As an illustrator and as a collaborator, Charles Vess has worked with Neil Gaiman, with whom he shared a World Fantasy Award for the Midsummer Night's Dream issue of Sandman; with Charles de Lint on children's books and illustrated novels; and with Jeff Smith on the Bone prequel Rose. Vess has won the World Fantasy Award twice. His Ballads series won him the comic-book industry's prestigious Eisner award. He is currently illustrating a special limited edition of George R. R. Martin's bestselling A Storm of Swords.