Wizard of the Month archives now complete
I’ve been working on a few lingering projects lately, and managed to finish the Archive of images from the Wizard of the Month calendar on jkrowling.com.
It’s hard to believe we’ve had three full years worth of Wizards of the Month already, since Jo launched her new website on May 15, 2004! With this archive it’s interesting to see the transition of the images from the early muted toned drawings to the more recent brighter and larger designs that on occasion extend far out of the frame. I hope you enjoy this visual time-turner! 
April 14th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Nicely done.
I hope JKR continues with the wizards of the month after the release of book 7.
April 14th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
It’s nice to finally see how the pictures had been changing through time.
Note, the Frog cards were used for two years, but after the first year the pictures got serious quality upgrade. We’ve been getting a new character each month for a year now.
I wonder if it means an interseting change next month.
Another amusing observation: we can still see the Frog Card pictuer of Bowman Write by his entry on Lexicon, but compare it to his picture in this archive. INteresting difference.
April 15th, 2007 at 12:47 am
I was just thinking — does anyone know who does the art for the WotMs?
April 15th, 2007 at 4:57 am
Thankyou for your idea!Nice one.
April 15th, 2007 at 6:31 am
Thankyou! For ages I could only access the text only site - so I’d not seen half of those images!
April 15th, 2007 at 11:46 am
Finn, they’d be created by the artists at Lightmaker, the site designer.
April 15th, 2007 at 11:48 am
Great job doing these, guys.
April 15th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
great, belinda!
do you think the art is based in real persons? Fifi LaFolle was close enough to that author to think it was intencionally. But what with the others?
And other question
are the graphics canon? would Jo make a sketch for the wizards, before Lightmaker designs them?
April 16th, 2007 at 8:16 am
A minor point of interest; Bridget Wenlock’s surname, is another of Jo’s finds on the map of the UK. The villages of Much Wenlock, and Little Wenlock are less than twenty miles from where I live in the county of Shropshire. There is also a geographical feature called Wenlock Edge, which can be found on Google.
April 16th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
One wizard is mentioned twice and didn’t she have Celestina Warbeck as one of the WOTM? (Wizard Of The Month)
April 16th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
I can understand why you may think that Celestina Warbeck had been a WotM, but no she wasn’t. She is featured on one of the changing ads in the Rumours tabloid, and does have a Famous Wizard Card, though.
The wizard that appears twice is explained at the top of that page, Felix Summerbee was the original WotM when the site launched May 2004 and reappeared again the next May. Some sites reported this as a glitch and that Elfrida Clagg was the intended honoree, but I think that Jo decided to give him a second run, since his first appearance was less than half a month, and it also kept the male-female alternation consistant when Elfrida showed up the following month.
As for the images being canon… no, I have not given them that status yet, having not been able to verify how much is the artist’s creation & interpretation and how much is directly from Jo. (We have evidence that there *are* some non-canon artists’ “mistakes” on the site, the most compelling being the misspelling of Sneakascope.) I suspect that Jo gives the artist a description of the witch or wizard, like hair and eye color, build etc, and sometimes a “real” person as model or inspiration. I can imagine her saying “he reminds me of so-and-so”. I *do* think that Fifi LaFolle is a nod to Barbara Cartland, and that some of the others may have a “real life” paradigm. I’m open to suggestions if anyone can identify these resemblances!
April 16th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Thanks for the clarification. I used to read Dame Cartland when I was a teenager…we would go get her book of the week and laze around by the pool, reading and giggling.
Memories!
April 16th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
As I pointe dout before, in JUne 2005 the pictures seem to have received a major upgrade.
May be Felix appears twise, because the designers had no choice but to go for a second lap, until a new set of characters was prepaered.
April 17th, 2007 at 8:30 am
That’s really cool! Good job on compiling them guys!
April 17th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Great pics - and one or two certainly bear a more than passing resemblance to some well known people -
April 18th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Wow thanks!!! That was so nice of you! I see what you mean with the picture upgrade….
April 24th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Something interesting about the art of the WOTM is the drawing of Donaghan Tremlett: in the cards it wasn’t mentioned his hair, but in the design he appeared long-hairy.
Years before, JKR described as long-hairy in the funeral of Dumbledore. So there a possible connection.
PS: I don’t know what word did JKR use for describe the hair of Tremlett in HBP, but I think it really fixed with the art of the wotm. Do you?
April 29th, 2007 at 2:45 am
A question that was in coming for a long time:
Are wizards of the month cannon?
The problem is that the pop-ups for Write and Clagg are contradicting “Quidditch throughout the Ages”, so what can you do about those?
April 30th, 2007 at 5:56 am
but HP6 can contradicts HP2 or HP4 and both are canon. I would consider “fact” the last update.
May 2nd, 2007 at 2:52 pm
I didn’t see any contradictions among the books that can not be worked out through a loophole.
The contradiction between these pop-ups and “QA” is way more direct.
June 1st, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Anyone realize that the slytherin necklace is popping up everywhere? on the WotM, the cover of the bloomsberry HP7 book, and the cover of the american HP7 book, and a few other places. Hmm? what do you guys think?
October 1st, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I just want to say that I love Harry Potter as the new Wizard of the month!!!
I worry though… cuz if he’s the pinnacle… will Rowling stop updating?
I sincerely hope not… there are a lot of options left!! All the Hogwart’s professors…. Harry’s friends… the DA.. the Order!!! I’d love it if we end up seeing all the characters in the books! Including Mrs. Figg as Squib of the Month!!
October 5th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
Thank You very much for putting this together. I was disappointed that I had missed out on some of the recent important characters, but this page saved me. Thanks
October 14th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
Does anyone know who’s drawing all of these? I honestly doubt it is JKR herself, even if she must be the one giving most of the info to the artist/website conceptor.
… it’s interesting to see that Harry is portrayed with the Hogwarts uniform they have in the films, not only with black wizard robes, and that his scar is on his head’s right side, also like in the films.