The Lord of the Rings: The Art of the Fellowship of the Ring


Gary Russell - 2002
    This official publication contains 500 exclusive images, from the earliest pencil sketches and conceptual drawings to magnificent full-color paintings that shaped the look of the film. All the principal locations, costumes, armor and creatures are covered in stunning detail, including concepts, storyboards and images that did not make it into the final film.As well as a wealth of sketches, paintings and digital images, The Art of The Fellowship of the Ring contains photographs showing how the creative process was realized and a number of stills from the film. Contributors include Alan Lee and John Howe, the two artists who inspired Peter Jackson's vision of Middle-earth and who worked with him to bring his trilogy to the big screen. They and a dozen other designers who created all of these diverse elements explain how they contributed to the development of the film, giving a fascinating insight into how Middle-earth was brought to life.With text compiled from exclusive interviews with director Peter Jackson, special effects supervisor Richard Taylor, designers Grant Major, Ngila Dickson, Paul Lasaine and others, this unique book celebrates the pivotal contribution made by a handful of people which help turn the first Lord of the Rings movie into an award-winning global success.

Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy


Amy RatcliffeElsa Charretier - 2018
    The amazing lineup of illustrators includes Alice X. Zhang, Amy Beth Christenson, Annie Stoll, Annie Wu, Christina Chung, Cryssy Cheung, Eli Baum, Elsa Charretier, Geneva B., Jen Aberin Johnson, Jen Bartel, Jenny Parks, Karen Hallion, Little Corvus, Sara Alfageeh, Sara Kipin, Sarah Wilkinson, and Viviane Tanner. Check out Jen Bartel’s cover below, featuring a striking image of Rey.

El Borbah


Charles Burns - 1987
    Subsisting entirely on junk food and beer, El Borbah conducts his investigations with tough talk and a short temper. He smashes through doors and skulls as he stalks a perfectly realized film-noir city filled with punks, geeks, business-suited creeps and mad scientists.El Borbah features five science-fiction and true-detective episodes: In "Robot Love," rebellious kids in nightclubs replace their "parts" with mechanical substitutes as part of a new fad, only to find that their parents have been automating themselves all along; in "Love in Vein" a mad visionary sperm donor plans a master race and turns "his" kids against their parents; "Bone Voyage" details the exploits of a cult called the Brotherhood of the Bone, a kind of cross between the Masons and the Mansons. The fantastic plots take up the weird fears of a scientific society, but the action is pure pulp. Charles Burns effortlessly spins yarns with gritty punchlines and pictures so perfect they must have existed in some collective memory of junk drama. And through it all crashes El Borbah, trying to make an honest buck from dishonest people.Burns is the author of Black Hole, the acknowledged masterpiece of the form that Fantagraphics serialized through the 1990s and will be collected into a massive graphic novel in 2005 by Pantheon Books. El Borbah is Burns' earliest work, created in the early 1980s, though the work remains eerily contemporary. Steeped in a "sci-fi-noir" aesthetic informed by Burns' steadily childhood diet of B-movies and comic books, but with a sophisticated sense of humor that is often as disturbing as it is funny, El Borbah is comics as its most entertaining.

Vincent Van Gogh: The Complete Paintings


Rainer Metzger - 1988
    This richly illustrated and expert study follows the artist from the early gloom-laden paintings in which he captured the misery of peasants and workers in his homeland, through his bright and colorful Parisian period, to the work of his final years, spent under a southern sun in Arles.

Fruits Basket Uncovered: The Secrets of the Sohmas


Kazuhisa Fujie - 2007
    The enigmatic Sohma family shares a great secret: each member is possessed by spirits of the Chinese Zodiac, and when they are hugged by members of the opposite sex, they transform into their personal Zodiac animal.

Doctor Who Character Encyclopedia


Jason Loborik - 2013
    Packed with fascinating facts and statistics for characters from the Abzorbaloff to the Zygons, and with large cut-out poses and stunning stills from the program, this is the ultimate compendium of Doctor Who characters.

Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy: Great Heroes and Bizarre Beings from Imaginative Literature


Wayne Barlowe - 1996
    At last these bizarre and beautiful beings have been brought magnificently to life by acclaimed artist Wayne Douglas Barlow, who has often been called the "Audubon of the Otherworld". This book is a sequel to the bestselling Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials. 50+ four-color illustrations.

Berserk Official Guidebook


Kentaro Miura - 2016
    Berserk has conquered the worlds of manga and anime, and now comes the essential roadmap to the sprawling Berserk universe, exploring the characters, creatures, settings, and stories of Berserk's first 38 volumes.Profusely illustrated and including never-before-seen art (including an eight-page color section) and author notes by Kentaro Miura, the Official Guidebook is a comprehensive tour through the epic adventure, shocking horror, and graveyard humor that can be only Berserk!

A Field Guide to Monsters: This Book Could Save Your Life


Dave Elliott - 2004
    160 illustrations.

A Sticky Note Guide to Life


Chaz Hutton - 2016
    He covers all the important things: dating, working, eating, fighting gorillas, the impossible physics of toothpaste, the family history of a sock drawer, and so much more.Basically, all the big life questions that you didn’t realise needed answering.

The A-Z of Creative Photography


Lee Frost - 1998
    For serious amateur photographers who alraedy shoot perfectly focused, accurately exposed images but want to be more creative with a camera, here's the book to consult.

Star Wars Art: Visions


George LucasJulie Bell - 2010
    In the decades since, the Star Wars Saga has become a phenomenon impacting cultures across the globe. Just as George Lucas drew upon the work of N. C. Wyeth and Norman Rockwell for his own visual inspiration, he has now invited more than 100 well-known and promising artists to draw upon the entire Star Wars galaxy for inspiration. Star Wars: Visions collects these magnificent artworks for the first time. Featuring pieces by renowned artists such as Amano, Allan R. Banks, Harley Brown, Gary Carter, James Christensen, Michael Coleman, Kinuko Craft, Jim Dietz, Phillipe Druillet, Donato Giancola, Ann Hanson, H. R. Giger, Daniel Greene, Ron Kleeman, Arantzazu Martinez, Syd Mead, Moebius, Paul Oxborough, Alex Ross, Anthony J. Ryder, Dolfi Stoki, William Stout, Dan Thompson, Julie Bell and Boris Vallejo, Scott Waddell, and Jamie Wyeth, Star Wars: Visions is a breakthrough tribute to the worldwide inspiration that is Star Wars.Praise for Star Wars Art: Visions:"Star Wars Art: Visions . . . acknowledges what fans have felt all along. They don't want to be mere spectators, but involved in the storytelling too." -Los Angeles Times

Astonishing Times #1 (comiXology Originals)


Frank J. Barbiere - 2021
    

Origins of Marvel Comics


Stan Lee - 1974
    Narrated by Stan (the Man) Lee, that stellar storyman who saw comics as more than dime-store material and turned his characters into 20th-century mythology.Included are the beginnings of The Fantastic Four, which hurled Marvel out of the area of monsters without soul into the age of cosmic heroes; The Hulk, brilliant scientist turned muddled monster; Spider-Man, the teenage superhero known affectionately to aficionados as "Spidey"; Thor, the surgeon turned Norse god with the mystical hammer and the Shakespearean speech pattern; and finally Dr. Strange, the oddball magician who uses his Satanic powers on the side of good.After you read the big full-color stories and learn about the first heady inspirations from Stan, you will see why Origins of Marvel Comics stands alone as one of the great classics - an undying tribute to Marvel mania.

The Book of Alien


Paul Scanlon - 1979
    Alien.This exciting book takes you right behind the scenes of Alien and talks to the key people involved, including H. R Giger and director Ridley Scott. It shows every creative stage, through designs and sketches, models and costumes, that went into such a unique vision of the future, and graphically demonstrates why the movie won an Oscar for its visual effects.