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Animation & Video Game Artbooks

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LadyRiven

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I'm an avid collector of art books for anime, video games & film among other things, and I'm always looking to discuss them with others. I'll try to keep everyone updated on the latest domestic (U.S.) releases in this thread. I collect Japanese art books as well so I'm usually keen to discuss those as well.

Here's some useful links to get things started:

Places to Buy: (I have purchased from all of these vendors personally and recommend them!)
akadot Retail - Imported; ships from U.S.
Amazon - Best prices for domestic releases.
Amazon JP - Ships books overseas via DHL only ($$$)
Amazon UK
AnimeBooks.com - Imported; ships from U.S.
CD Japan - Large selection with many shipping options. Try here before buying from Amazon.co.jp!
Gallery Nucleus - Great place to get signed artbooks. (Generally with no markup!)
Stuart Ng Books - Specializes in rare art books from around the world. Good place to buy artist sketchbooks & signed volumes.

For folks around the world, Book Depository comes highly recommended by others!

Review Sites:
Halcyon Realms - A wide variety of art book reviews
Parka Blogs - One of Amazon's top reviewers overall; he reviews just about every artbook that comes out in English and many in other languages.
Plastic Pleasures - My blog where I review artbooks and doujinshi on occasion.

Also Nattoli.net, although the owner has been MIA and hasn't updated in over a year now. There's still a lot of great coverage of older Japanese releases.

Publishers:
Dark Horse - They primarily publish comics, but they've also published books such as Hyrule Historia and The Sky: The Art of Final Fantasy in English. (Both of which are very much worth noting!)
Insight Editions - Their visually stunning books cover a wide variety of media, including books about TV shows, animated films, music & celebrities.
Titan Books - Animation, film and pop culture books
Udon - The largest localizer of Japanese artbooks in the U.S.
Viz Media - They usually publish art books of the manga series that they have licensed and translated. They also publish Studio Ghibli art books in English.

More to come!

7OrPeO0.jpg

This is a screenshot taken directly from UDON's website. Be warned that they are not very good at keeping this chart up to date, and that the release dates are somewhat speculative. They also usually have a number of books left out of this list for whatever reason, so I will try to list all the others I come across below.

UDON Releases (not listed above):
The Art of Castlevania - Lords of Shadow (March)
Ni0 Art Works: Nishi's Alluring Figures
DmC Devil May Cry: Visual Art (April)
Gurren Lagann Artworks (June)

Other Upcoming Releases:
February - The Art of Thief, The Art of Titanfall, Capturing Archetypes: Twenty Years of Sideshow Collectibles Art
March - Xenogears Perfect Works (JP re-release), Magic Color Flair: The World of Mary Blair, Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko - Kantoku Artworks (JP), The Amazing Spider-Man: Behind the Scenes and Beyond the Web
April - The Art of The Wind Rises, The Art of Watch Dogs, The Art of Dreamworks Animation, The Art of the Disney Golden Books, Smaug: Unleashing the Dragon (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug), Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier: The Art of the Movie Slipcase
May - The Art of How to Train Your Dragon 2, Godzilla: The Art of Destruction, Star Wars Storyboards: The Original Trilogy, LOVELY: GIRLS OF ANIMATION: THE ART OF Lorelay Bove, Brittany Lee, Claire Keane, Lisa Keene, Victoria Ying and Helen Chen
July - The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles, Marvel Comics Cover Art, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Art of the Movie Slipcase
August - Dragon Girl and Monkey King: The Art of Katsuya Terada
October - The Art of Princess Mononoke

Udon Entertainment's Future Releases (Announced at SDCC):
Breath of Fire: Official Complete Works
Devil May Cry: 3142 Graphic Arts
DmC Devil May Cry: Visual Art
Resident Evil 6 Artworks
Darkstalkers Artworks
Border Break Artworks
Gungnir Official Art Chronicle
Phantom Breaker: Official Visual Works
Soul Calibur: New Legend of Project Soul
Hyperdimension Neptunia +mk2
Ys The Art Book
Daisuke Moriyama Art Works Chronicle

Please discuss your favorite art books, your collection, and upcoming releases!
 
There's a grocery store in Japan town that sells imported video game art books for a couple bucks. Some friends scored me a couple MGS ones for under ten bucks.

As for the rest of my collection it varies between comic artists, studio look books for 3D modeling and fashion collections.
 
wenis said:
There's a grocery store in Japan town that sells imported video game art books for a couple bucks. Some friends scored me a couple MGS ones for under ten bucks.
Click to expand...

Enlighten me on which grocery store this is. I could always go for cheap art books.
 
wenis said:
There's a grocery store in Japan town that sells imported video game art books for a couple bucks. Some friends scored me a couple MGS ones for under ten bucks.

As for the rest of my collection it varies between comic artists, studio look books for 3D modeling and fashion collections.
Click to expand...

Which Japan Town is that?
Under 10 dollars... sounds like Chinese bootlegs. :x
 
I am an avid collector too. At my last count this morning i have like 70 game art books

These books will be out i july i am saving up for them now

Eyes of bayonetta
persona 4 the arena
Art of gran turismo
art of last of us
art of 5th cell
 
LadyRiven said:
For folks outside of the United States, please let me know your favorite online shops to purchase art books from and I will add them to this list. :)
Click to expand...

I got most of mine at BookDepository.com because the free shipping is a godsend =D
Most artbooks (hardcover ones specialy) are insanely heavy, so shipping overseas is not always easy =x


edit :

Parka Blogs is awesome !
He updates regularly and it is always an awesome read =D
 
dakkumauji said:
Enlighten me on which grocery store this is. I could always go for cheap art books.
Click to expand...

I haven't been there in quite some time so I'm not sure what the name of the store was, but If I head back on in that direction again, I'll make sure to find out.

LadyRiven said:
Which Japan Town is that?
Under 10 dollars... sounds like Chinese bootlegs. :x
Click to expand...

Its the Japan Town in San Francisco.

If you can tell from these quick pics, the quality of the paper is really nice and the binding is sturdy. Not sure how else to figure out if it's a bootleg.

photo1gis8d.jpg


photoggso9.jpg
 
Added Udon's release schedule from their website to the first post. They just announced Persona 4 design works recently so it's not on the schedule yet, but it's coming out in July!
 
wenis said:
I haven't been there in quite some time so I'm not sure what the name of the store was, but If I head back on in that direction again, I'll make sure to find out.



Its the Japan Town in San Francisco.

If you can tell from these quick pics, the quality of the paper is really nice and the binding is sturdy. Not sure how else to figure out if it's a bootleg.

photo1gis8d.jpg


photoggso9.jpg
Click to expand...

That MGS seems pretty rare now. I don't think its up on amazon isn't it?

oddworld art book is quite rare too. i am hoping to get it but I can't afford the crazy 2nd hand price. i just spend on the tomb raider deluxe art books on amazon.
 
JTVqGKo.jpg


New relase announcement from UDON!

MM25: MEGA MAN & MEGA MAN X OFFICIAL COMPLETE WORKS
(W/CA) Capcom (A) Keiji Inafune, Hayato Kaji, Various
At over 430 pages, MM25 is the ultimate Mega Man artwork collection! MM25 collects the complete artwork behind every Mega Man and Mega Man X game, including character art, concept sketches, game covers, rare pinups and much more. This new hardcover edition also features over 100 pages of never-before-published material, plus new tribute art and interviews from the creators behind the blue bomber!
Please note: Diamond erroniously listed this as a hard cover. This is a soft cover book, but there will be a convention-exclusive hard cover released this summer.
SC, 8×12, 432pgs, FC $59.99
Projected release date: August 2013

Pre-order price at Amazon is currently $40.77
 
ArtHands said:
I am an avid collector too. At my last count this morning i have like 70 game art books

These books will be out i july i am saving up for them now

Eyes of bayonetta
persona 4 the arena
Art of gran turismo
art of last of us
art of 5th cell
Click to expand...

Just gonna say that this is a nice one.
 
Udon keeps announcing more titles that aren't on their release chart!
I just added Capcom 30th Anniversary Character Encyclopedia for October along with the re-release of Monster Hunter Illustrations 2.

Yen Press announced Shiro Amano: The Artwork of Kingdom Hearts for October as well.

All of 'em are up for pre-order on Amazon, but there's no cover shown for the KH artbook just yet.
 
Got Hyrule Historia for free when it was on sale at Coles for $15 (I had a gift card). I have yet to read it.

I've always been fascinated by concept art and wish I could afford them more. My wishlist is still The Art of Phoenix Wright and the Okami Official Complete Works.
 
LadyRiven said:
Udon keeps announcing more titles that aren't on their release chart!
I just added Capcom 30th Anniversary Character Encyclopedia for October along with the re-release of Monster Hunter Illustrations 2.

Yen Press announced Shiro Amano: The Artwork of Kingdom Hearts for October as well.

All of 'em are up for pre-order on Amazon, but there's no cover shown for the KH artbook just yet.
Click to expand...

Udon's going to continue to kill my wallet with all their books it seems.
 
As a collector with - check google drive list - something like 189 artbooks in store (last census numbers ^^), mainly animation, it interest me. Suscribed ! :)

LadyRiven said:
Places to Buy: (I have purchased from all of these vendors personally and recommend them!)
akadot Retail - Imported; ships from U.S.
Amazon - Best prices for domestic releases.
Amazon JP - Ships books overseas via DHL only ($$$)
Amazon UK
AnimeBooks.com - Imported; ships from U.S.
CD Japan - Large selection with many shipping options. Try here before buying from Amazon.co.jp!
Gallery Nucleus - Great place to get signed artbooks. (Generally with no markup!)
Stuart Ng Books - Specializes in rare art books from around the world. Good place to buy artist sketchbooks & signed volumes.

For folks outside of the United States, please let me know your favorite online shops to purchase art books from and I will add them to this list. :)
Click to expand...

Amazon marketplace is great with a forwarding service like tenso for older stuff !
I like Mangaoh. They don't have anything Amazon.jp already has, so it's more like an alternative I guess. Shipping is via EMS.
I has become more difficult to find really good deals on YAJ those last years - though it was where I finally found The art of Holmes and the Akio Sugino artworks :)

There has been some great artbooks from classic artists recently - like the Kuri Ippei and Shingo Araki ones. Didn't bought any of these yet, though.
 
Udon released images of their blue foil hardcover convention exclusive (bawwww, I say) edition of MM25.

9dmqjTS.jpg


OllR872.jpg


OllR872.jpg
Click to expand...

If I was a MegaMan fan I would be crying right now cause I can't go to SDCC.

I really wish I could get the hardcover World of Warcraft Tribute though. I believe this is the art they're using on the hardcover version:

dFp4jya.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Not really big on artbooks, but The Last of Us is really nice. Got it as part of the Survival Edition of the game.

The Disney Sketchbook is pretty awesome. Tempted to buy it, after flipping through it.

Evangelion Chronicle Side A and B is, I'm assuming, a pair of artbooks for the TV series, and not the Rebuilds. I've seen tons of official artwork for the TV series that I'd assume it would warrant a book at some point.

And circling back to video game artbooks: fuck the small "books" included in various collector's editions. I'm glad Naughty Dog decided to include the actual book in the Survival Edition.
 
Anyone have opinions on the Fire Emblem Awakening artbook?

I'm tempted to get it but I'd like to see what others have thought of it.
 
Bassun said:
Anyone have opinions on the Fire Emblem Awakening artbook?

I'm tempted to get it but I'd like to see what others have thought of it.
Click to expand...

Are you speaking of this one? I'm thinking about getting it. Usually a book like that is all black and white model sheets, but it sounds like this one has everything. (I like model sheet books anyway, so I'm happy either way!)

I just received news that Udon Store is going to have their SDCC exclusive hardcovers for sale on Friday, August 1st at 12pm EST. So if anyone wants that SUPER SHINY metallic blue copy of MM25, there's your chance!

Here's one more cool thing coming out this Fall. It's not exactly art books, but it does warrant a mention...

5176rt4NYoL.jpg


They're only doing ONE print run, so if you want it, make sure you pre-order it.
 
We have had this thread like, twice.

Nice info though.
 
The Broken Ska Record said:
I need to pick up more art books. I got Sky the other day, and it's ignited a fire to buy more.

Especially that Haruhi one.
Click to expand...

The Amano set? It's pretty incredible, and such a good value for the cost! The original Japanese version was about $300, so I'm really glad we didn't have to pay that for the English version.
 
I collect animated film artbooks.

How To Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, The Incredibles, and Rise of the Guardians are all MUST owns.
 
I'm currently in the search of Xenoblade's Artbook, it's out of print here in Japan and the price is rising very fast unfortunately :/

I tweeted Udon asking if they have plans to localize it. Hope they answer positively!
EDIT: They answered and said they're interested in doing it too :)

I also should get Valkyria Chronicles 2 and 3 artbooks before it's too late.

LATE EDIT: Artbook got reprinted in Japan and I bought it the other day!
VC 2 & 3 artbooks are also on their way!
 
Bassun said:
Anyone have opinions on the Fire Emblem Awakening artbook?

I'm tempted to get it but I'd like to see what others have thought of it.
Click to expand...

It's a lovely art book. Very extensive of the game's CGs including all the love ones, character and enemy sketches, very nice art all around. As an added bonus it also features all the support dialogue in the game.

Absolutely an amazing artbook.
 
Wafflecakes said:
I collect animated film artbooks.

How To Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, The Incredibles, and Rise of the Guardians are all MUST owns.
Click to expand...

I have the HTTYD and Kung Fu Panda artbooks and I agree, they are SO good. Some of the best English language animation artbooks for sure. It probably helps that they are full of Nico Marlet sketches. ;)

I still need to pick up the Kung Fu Panda 2 book, which is just as good from what I have heard. Now that I think about it, I still need to WATCH Kung Fu Panda 2.

If anyone has been thinking about getting the art of Monsters University, go for it. It's really great and it won't disappoint you. The film has a lot of interesting designs and a really fun color palette. There's also some super interesting info about the design process inside.
 
Is Amazon really a good place to get artbooks from? Keep hearing about the shipping packaging being crap.

Also hope Udon brings over that FE:A book.
 
Deprive said:
Is Amazon really a good place to get artbooks from? Keep hearing about the shipping packaging being crap.

Also hope Udon brings over that FE:A book.
Click to expand...

That's a difficult question to answer, because Amazon seems to package everything differently all the time.

However, as some who is extremely picky about the state of her books, I've never had to return an art book to Amazon because I was unsatisfied with the condition it showed up in. It helps that Udon in particular always shrink wraps their books, so even if Amazon doesn't shrink wrap the book itself to a piece of cardboard (which is generally their best way to pack books), it should show up without any kind of surface scratches.

I think that a few months back there were a lot of issues with people being unhappy with Amazon getting cheaper with their packaging and books would arrive banged up (this was a pretty big issue particularly with the Nausicaa hardcover manga boxed set), so I think they're going back to being more particular about it. My most recent artbook purchase from Amazon was Monster Hunter Illustrations, which arrived yesterday, factory shrink-wrapped and then shrink-wrapped onto cardboard by Amazon so it arrived in perfect condition.

As for the FE:A book, considering the game's been so well-received here, I would not put it past them to localize it. I would suggest it to them on their twitter and Facebook. :)
 
Blacksafs said:
The P4A artbook got pushed all the back to January 7 next year.

Oh well one less thing to buy in August.
Click to expand...

Hmm, Udon's website still has it listed for September, and Barnes and Noble has it listed for August 13th.

Amazon has put up incorrect later release dates for Udon's books in the past (they also have The Art of 5th Cell as a Jan 7 release date which they said is totally wrong), so I'm guessing it's just an error and it is probably actually coming out on time.

Edit: Just tweeted @udoncrew about it and got this reply.
 
I just got Nico Marlet's sketchbook in the mail from Gallery Nucleus. I love his work SO much. The book is mostly human drawings, but since his animals are my favorite, here's a few pages.

lEr8vJW.jpg


PejM5KE.jpg


EPRphup.jpg


eK1ounS.jpg


That's to say his human drawings aren't great, too, but I came to love him because of his character and creature designs for Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon.
 
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