Cultural Compulsive Disorder: The Women Of Westeros by Azim Al Ghussein

There is something to reading a book before it is adapted to a TV screen or a movie. Of course there is the age of adage "the book is better than the movie", but I don't usually ascribe to this for the average opinion of it is better. I usually like to read source material first because: 1) it was the way it was originally intended by the original author & 2) I can form an idea on how the characters look in my own head based on the description of the author. I can imagine what their physical stature is, how their faces look reacting to events in the book, and what type of a person they are based on things clothing and action they take. That picture in my head is mine, and mine alone. It is unlike all others... you might have a SIMILAR picture of a character in your head, but it won't be exactly like mine. So it is nice when an artist decides to recreate a group of characters that have appeared in both a book and an adaption... and said artist goes with a book interpretation for the characters looks when they create it. Such is the case with artist Azim Al Ghussein, who has a penchant for drawing A Song of Ice and Fire (the real name of Game of Thrones before HBO) characters. He likes to go in the direction of forming the characters looks based on George RR Martin's descriptions in the books... and it is a nice call back to when I was reading the books and imagining what they would all look like. I was especially enamored by his 'Ladies of Ice and Fire' series, which captures the ladies of the books in all their unique glory. Al Ghussein hits all the right buttons, and his work is great. He has a ton of Ice and Fire related comic strips, galleries, and portraits on his Tumblr, which you can get to by clicking here. You can see the Ladies of Westeros after the jump. Enjoy....