The special guest of our festival this year will be Paul Bonner.

Paul Bonner is a fantasy artist who has created graphics for fantasy game companies.

Paul Bonner illustrated the covers of the World of Lone Wolf series of game manuals, including Grey Star the Wizard, The Forbidden City, Beyond the Nightmare Gate and War of the Wizards.

His portfolio includes Games Workshop, FASA Corporation, Riotminds and Rackham. He has also illustrated several book covers and a couple of posters for long-running works in the fantasy genre (Tolkien and Lloyd Alexander). In 2008, his first collection of works "Out of the Forests" was published. Although it did not contain all of his works, it contained a sample of most of his major designs. Bonner's works have also appeared several times in Spectrum's annual art books.

His work for Dungeons & Dragons includes covers for the adventures Die Vecna Die! and Into the Dragon's Lair.

Bonner's works are distinguished by vivid colors, contrast and somewhat exaggerated features[footnote needed]. Virtually none of his works contain elves, although most other "standard" races are common[footnote needed]. Although he usually depicts scenes of violence, few of his works actually show blood. Moreover, his illustrations of typically savage creatures, such as orcs, show a more sympathetic side than usual, including a fair amount of whimsy.

Bonner's work has appeared in Magic: The Gathering expansions, starting with Eventide.

In 2005, Bonner won a silver Spectrum Award in the book category for Cadwallon Goblin.

In 2007, a book was published by Titan Books about Bonner and his work, titled Out of the Forests: The Art of Paul Bonner.