( CNN ) Mischief managed : Harry Potter fans were spellbound this week after the release of four new images from the new fully illustrated edition of the first book , `` Harry Potter and the Sorcerer 's Stone . '' Publishing companies Scholastic and Bloomsbury UK offered a sneak peek at how Hogwarts mainstays Rubeus Hagrid , Hermione Granger , Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy will look in the book come its October 6 release . The images were done by Jim Kay , who has won a Kate Greenaway Medal for his illustrations in Patrick Ness ' fantasy novel `` A Monster Calls . '' `` To be given the opportunity to design the characters , the clothing , the architecture and landscapes to possibly the most expansive fantasy world in children 's literature , well let 's just say I 'm extremely excited about it , '' Kay said in a release . `` The story is everything , and so I want to bring what I can to really show the depth of Rowling 's stories , to their best . '' The exceedingly popular wizarding series by J.K. Rowling has sold more than 450 million copies worldwide since the first book was released in the UK in 1997 . One can only expect that number to grow as publishing companies around the world bring all seven installments -- one each year , according to Scholastic -- to life with fully illustrated editions .
Official illustrations of more than 450 million main `` Harry Potter and the Sorcerer 's Stone characters have been released . The first illustrated copy will be released 1997 . The series has sold four copies worldwide .