Gorgeous cover of the 2021 A Song of Ice and Fire calendar

Each year brings a new A Song of Ice and Fire calendar, packed with illustrations inspired by George R.R. Martin’s groundbreaking series. Each calendar is illustrated by a different artist; for the 2020 calendar, John Howe brought us his renderings of the mythical beasts or Westeros and Essos.

Now, it’s time to look forward to 2021. Writing on his Not a Blog, Martin himself debuted the cover art for the 2021 calendar, illustrated by artist Sam Hogg. Take a look:

Image: A Song of Ice and Fire calendar

This, of course, is an illustration of Quentyn Martell’s fateful encounter with Rhaegal and Viserion beneath the Great Pyramid of Meereen in A Dance with Dragons. If the show-only viewers among you are wondering why this never turned up in the show, it’s because Quentyn Martell and his whole story were cut. On Game of Thrones, Rhaegal and Viserion blasted themselves out of their prison, but in the books, Quentyn frees them as part of a spectacularly foolhardy attempt to take them for himself, and for Dorne. As you can probably guess by the image above, it does not go well for him.

Honestly, I wasn’t a fan of Quentyn’s journey in A Dance with Dragons — I thought we spent way too much time with him considering how small a role he ultimately played — but it’s hard to argue with this particular scene, which is exciting and absolutely hilarious. I’m glad it’ll be memorialized like this.

If you want to see more of Hogg’s work, check out her website. And here’s a helpful blurb from the Not a Blog:

"With a love of fantastical and narrative imagery, illustrator and concept artist Sam Hogg’s career has spanned a multitude of genres across the entertainment industry. She has worked with clients such as Playground Games, Blizzard, Dark Horse Comics, Critical Role and many more over the course of her 10-year career. Beyond her professional work, she can be found bringing her elegant, feminine aesthetic to a dark fantasy world of whalers and pirates in her personal project, The Whaler Girl."

Hopefully we’ll more art soon! We don’t know what the theme is yet, but I’m hoping for, ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time.’

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Watch Game of Thrones for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels