

I got to the episode on Orcs recently (YES, they tackled Orcs as a topic. Thank you, brave humans) – “Hella Problematic in So Many Ways” – and I have thoughts.

“But Rachel!” you may cry, “I’m not a fan of ‘Lord of the Riiiiiiings’ Orcs! Why should I care about how they’re portrayed in a franchise I don’t like?”

That would be because without Orcs in Tolkien’s work, we wouldn’t have Orcs anywhere else. Where we’ve come as creatives with them since then is REAL important, but in terms of Story, they showed up in Arda first. Yes, they have inspirational roots beyond that, but I think its important – even beyond a fangirling perspective, yes – to recognize where this fantasy people I love so much came from, in the written-beginning.

Sooooooo I wrote a really long post about it, but I broke the Tumblr character limit apparently? So you can read the notes and my thoughts here 💚

And here is smiling Lurtz for further incentive: