Royal Mail issue set a “fantasy” stamps

A set of new stamps bearing pictures of mythical creatures such as mermaids, fairies and pixies have been issued by Royal Mail. A fire-breathing dragon, a giant carrying a boulder and Queen Mab riding her chariot are among the characters from British folklore featured on the six postage stamps.

Two first class stamps have images of a majestic stone-grey unicorn and a flame-spitting dragon, while a pair of 62p stamps for worldwide airmail letters show a pixie riding a snail and a boulder-wielding giant.

A blue-tinged mermaid illustrates one of the first 90p stamps for worldwide postcards, and another shows Queen Mab, the queen of the fairies from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Artist Dave McKean and novelist Neil Gaiman, the creators of the Sandman comic books, collaborated to design the stamps and accompanying presentation pack in which Gaiman explores the history of the creatures.

Julietta Edgar, head of Special Stamps at Royal Mail said: "We wanted to bring together some of the well-known characters from our ancient folklore and legend, and Dave McKean has succeeded in creating a series of wonderful images, which are beautiful, amusing and spine-tingling." (Telegraph.co.uk)

Neil Gaiman was the creator/writer of monthly cult DC Comics horror-weird series, Sandman, which won nine Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, including the award for best writer four times, and three Harvey Awards. Sandman #19 took the 1991 World Fantasy Award for best short story, making it the first comic ever to be awarded a literary award.

Posted: June 27th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Neil Gaiman

Do you have something to add to this post? Please leave a comment


Book of the Month	Interviews	Books you must read...	Competition
Once Walked with Gods James Barclay James Barclay's ELVES trilogy will tell the whole story of his immortal elven race, and will appeal to all fans of Tolkien and fantasy - this is a uniquely entertaining take on a fantasy staple perfect to bring new readers to Barclay.	Alden Bell Allison Brennan Paul Kearney Karen Brooks JR Mitchell NK Jemisin Holly Black Chris Dolley Alex Bell Alison Goodman	The Amulet of Samarkand The Spook's Apprentice Gardens of the Moon A Game of Thrones A Wizard of Earthsea Ship of Magic Assassin's Apprentice The Colour of Magic Duncton Wood Tigana	September 2, 2010 will see the publication of Steve Augarde's wonderful X-Isle in paperback. To mark the occasion Random House have very kindly given us three copies to give away as prizes in our latest competition.
Previous winners	Interview archive	Josh's top 8 fantasy list	Click here to enter!