A look at the 2016 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar

The 2015 San Diego Comic-Con has come and gone, and with it, all the excitement, news, and merchandise from some of nerdom’s largest franchises. HBO and Game of Thrones had quite the nice showing of SDCC merchandise available to purchase at the Con ahead of their regular release dates to the public. So too did Penguin Random House/Bantam Books, the publisher of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels.

As usual, the newest calendar for A Song of Ice and Fire was a big draw for fans of the series, and a Reddit user by the name of Velvet_Wizard, picked up his copy of the calendar and shared the images on ASOIAF Reddit and Imgur. Warning, there are spoilers for the books among the images, especially for the much teased “Mercy” chapter from The Winds of Winter.

First up, we take a look at March. This scene is from the Purple Wedding where King Joffrey is poisoned. As you can see, the artist renders Joff differently than Game of Thrones does, where he was played by Jack Gleeson. Cersei, in this particular piece of art, does resemble Lena Heady, however.

Next we have June and the Viper vs the Mountain. This epic duel was arguably one of the better fight scenes from Game of Thrones Season 4, if not from the entire series. It’s hard not imagining Pedro Pascal as Prince Oberyn, considering how much life and depth he brought to that character, but this is one of my more favorite artist renderings of the Red Viper of Dorne. I can actually hear him yelling that now famous line: “You raped her…you murdered her…you killed her children.“

September takes the third slot in my list of the best five images from the calendar. This artwork depicts Tommen as George R.R. Martin described him: as a young, sweet boy of eight who wants nothing more than to play with his kittens—Ser Pounce, Lady Whiskers, and Boots—and put his official seal on every piece of parchment his mother and uncle put in front of him. The Iron Throne, as you can well see, is also vastly different from the one on Game of Thrones. GRRM has stated this is how he envisioned the throne when he first wrote about it.

Next up, November and an appropriate wintery theme: Snow. This is Jon Snow discovering his direwolf, Ghost. If you look closely at his face and compare it to that of Aegon the Conqueror Targaryen from A World of Ice and Fire, they resemble each other…now, I’m not saying Jon is a secret Targaryen, but I’m not not saying that, either.

There are more images to be seen from the 2016 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar, and you can view them all HERE. There is one more I’d like to share, and it’s the “Mercy” chapter art. This is a sample chapter from The Winds of Winter, where Arya takes on the face and persona of a girl named Mercy. This particular piece shows the aftermath of the events of that chapter.

"“Valar morghulis,” Arya whispered, but Raff was dead and did not hear. She sniffed. I should have helped him down the steps before I killed him. Now I’ll need to drag him all the way to the canal and roll him in. The eels would do the rest."

You can pre-order the calendar now on the Penguin Random House site for $17.00, and it should be available to ship in roughly two weeks.

Next: And the best action scene of Game of Thrones Season 5 is…