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December 8th 2024 The Art of Dragon Age: The Veilguard , published by Dark Horse, is one of the strangest books I’ve picked up and you'll see why in this review. You can also check out a video review on YouTube here . It was released less than a week after the game, which is very rare these days, as it is now the norm for video game artbooks come out 6 months to many years after a release. This is not an art review, this is all about the book and how the content is presented to you. You can see some below or check it out online. The art from for the game has a less realistic style, closer to what you might find for an animation. But, I’ll leave it up to you if you enjoy it. I myself like most styles, including this one. Build Quality We are on safe ground with Dark Horse. All of their artbooks come with a hardcover, strong binding, good paper and a great print quality. You’re in good hands with these books and they are a big publisher for game artbooks in general, so there’s not much else to say! Content This is where the book becomes interesting to say the least and it doesn't take long to realise. For example, I can’t think of another book that doesn’t have a contents page, but that is just the start of the weird decisions here. I’ll begin with how it’s presented, which is in 3 parts. Post-Inquisition up first, the earliest ideas worked on before the previous game even shipped. This is all exploration, which is great to have in any book and fans will enjoy these unused concepts. The second is Joplin, this was after Inquisition had launched and continues to showcase earlier art. Last is The Veilguard, where you see it all coming together for the final game. There is a large amount of art here, including what they called beat boards, which are images that act as visual ideas. As well as this, you get the usual early concepts, environment art, costume exploration and more. Fans of the game have a lot to digest and will appreciate how much they share across its 256 pages. There are a some pages going over how the art style changed from Inquisition to The Veilguard, as seen below. More like this would have been nice to see as it was a highlight for me. The text is where this book begins to completely fall apart as it feels totally scatter-brained. Some artbooks opt to include lore, some explain how the game was made and some just speak to the art. This book does all 3, but switches inconsistently between them. It starts with explaining the ideas and early art which is normal and expected. On the beat boards it gives scenario descriptions that adds context to the images, which is fine and has some nice insights for fans. But, it then keeps switching, adding notes on the thoughts behind designs, then to lore for things like early character art. These for me don’t add anything because it feels like adding text for the sake of it. The notes are so brief, you can skip them entirely and not feel like you’re missing anything, they also aren't on every piece of art, indicating the lack of need to have them. You'll then get to more pages that switch back to the thoughts of the team and no mention of lore at all. The sporadic changes are strange, because if you can’t structure it, either be an art and lore book, or an art and behind the scenes book. While there are moments of good insights here, a lot of the notes feel generic and aren’t interesting, at least to me. I did feel like skipping past the random bits of text after a while, which isn’t a good thing. This is made more disappointing due to the fact the game was in development for a decade, there should be a lot more of note to say. Credits It continues to get worse now as I move onto credits. In the foreword a bunch of praise is given to the artists and yet they failed this part of the review for me. They didn’t quite hit worse case scenario and not mention their names at all, but they didn’t do well either. Some books only list the artists at the back of the book, sometimes the start, but at least on their own page. This book though, as seen below, puts them in the corner of a page at the start that many would flip straight past. Pages like this include the publisher and book info, so people don’t pay attention. The fact this is all they got, only to praise them a couple of pages later isn’t good. Again, keeping consistent in their odd choices for this book, the page next to it is completely free of text. Why wouldn’t you put all their names here in larger font to pay them the respect they deserve? I wish I could say this is the strangest move by the designers, but that is next. Use of Space The layouts of the pages in this book are a complete disaster. It’s as if they crammed as many pieces of art in as possible, some overlapping poorly too, and as they were ready to approve the book, someone said, "Ah wait, we forgot to add text!". Then, rather than add some more pages, they just shoved it in wherever it would fit, even sideways. In the cases of the environmental and key art, on top of images. This wasn’t thought through, it’s messy, doesn’t read well and is again inconsistent. These books aren’t small, so when reading text placed sideways, it’s not convenient to rotate the entire book over and over again. So, it’s either spin the book, or give yourself a sore neck from cranking it constantly. Both ways too, which is where more inconsistency comes in, as they turned text clockwise and anti-clockwise, it’s bewildering. There are so many examples of them cramming text in, on some pages, the placement works, but for the most part it’s awful. The places where they put text in the image though is even worse. Some have a bit in a bottom corner which is completely fine, but on others, the text is placed toward the centre and is very distracting. Double page spreads even put text inside the image, but there is blank space above and below the art where this could have gone. Below are examples of the poor text placements as mentioned. To take it back to the artists, it becomes even more of a disservice, because not only are they hidden away, but some of their art has some text slapped on it. The opportunity here to their benefit, was to swap the rather dull text with their names, because if you are going to squeeze in any text, at least have it be the artist credits, it would take up less space too. If they didn’t want to credit the artists, then I think they should have removed a lot of the text entirely. There are a lot of artbooks that don’t have text at all, or only a little and as a choice and it can work. I think that would have better in this case, because it’s placed poorly and often offers very little anyway. Ignoring the text though, the image placement isn’t great either. Things don’t need to be organised in a uniform way, but this does look like a child’s sticker book in places, not on every page, but on enough to really notice it. They tried something here, but they have missed the mark massively. Value I use Amazon for price checks to stay consistent, but you may find better prices elsewhere. In the UK just after release it was £30 with a discount and £45 at full price, which is the normal amount for an artbook. In the US it’s $50 at full retail price, again, nothing unusual here. This is expected for a full sized Dark Horse release, so nothing to point out here. Verdict As an artbook, I can’t say I’m impressed. They had 2 great ingredients, Dark Horse and a huge amount of art. The execution though is far from ideal. It’s a pain to read if you commit to doing so and if you want the 10 year background and details of this game, you won’t get that from reading it anyway. Big fans and people after a reference book for fantasy art may find value here. As a fan of the art, it leaves less of a bad taste in my mouth because they put so much of it in. Regardless of this though, full retail price feels too high because of how messy it is, so a reduced price is the way to go if you like the art style. For those that are interested in The Art of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, you can use the links below to purchase the book. Tags; Based On: #DragonAgeTheVeilguard Series: #DragonAge Publisher: #DarkHorse Studio: #BioWare #EA

Book Details ISBN: 978-1616554620/ 978-1506721934 Publisher: Dark Horse Page Count: 182 Format: Hardcover Publication Date : First Edition - 23/09/2014 (September 23rd 2014) Second Edition - 05/10/2021 (September 5th 2021) Other Editions: Second Edition Order the second edition of the book here; About The Legend of Korra: The Art of the Animated Series - Book Two: Spirits take readers behind the scenes of the animated series' return for its second season. The follow up to Avatar: The Last Airbender from Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko can be explored through its artwork and insights in this release. This hardcover book from Dark Horse showcases the world of Korra with concept art, storyboards, animation exploration, and more. Fans of the show can see the work produced by the team for each episode of her adventure. A second edition was later released by Dark Horse, making the book available to buy again. Preview Categories Tags Based On: #TheLegendOfKorra Series: #AvatarTheLastAirbender Publisher: #DarkHorse Studio: #Nickelodeon #NickelodeonAnimationStudio Platform: #TV Genre: #Action #Comedy #Fantasy

July 11th 2025 This week on The Artbook Collector YouTube channel is a look at The Legend of Korra: The Art of the Animated Series - Book Two: Spirits ! This hardcover book from Dark Horse showcases the art for the second series of the animated show, The Legend of Korra. Inside is a dive into the concept art, sketches, storyboards, illustrations, animation exploration, and more, making it perfect for fans that want to see how the visuals came together for the show. The artwork covers the characters, creatures, and settings the series visits, broken down into chapters for each episode. The book seen in the preview was the original release from 2014, a second edition was released with a new cover in 2021, also by Dark Horse. This was the case for all 4 books in the series, as well as the artbook for the original show, Avatar: The Last Airbender. The Legend of Korra first aired in April of 2012 on Nickelodeon, ending with its final episode of season 4, known as Book Four: Balance, in December of 2014. Set 70 years after Avatar, The Last Airbender, the show follows Korra who is the new Avatar, able to manipulate all four elements; water, air, fire and earth. The series also takes the timeline into an era of developing technology, with steampunk-style cities and vehicles, bringing with it a more mature tone than its predecessor. The show was well received too and Korra remains a fan favourite in the inverse of elemental bending. This interested can order the second edition of The Legend of Korra: The Art of the Animated Series - Book Two: Spirits here; Tags; #TheLegendOfKorra #AvatarTheLastAirbender #DarkHorse #Nickelodeon #NickelodeonAnimationStudio

July 10th 2025 After being announced at Star Wars Celebration Japan this year, the upcoming artbook for the Star Wars series Andor has been given a new official release date. The Art of Star Wars: Andor from Abrams books was initially announced for March 2026 at the event, as reported here , but was not given a specific date. Now though, it has one and it comes with a small delay, as it is set for release on May 19th 2026. The hardcover book will come with 272 pages and is being authored by Phil Szostak, who also worked on previous Star Wars artbooks. The short delay since being announced in April isn't much of a surprise, as The Art of Star Wars: The Acolyte was given a new date of October 7th at the same event, but was also delayed last month, now coming on January 13th 2026. The Art of Star Wars: Andor book cover The Art of Star Wars: Andor will dive into the concept art for the characters, locations, ships, key frames, and more. As well as this, the book features a look at the production art and props, along with interviews and insights from the creative team. It will cover the development of both seasons of the show too, from the release of Rogue One, to finishing season two. The artists that work on Star Wars are some of the best in the industry and that translates to the quality of the artbooks too, each doing their work justice with great presentation. The last artbook release for the live-action Star Wars projects was The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season Two, which was released in 2022. The books have been curiously absent since, skipping Season 3, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ashoka and the first season of Andor. It was revealed last summer that The Art of Star Wars: The Acolyte was coming, a somewhat odd choice given the lower viewing figures comparatively to the previously mentioned shows. This new artbook for Andor will cover both seasons of the show though, plugging the gap and bringing art to the fans of its first 12 episodes. Strangely, the book is not yet available to pre-order everywhere, but an order can be placed with Abrams themselves . The book can only be found on Amazon via a direct link, as it is currently hidden from the search. Expect this to change soon now that a set date has been given for release. First premiering in 2022, Star Wars: Andor became a critically acclaimed Disney+ series that follows Cassian Andor at the start of the rebellion, showing his journey 5 years before appearing the in the movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. It's a slightly darker take for the Star Wars universe, featuring themes of rebellion and oppression in a politically driven story. The show features a lot of characters and locations that makes it perfect for the artbook treatment. Any future changes for the book will be shared here and those thinking about buying The Art of Star Wars: Andor can wishlist it below; Tags; #AbramsBooks #StarWars #Disney #Lucasfilm #StarWarsAndor #Delay

July 10th 2025 Last month was set to be the release of the English edition of the artbook for Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. Scheduled to be published on June 24th, The Art of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty was mysteriously out of stock on all websites, with no word on why from the publisher Udon Entertainment. This doesn't happen very often, while delays are all too common, having the release date come and go with no copies actually being available is very odd. That was the case here though, with only two websites, Amazon US and Barnes & Noble, listing the book with a later date of November 4th, 5 months later. It doesn't help that despite being one of the many artbooks being localised for the West by Udon, it's also not listed on their website. I reached out to Udon Entertainment by email to get a new release date and they have confirmed the book will be coming in November. However, those wanting the book may have noticed that there are two released dates that can be found online, the other being August 5th. The Art of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty book cover Amazon US and Barnes and Noble both have the November 4th date up, as well as other websites too, including German website Thalia and KulturKaufhaus. On UK sites the new date is August 5th, as it is in some other European countries, which is strangely seen on other Amazon sites, so even the biggest seller has conflicting information. Why they have this new date isn't clear, especially when it is repeated by different sellers, but expect that to change soon. More transparency from artbook publishers about delays would be helpful, but that's unfortunately not the world we live in. At the very least it is still coming, previously a concern as books that missed their release in the past before getting a new date were cancelled entirely. The Art of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will feature a look at the concept art and character profiles for the fantasy RPG from developer Team NINJA and publisher Koei Tecmo. It will showcase the designs for the characters, world, enemies, weapons, and more. This 192-page hardcover version of the book has been translated into English and comes 2 years after the Japanese paperback original from Kadokawa. The game was released on March 3rd 2023 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. It is set in 184CE, during the collapse of the Han Dynasty, but the game presents a dark demon-filled version of these events. It's a 'Soulslike' game with a tough parry-based combat system and received positive reviews when it launched. The game sold over a million units in its first month, a huge success for the team. Future updates for the book will be reported here and when it arrives it will also be joining to collection for review. Those interested in ordering The Art of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty can do so below; Tags; #UdonEtnertainment #WoLongFallenDynasty #KoeiTecmo #TeamNinja #Delay

February 11th 2025 Arcane hit Netflix in 2021 and was an instant hit. The story and characters are a key aspect to its success, but the visuals are another huge part. The high-quality mix of animation with the use of both 3D and 2D by French studio Fortiche, in partnership with Riot Games, makes it stand out from other animated projects. It only made sense then, that an artbook be made and that book, The Art and Making of Arcane , came to fruition and is now here. It was released in December of 2024, by either Insight Editions or Titan Books, depending on where you are from. The book was number one Amazon lists before being released and is still unavailable due to selling out on pre-orders alone. Two months later, some people are unfortunately still waiting on copies, an indication of the demand for more Arcane. Reprints are continuing though for those interested in grabbing a copy. But does it deliver? I will give my thoughts on the book through the usual 5 points; build quality, content, credits, use of space and value. You can also find a flip through preview and page photos below too. Build Quality This is a large book, slightly bigger than a typical artbook and comes with a hardcover. Books from Insight Editions/ Titan Books almost always come with a dust jacket too, but this one is more unique as it is made from acetate. I like this inclusion, it really makes the book pop from a distance as the acetate makes the colour bright and loud. It does feel odd to leave it on while reading the book though, so I opt to remove it. The cover underneath, as seen in the video, inverts the white and pink. It has over 200 pages with solid binding, so I have no concerns about the book coming apart. They used matte paper for the pages, less common than the usual gloss paper found in most artbooks. This doesn’t really change anything for me, some people feel gloss paper makes a book feel higher in quality, but I’m happy with either. Content With the book you also get some extras inside; a map, wanted poster, blueprints, a letter and a paint stencil. These are nice little extras, done for parts of the show as fan service, which I appreciate. Though I don’t review the art itself, what you get in the book is superb as expected. You can’t create a show like Arcane if that isn’t the case after all. The matte paintings are standouts for me, as is the unused character art. I will speak to what is covered in the book, as the art is of course subjective, though if you're checking out this review, I'm guessing you're going to like what you see too! You get a wide range of art types here which is nice, such as early sketches, developed art, final renders, matte paintings and storyboards. Every aspect is covered, including some behind the scenes photos. The art is not just for the show though, you also get a little for the game the show is based on, League of Legends, and also ‘Get Jinxed’, a short animation made by Fortiche prior to Arcane. The art filling the book is in no particular order either. Most books are split into chapters for the art, whereas this does the chapters for different parts of the shows creation. While that can coincide with certain concept types, like character art, the book as whole mixes it up. Pages can jump between not only different focuses, but between different episodes and seasons too. It’s chaotic in that sense, but I feel it works. As this is also a ‘making of’ book, there is a lot of reading. What I liked is that it’s a deep dive into everything. From how Riot and Fortiche came together, earlier projects and style, to making the music, animation process and integration with the game. It is well written, covers a lot of ground and includes insights from the makers of the show. It’s a great example of how to do a book like this, the balance of artwork and behind the scenes commentary is well executed. My only minor complaint with the text is that I feel some paragraphs need to end on the page. In one instance, a page starts and ends midway through sentences. This breaks up the flow of reading and then enjoying the art (or vice versa), because you either have to abandon the reading to take in the page, or finish reading and turn back again. In another example the text doesn’t continue to the next page, the second half of a sentence picks up 6 pages later. I turned expecting to finish what I was reading, but got full pages of art instead, 2 of which are fold-outs. It’s not the end of the world, but something I feel could have been avoided. Credits The artists aren’t credited on each page here, so the next best option for an artbook is to list the names in the front or back. They opted to list them at the back, but unfortunately, they list the team members in an endless stream of names in columns. This means you cannot identify the roles of each person without looking it up yourself online. Use of Space This is an interesting aspect of this book, because for the most part it works, but there are moments it feels over designed. The pages are full, which is what you want and so I’m happy to see this. The book does cover both seasons of the show after all, so there shouldn’t be a lack of content and it delivers on this front. The issue for me comes with the design. It is often interesting, with a more unconventional way of showing the art, such as integrating it into the backgrounds, slightly rotating pieces and more. The approach was clearly to make this look like Jinx has got her hands on it and scribbled all over it. It’s a little messy, sometimes like a scrapbook and has pink and blue doodles/ graffiti throughout. But, it does feel overused in places and gets in the way. These doodles don’t restrict themselves to just the backgrounds, but are often placed on top of the art too. This isn’t always too bad, but every now and again it can feel too much, which is a shame. The art is fantastic, so I feel like it should get all the room it needs to breathe and the addition of these scribbles isn’t improving it. I like how it keeps the book interesting, but it needed to be dialled back a little. Value The Art and Making of Arcane is currently unavailable as mentioned before due to selling out. Some online stores note they are expecting stock February or March. It is listed online though at full retail price as £45/ $60, which is a standard price for an artbook. For the size of the book and the amount of content, I feel this is very reasonable, especially as it’s not often books are sold at this price and if they are, you can shop around to find a better deal. Digital copies are available at a lower price too, for those that don’t want to wait. Verdict For fans of Arcane, this book offers a great look at the art and work that went into creating the show. A lot more is shared here than I was anticipating, which is brilliant for those that like to get into the nerdy details about the process of putting a show together. The design of the book can be too much in places, but it is more interesting to flip through than plain white pages and orderly image and text placement. The added physical extras and dust jacket make this book feel like you are getting some extra bang for your buck too. Overall, despite some shortcomings, I would feel comfortable recommending this book to someone that enjoyed Arcane and may like the details inside, but maybe less so for people that only want to see the art. For those interested, you can find The Art and Making of Arcane here here; Tags; Based On: #Arcane Series: #Arcane #LeagueOfLegends Publisher: #InsightEditions #TitanBooks Studio: #Fortiche #RiotGames

July 8th 2025 Giving people another reason to think about the Roman Empire, Dark Horse are back with another video game artbook reveal. They today unveiled that they are bringing fans of the Anno series a behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming entry, Anno 117: Pax Romana, later this year. The Art of Anno 117: Pax Romana is set for release on December 9th and is made in partnership with the game's developer Ubisoft Mainz. The 232-page book will feature a look at the concept art for Ancient Rome, going back more than 2,000 years in the past. It will also include commentary from the creative team, providing insights into the development of the city-building game. This book will be released in the 9" x 12" hardcover format we expect from Dark Horse, with an RRP of $54.99 The following statement from the Art Director Reiko Groß was also included in the press release; “This Artbook is a testament to four years of research, development, and to an extraordinary creative journey: One that produced thousands of sketches and illustrations, shaping a fresh interpretation of the Roman Empire, in an unprecedented scale. Each page captures the evolution of our vision and the dedication, ambition and love behind it." Anno 117: Pax Romana is a real-time strategy game that is coming on November 13th for PC, Xbox Series S/X and PlayStation 5. This is the 8th title in the series and set the furthest back in time, covering a 200 year period of the Roman Empire. It offers player the option to choose between ruling from Latium for the Empire, or from Albion for the Celtic Kingdom, acting as governor for their chosen side. While building and growing their empire, players can choose to pursue economic growth or gain more power to achieve success. The first entry in the series, Anno 1602, was developed in 1998 by Max Design, making it a more than 20 year old franchise. The last release, Anno 1900 from Ubisoft Blue Byte, was launched in 2019 to positive reviews and increased sales, leading to multiple awards. The Art of Anno 117: Pax Romana book cover Previous artbooks for the Anno have been either digitally released or, in the case of Anno 1800, only included in a collector's edition of the game. Now that an artbook will be available to everyone, it will no doubt be on the radar for fans wanting to add art for the series to their collection. Like these previous collections of artwork, expect The Art of Anno 117: Pax Romana to feature a lot of environmental art, including landscapes and the structures players can build from the time period. The book is coming just a month after game launches, so it will only be a short wait for players wanting more from the game after conquering its world as a governor. Future updates for the newly announced title will be shared here and expect a review too when the book joins the collection on December 9th. Tags; #Anno #Anno117 #Ubisoft #DarkHorse #Announcement

December 5th 2024 The popular game Cuphead made its return with an animated show on Netflix in 2022, titled 'The Cuphead Show!'. This made perfect sense because of the visual style of the game, going back to the vintage 1930’s look, with fun characters, rubber hose animations and painted backgrounds, The show was became popular among fans and picked up new ones too. As much as I wasn't the best at the game, I enjoyed the visuals a lot and this continued with the show. Games take so long to make now, it’s great Cuphead and his brother Mugman found life elsewhere. They returned again in this book, The Art of The Cuphead Show, released in September of 2024.   If you're reading this, you likely love the art too, so take this review as one of the book and how it presents that art to you, not a breakdown of the art itself. The art would get a 10/10 from me, but that's easy and subjective, you want to know if the book is worth picking up! This book was my first video review on YouTube, if interested, you can see my thoughts with a preview here. Build Quality This book is published by Dark Horse and if you buy artbooks, this will be a familiar name. They make a lot of artbooks, especially for video games, including The Art of Cuphead, but also for animation too. These are meat and potato books, there’s nothing fancy here, but they do it well. You can rely on the binding and they all come with a hardcover. What’s interesting here though, is the size. Dark Horse typically keep their books the same dimensions, but this one, like The Art of Cuphead for the original game, is a little bit smaller as seen below. I’m not sure why this is, but it still has over 250 pages. Content There is a lot here and it has everything I want to see, which is impressive considering it covers 3 seasons of a show. Early sketches, final designs, background art, storyboards and even some physical models. There’s nothing worse than opening a book looking for early ideas or what could have been, but just finding images of what you can see in the final product anyway. So this book is great for showing everything, from start to finish. That also includes a Lost Episodes chapter. These parts are often my favourite and in this book you get 10 pages of art and storyboards for episodes they didn’t make. As noted in the book, this was due only to the budget, not because they were not good enough. So it’s great to see them get some attention here. There are lots of insights from the team too, from how they worked together, why things were changed from the game and how individual episodes and characters came together. Fans of the show will find a lot to get into. Credits Each page and image is credited, so no complaints here. This is a big deal for people, especially the artists, so it’s great to see that they did right by them and let everyone know who did what, as this isn’t always the case. Use of Space As you can see in the previews the pages are packed. I would be pretty disappointed if there was empty space given how many episodes this book is covering, it would actually be impressive if they didn’t manage to fill them all! The layouts aren’t all the same either, which keeps it interesting and as chaotic as the show can be, a perfect choice for the book. The only minor complaint is there are a couple of instances where art cross the centre fold and you lose some of the image. Though it’s not often, it’s worth mentioning as no book can be perfect. Value The book cost me just over £30, which is normal for an artbook. But, there were stock issues for the UK at release as none was delivered here, so my copy was an import. Dark Horse did respond online to say stock was coming and it did eventually arrive. My American cousins across the pond could pick this up for around $35 at release, a little lower than a lot of artbooks. Prices have fluctuated as expected since release, but even at the full RRP prices, this is great value for money for the amount of content they included. Verdict It’s a solid book that crams a lot in and shares a lot of unseen material and ideas. This is great for not just fans of the show, but animation in general. I can also see this being great reference material for artists out there too. I could happily recommend this book to anyone interested. For those interested in The Art of The Cuphead Show, you can order it here and see the video below for more previews; Tags; Based On: #TheCupheadShow #Cuphead Series: #TheCupheadShow Publisher: #DarkHorse Studios: #LighthouseStudios

December 12th 2024 The third artbook for Cuphead from Dark Horse has a lot to live up to. After delivering on books for the original Cuphead and then The Cuphead Show, the characters are back for more in The Art of Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course . This covers the content of the DLC from Studio MDHR as well as some extras. Lets see if it lives up to its predecessors and delivers another example of how to please fans. You can also find a video review at the bottom of this page. I’m not going to critique the art, if you’re a Cuphead fan though, you’re likely here because you enjoy its hand drawn visuals in the vintage, rubber-hose art style. If you stumbled here by chance, you can see previews below. I am big fan of the style myself and seeing more of it is always welcome. It's fun, creative and is perfect on the page, in game and on the animated show, the art really works anywhere. Bringing it back for a modern audience was a brilliant idea that is well executed. Build Quality No surprises here, it’s a solid book. Artbook releases from Dark Horse are just another day in the office for them. It has a hardcover, strong binding and a good print quality as usual. I’ve always described them as meat and potatoes, nothing fancy, but they do it well. The only thing here of note, as with the artbooks for the original game and show, it is smaller in dimensions. Dark Horse have a standard size for their artbooks, I don’t know why, but they make them smaller for Cuphead. It is still a good size though, so nothing to worry about here. It also has a good page count at 272, which is more than most. The Cuphead book is a little smaller than a standard Dark Horse artbook as seen above. Content When looking up the book, the high page count was a surprise, this is DLC for the game after all, a good size one, but 272 is still a lot. I wondered if they would show more art for stuff from the first game, but instead they do something more interesting which I appreciate. All the art here is new and for the DLC content. You won’t find art for Cuphead and Mugman, this book is a follow up to the first one, just like the DLC was to the game. What they did instead was include a section at the back highlighting merch, practically filmed trailers and more. Not only is there enough art here to make a reasonable sized book anyway, but this additional content takes it from just an artbook, to a celebration of Cuphead. Like before they include early sketches, storyboards, animation ideas, painted backgrounds and more. Ignoring the merch section, they still have a wealth of content here and they are not holding back with it. There’s no padding, nothing is enlarged to fill more space and increase the pages count either. Go to any page for a boss and not only do you get the art for them, but also a lot of unused designs and animation ideas. A lot of books will show you a few variants of a character and the final design, but this one gives you a huge look behind the curtain for every character. If you’re a fan of the art like myself, this book gives you a lot to pour over. On top of unused designs for characters in the game, there are sections on unused levels, bosses and NPC’s. They really do show all here, Cuphead artbooks are great for this, it’s definitely a book aiming to please. That’s not all though, you get a look behind the scenes at the model building for the practical elements in the game, which is just as interesting and allows the talents of the model makers to be seen too. The game was a labour of love, making this book feels very much the same. The text throughout gives you insights on the characters, how and why the designs changed, how things were done in the game and more. There are no generic text descriptions, they show you the art and then tell you all the interesting details to go along with it. Credits Onto credits and this is the only negative I could find because not every image is credited. There are notes throughout letting you know who worked on art on that page, but it isn’t consistent throughout. Everyone gets a mention, it’s just that names aren’t tied to every image. There are credits in the back of the book though too. This isn’t a huge negative, but worth pointing out. Use of Space As you have seen on the previews above, the pages are full. It’s not a surprise given how much they share. They could have made images larger and made the book over 300 pages if they wanted to, but I like that they didn’t because it doesn’t feel crowded and it’s very readable. The page layouts don’t repeat over and over either, so it keeps it more interesting. They had a vendetta against empty space and they filled it, without creating a unorganised mess. Value I go to Amazon for price checks for consistency and availability and this book is really making it hard not to buy. In the UK it is often under £30, which is a ridiculously low price. At full price it is £35 and even that, for what you are getting, is great value for money. In the US, the full price it is $40 and this is great too, I would have no problem handing over my money at this price point. Verdict This book then, in a year of strong releases in 2024, has come out swinging making a play for artbook of the year. They have given every fan of the game a lot to enjoy and at a price point that makes it hard to pass on. For any game, a book presented like this would be superb, but what makes this game special is the visuals. Again, this isn’t an art review, but if you like the game, it’s also because you like the art style and what they draw and paint is what you see on screen. So, while the art for other games isn’t always in the same style or translated well to the final product, here you know you’ll love every image on every page and that’s a unique situation for a video game artbook. In short, this comes highly recommended! It's great if you enjoy the game, suck at playing it but still enjoy the visuals or if you’re a fan of cartoons and animation in general. For those interested in the book, you can order it here and see the video below for more previews; Tags; Based On: #CupheadTheDeliciousLastCourse Series: #Cuphead Publisher: #DarkHorse Studio: #StudioMDHR

Book Details ISBN: 978-1869509026 Publisher: HarperCollins Page Count: 160 Format: Hardcover Publication Date: 28/10/2010 (October 28th 2010) Other Editions: N/A About District 9, from director Neil Blomkamp and Richard Taylor, was a huge hit that featured incredible visual design and special effects. The Art of District 9 showcases the work from Weta Workshop that went into creating that on screen, through props, concept art, and 3D models. This collection of art and photography covers the creatures known as 'Prawns', weapons, props, vehicles, locations, graphic design, and more. Throughout are also insights from the creative team, giving further details about how the movie and visuals were developed. This is the perfect companion to the movie for those wanting more from its world. Categories Tags Based On: #District9 Series: #District9 Publisher: #HarperCollins Studio: #WetaWorkshop #TriStarPictures #SonyPictures Platform: #Movies Genre: #SciFi #Action

July 4th 2025 A new artbook preview is on The Artbook Collector YouTube channel, this time for the return of Sam Wilson, Marvel Studios' Captain America: Brave New World - The Art of the Movie . Returning with another artbook that releases on July 8th, Marvel Studios shares the concept art, storyboards, developer insights, and more for the big screen debut of Anthony Mackie's role as Captain America. The 224-page book comes with a slipcase and 5 lithograph prints, the third in this format from the publisher. The art covers the characters, technology, villains, storyboards, and colour scripts, with a lot of interesting and strange ideas that never made it into the movie. The most notable inclusions here are looks at unused ideas and explorations of the villains. The Serpent Society was cut from the film, but the art here depicts each of them using technology to modify their bodies in extreme ways. The concept art for the leader are the most varied, with designs that resemble what we saw on screen, and other closer to his comic book depiction. There are a couple that go a step further though, incorporating exo-suits and even having his head split open in a horrifying way. The book has great content, but does come with its issues, such as the poor print quality of dark images, a bad font choice, and a price point that is hard to justify. You can read my full review with all the details here . Captain America: Brave New World was released on February 14th 2025 and follows Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) after her stepped into the role of Captain America in 2021. In the film, President Ross (Harrison Ford) pursues an adamantium agreement with other nations, only for things to go wrong as expected in the Marvel Universe. The film introduces two new alter egos as the antagonists, The Leader and Red Hulk, as well as bringing back some familiar faces too. The movie received mixed reviews and didn't make as much at box office as previous releases, no doubt to the disappointment of the studio. This book comes 5 months after the movies release, less time than previous entries. If you ware a fan of the movies though and enjoyed the preview, you can order Marvel Studios' Captain America: Brave New World - The Art of the Movie here; Tags; #CaptainAmerica #Marvel #MarvelStudios #MCU #CaptainAmericaBraveNewWorld #Disney #DisneyPlus

July 3rd 2025 Marvel Studios are back with another artbook, this time based the big screen debut of Sam Wilson’s Captain America, after stepping into the mantle in back in 2021. The movie brought back old faces, but also introduced new alter egos into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which always makes for an interesting collection of concept art. Marvel Studios' Captain America: Brave New World - The Art of the Movie is now here, offering a look at that art, with a release date of July 8th. I received a copy of the book and can now give my thoughts on the latest entry in the long running artbook series. As always, I will cover the 5 points you need to know about before buying; build quality, content, credits, use of space and value. You’ll see throughout the review that this one is a mixed bag, much more so than usual. Build Quality This book comes with a slipcase, now part of the newer format, and lithograph prints. The slipcase comes in at 30cm x 27cm and is a good quality too, strong and protective, not just decorative. It’s always nice when they are made like this, as it does give it a premium feel. The book itself is a 29cm x 24.5cm hardcover like before, even matching the previous books that were sold without a slipcase. The binding is strong as expected, although the paper quality isn’t as high as what you get in most artbooks. It’s not bad by any means, it’s just not as thick as what you will find elsewhere. Unfortunately, like the previous release Marvel Televisions’ Agatha All Along: The Art of the Series , the cover art on the book is not good. It’s not even art, it’s simply made to look like a folder for documents. This is a real shame, as previously these would feature an image from one of the studios’ artists and comes across as low effort. You can see this in the images below. Also like the last entries with this format, the prints are simply not good. Again, the images on them are dark and don’t take up the full space. They feel like filler to justify the price hike from $60 to $100, because a slipcase alone couldn’t do it. But they feel neither good in quality, nor something you would want to display, becoming a wasted opportunity when lithographs for other books on the market are much better. Content This is where things get interesting, because this book has some great content, things I’ve wanted to see return for a while, but is again plagued by previous problems that I struggle to overlook. Up front, the art here is superb, Marvel Studios continues to showcase the work of their talented team throughout. Although it is subjective and I don’t critique the art itself, if you liked the previous books or have seen art online, you will find more to pore over here. Ian Joyner, Jana Schirmer, Keith Christensen and the always fantastic Ryan Meinerding, who has his own Marvel artbook , are just some of the wonderful artists featured throughout. Marvel Studios' Captain America: Brave New World - The Art of the Movie features a look at the art for the characters, costumes, weapons, key frames and locations, what we have grown accustomed to with these books. However, there is more, as storyboards make their return which is a great inclusion, but more interestingly, colour scripts too. The storyboards are done in two ways, traditional sketches and 3D models, with the later being rarer for the series. Storyboards were a common feature in books for the Infinity Saga, but were left out of more recent releases, so seeing them here for the scenes with Sam and Red Hulk, especially with the use of simple 3D models, gives further insight into the creation process. The colour script is a most welcome addition, usually seen in artbooks based on animated movies, though in those cases it is often one spread, but here there are five. As mentioned in the commentary, they aren’t used much for live-action movies, making it a nice unique inclusion for this movie and artbook. It’s no secret that Brave New World underwent changes throughout its production, so I was curious to see what they would feature from before these shifts. I’m happy to say you get a lot of very different designs that never made it to the screen. Of course, you get the costume design for Captain America and the Falcon, along with location art and costumes for other characters, but seeing what could have been is the best part. The Serpent Society is the biggest inclusion of unused art, as it depicts the team with various abilities through technology infused with their bodies. This includes Cobra’s body stretching like a snake and Asp extending her jaw. It's fascinating to see what they removed and the willingness to share it is appreciated. Of course, the big one people will likely want to see the most is concept art for The Leader. As mentioned in my article highlighting his unused concepts , there is a lot of weird and wonderful art to enjoy, from comic accurate depictions, to body horror takes on his look. There is a lot for fans to explore and I could talk for a long time about the stuff shared, but I have to move onto an all too common problem with these books… print quality. Yet again, some of the images are too dark to see the detail in. Why this has continued to happen is bewildering, as it comes across as if they are sent to print without being checked. As always, the problem comes with dark clothing on a dark background, because it all smears together. Even black on black clothing hides any real detail and it feels like a disservice to the artists work. I don’t doubt it looks better on screen and we know from the Titan Books’ releases for the earlier artbooks that this can be improved greatly. Some pages here feel wasted, taken up by costume comparisons you can’t see clearly. Fortunately, there aren't as many like this as in previous books, but examples can be seen below. The commentary throughout from the creative team and artists offer insights about intent and ideas, making for an engaging read that adds a lot to the book. Marvel have always been very good with this, making sure the art takes centre stage, but having informative interviews that make you not want to skip past them. The problem again is that this book gets in its own way with the presentation, because the text is not the most clear to read. The font used is not consistent in its line weight, meaning that some parts of the letters are thicker than others. It’s often not too bad, but on some of the coloured backgrounds, it doesn’t look great. It’s a very strange decision that has never been an issue before and is the second instance of the designers seemingly not checking the visual clarity of the content. The third is coming shortly too. Credits This is always short and sweet for a Marvel artbook, as every image is credited on the page with a surname, with a full list of the artists in the back that notes each page they are featured on. It’s a great approach to doing this, one they have always done, so another brilliant job in this regard. Use of Space Marvel Studios' Captain America: Brave New World - The Art of the Movie is another solid example on how to fill the pages of a book. Every page has a clear layout and makes good use of the space to fit in as much as possible. Wasted space is a pet hate of mine, but I never worry about this with Marvel. But now we come to the third case of the presentation getting in the way of the work that went into the book, because there is image loss in the centre fold. There are pieces of art that cross the centre, some as entire double page spreads, and you lose a good chunk of the image here early on in the book. It is pretty common issue in artbooks, but some are worse than others, with some doing a great job at minimising or avoiding it completely. At the back of this one it is much less of a problem, so not a consistent issue, but one that is highly frustrating. It's confusing not just for this book specifically, but artbooks in general and should have been resolved a long time ago by publishers. You can see an example below, who knows if Sam is even in the picture, because a part of the image is swallowed up in the fold. Value A big sticking points for the new releases with a slipcase is the price. An RRP price of $100/ £89.99 is simply unacceptable in my opinion. For a 224 page book with thinner paper, continued dark print problems, and the low quality lithographs, it’s just too much, even if the slipcase is better than most. This is going to be the problem with the series in all of my reviews, because it never needed to be this way. When you can pre-order 2 artbooks based on video games or movies with a higher page count and thicker gloss paper for the same price as this book, it’s hard to justify. There is a silver lining to this though, as it looks like some retailers are in agreement about the price, with some dropping it pre-emptively. I use Amazon to stay consistent and have seen that at the time of writing this, before the books official release, it’s 7% off in the US and a surprising 25% off in the UK. Of course, the drop in America isn’t huge, but the Agatha artbook is already 27% off after releasing just a month ago. Bargain hunting or waiting out might be the way to go if you are looking to add this to your collection and don't have $100 to burn. Verdict Marvel Studios' Captain America: Brave New World - The Art of the Movie is a book full of incredible art and insights, but some of its presentation lets it down. If you are able to see beyond the affected pages though, it has some of the most interesting early looks and unused ideas of the recent releases in the series. Fans will no doubt love these inclusions, but as an overall package, it is hard to recommend unless you find a good discount. If you are interested though, you can order the book here; Tags; #CaptainAmerica #CaptainAmericaBraveNewWorld #Marvel #MarvelStudios #MarvelCinematicUniverse

July 2nd 2025 DOOM fans wanting more Doom Slayer and demons have something to look forward to at the end of the year, as Dark Horse revealed today that they have a new artbook coming based on DOOM: The Dark Ages. Shared on social media, the publisher announced that The Art of DOOM: The Dark Ages is on its way in partnership with the game's developer, id Software. The 216-page hardcover book will showcase the art teams work, with a look at the demons, characters, weapons, environments, and more from the game. It will also feature commentary from the developers to, giving further insights into the creation of the blood-soaked first person shooter. The book is set to go on sale online and in stores on December 2nd 2025. The Art of DOOM: The Dark Ages book cover A Bethesda Gear Store Variant will also be available if you order from there directly and comes with an alternative cover. This will be sold for the same price of $54.99 as the standard retail version. This announcement, though very exciting, is hardly a surprise and was even featured in my Artbook Predictions for 2025 Video Games  article. The reason being was that the two previous entries in the series also received an artbook. The Art of DOOM  and The Art of DOOM Eternal  were both published by Dark Horse too, as well as a number of other Bethesda published games, making this announcement a matter of when, not if. The game and series has a lot of fans, so there is no doubt this new artbook will be sought after by players. This is also helped by the fact that the game director, Hugo Martin, has been releasing videos on social media highlighting the work of the art team, no doubt catching the eye of those that may be less familiar with the world of concept art. Over the last couple of days, the artists have also been given the greenlight to share the work they did for the game too, so be sure to head to social media and check out the wealth of incredible concept art already released online. DOOM: The Dark Ages was released on May 15th on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/ X by id Software and publisher Bethesda. The FPS series took players to a medieval setting for this entry in the series, serving as a prequel to 2016's DOOM and giving the back story on the Doom Slayer. It also slowed down the gameplay, going from high speed movement and agility, to heavier and more aggressive combat. It also added in more exploration and gameplay features, such as controlling a giant mech and flying a dragon-like creature. The Art of DOOM: The Dark Ages will certainly be joining the collection here, so you can expect previews and review on release. Those that are also interested in the book can be pre-order it below for its release on December 2nd; Tags; #Doom #DoomTheDarkAges #idSoftware #Bethesda #DarkHorse

July 2nd 2025 Superman is headed to the big screen this summer and will be the big screen debut of the new DC Universe from James Gunn. Although DC Studios is starting fresh, it now looks like their approach to artbooks has remained the same, with another coming later this year. The upcoming book, Superman: The Art and Making of the Film will give fans a look behind-the-scenes at the movie, providing insights into its production, with set photos and concept art. It comes from publisher Abrams Books and will be released on November 18th 2025 as a 176-page hardcover. The book is authored by James Field, who also also worked on The Art of Batman, and will give the history of the creation for the movie, from early ideas to its post-production. Superman actor David Corenswet provides the foreword, with James Gunn giving the book introduction. Interviews with the creative team will also be featured throughout. The concept art is confirmed to focus on the characters and locations, though you can likely expect a look at key frames, weapons, technology, and possibly storyboards too. The movie has a large cast of characters, so there's a good chance there will be a lot of space dedicated to the costumes of Superman, Green Lantern, Lex Luthor, Hawkgirl, Mr. Terrific, and more. Set photography is likely to be featured heavily as mentioned in the description of the book. For movie buffs this is never a bad thing, but it's worth mentioning as 'Art and Making of' for movie artbooks can mean different things. Some are the written 'Making of' and have a heavy focus on concept art, like a typical 'Art of' book. However, others are closer to a 50/50 split between the two, like the previous DC movie releases. They of course feature a lot of art, but there will be those that want this and those that don't. Based on the previous books from the studio, I'd expect it to be an even split. Releasing on July 11th, Superman establishes a new on-screen direction for the character and his world, delivering a much lighter tone with comedy too. David Corenswet dons the red cape this time as the Man of Steel, with Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Holt as the iconic villain Lex Luthor. It features a large cast of more comic book characters, including Krypto the Superdog, quickly establishing a large universe for fans to enjoy. Those that want more from the upcoming movie can order Superman: The Art and Making of the Film here; Tags; #DCUniverse #Superman #DC #WarnerBros #AbramsBooks

July 1st 2025 Marvel was looking to break it streak of missing its last 25 original release dates in a row with the upcoming artbook for Thunderbolts. However, it seems they couldn't let that happen, as now it has become number 26, fortunately, it's a very short delay. Due on August 26th, Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts: The Art of the Movie has been moved out by a week to September 2nd 2025. While this is not much to report on, it has become almost impressive how unreliable Marvel has become at setting a date and hitting it with their artbooks, despite being a publisher for over 80 years. This book now joins Marvel Studios' Deadpool & Wolverine: The Art of the Movie , which was also only delayed once, and with any luck it remains that way. While I have been tough on the publisher because of this, it is because the artbooks have often been some of the best on the market, yet their handling of them is poor at best. They are playing catch up though, as this is still set to release 5 months after the movies hit cinemas, a much shorter wait that others, which in some cases have come 2 years later. Artbook delays can happen for a large variety of reasons, including licensing issues, schedule issues, production problems, editorial changes, changes in content, and more. Unfortunately, when you have fallen deep into double digits, in this case being the entire series of Multiverse Saga artbooks, it sadly becomes expected. At least from the outside, it comes across as a lack of care without any course correcting. I doubt there is a lack of care, but it is an optical nightmare in the eyes of collectors. Again, this does sound harsh, but they have a proven track record with the Infinity Saga that they can release larger books much closer to the release of their projects, so the sudden change is confusing. I hope the improvements continue though and that the time between the studios releases and the publication of artbooks continues to shorten, at the very least for the movies. Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts: The Art of the Movie will come with a slipcase and lithograph prints, retailing at $100. The book itself will feature 224 pages of art for the characters, locations and key frames. Expect a large focus on the characters in this one, as the settings of the movie aren't as cosmic or strange as others in the MCU, but also because the movie's focus was building this new team and the debut of Sentry. The movie itself didn't perform as well as hoped at the box office, but was praised by fans as a stronger entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This book then should be on the radar for those that want more from Yelena, Bucky, Bob, Red Guardian, Ghost, John Walker, and Taskmaster. Those interested can pre-order Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts: The Art of the Movie for when it arrives on September 2nd here; Tags; #Marvel #MarvelStudios #MCU #Thunderbolts #Disney

January 5th 2025 Marvel Studios' Secret Invasion: The Art of the Series was listed a long time ago as part of the ongoing series of artbooks from Marvel. But, it has been a long time now since the June 2023 premier of the show and the artbook is yet to be released. At this point it may be safe to say it's not going to. The above image is all the has been released for the book, which is always an indication the book is not near release. Marvel do little in the way of promoting their books, so no previews have been shown either. Though artists have released art on their person social media accounts. I have a little insider information on the book, having spoken to an artist that worked on the project. They said they they are usually asked to do interviews for the artbooks, but was not done so for Secret Invasion, a further indication this is not coming. The release date was for September 2024 and it was easy to be sceptical of this release, given that other artbooks in the series were all being delayed while this remained in place. What was different about this book though, was that it wasn't pushed, the publication date came and went and it was simply listed as out of stock or unavailable. This is still the case on the websites where it is still listed and no update can be found online, implying this has been silently cancelled, but retailers may be unaware. There is a precedent for this, books were once listed for the Daredevil and Jessica Jones series when they were on Netflix many years ago. The books were delayed before becoming unavailable and then removed entirely from online retailers. It is a shame this seems to have been cancelled, the Marvel Studios artbooks are high quality and show concepts that didn't make it, as well as offering behind the scenes information. Marvel Studios' She-Hulk: Attorney at Law managed to avoid cancellation and the book for Loki Season 2 is still listed too. No artbook is coming for Echo as it currently stands. Tags; Based On: #SecretInvasion Series: #MarvelCinematicUniverse Publisher: #Marvel Studio: #MarvelStudios #Disney

Book Details ISBN: 978-1302962791 Publisher: Marvel Page Count: 224 Format: Slipcase Hardcover Publication Date : 03/06/2025 (June 3rd 2025) Other Editions: N/A About The Marvel Studios' artbooks continue with another entry for the Disney+ show, Agatha All Along. This is the first entry to include the new 'Marvel Television' branding and comes with a slipcase and lithograph prints. The book is full of art for the characters, costumes, settings and key moments, with comments from the visual development team throughout. Preview Read my review . Categories Tags Based On: #AgathaAllAlong Series: #MarvelCinematicUniverse #MCU #Agatha Publisher: #Marvel Studio: #MarvelStudios #Disney Platform: #TV #DisneyPlus Genre: #SuperHero #Fantasy

Book Details ISBN: 978-1419775628 Publisher: Abrams Books Page Count: 224 Format: Hardcover Publication Date : 17/06/2025 (June 17th 2025) Other Editions: N/A Order on Amazon here; About The new series from Marvel picked up where the original series finished in 1997, staying true to the original, while giving new energy to animated show, and now fans can see how the art team helped make that happen. X-Men '97: The Art and Making of the Animated Series features storyboards, character sketches, vehicle designs, stills, frames, cels, and more for the series. It also includes insights from the creators of the show, perfect for fans wanting to know more about the return of the classic series. Preview Book Review - X-Men '97: The Art and Making of the Animated Series Categories Tags Based On: #XMen97 Series: #XMenTheAnimatedSeries #Marvel Publisher: #AbramsBooks Studio: #MarvelStudiosAnimation #MarvelStudios #MCU #Disney Platform: #TV #DisneyPlus Genre: #SuperHero

July 1st 2025 After its hugely popular run in the 90’s and introduction of the iconic theme song, X-Men: The Animated Series became a fond memory of those that grew up with the show. However, Marvel brought the show to Disney+ and it found new life and new fans. But to take that a step further, they revived the series, continuing the story under the title, X-Men ’97. Marvel Studios are no strangers to artbooks, they have released a huge amount for their projects in the past, including one for the original series, so it made sense that there would be another. X-Men '97: The Art and Making of the Animated Series was published on July 1st by Abrams Books and a copy has joined the collection, so now I can jump in and give my thoughts on the book. As always, I’ll go over build quality, content, credits, use of space and value, so you can find out everything you need to know before deciding to buy. Build Quality This book comes as a hardcover, in a landscape format and a good size too, coming in at 31cm x 26cm. It features 224 pages of good quality gloss paper held in with solid binding. Nothing unusual here for Abrams Books, who have been making artbooks for a long time, so there is very little to speak about in this section, as it is all positive! Content X-Men '97: The Art and Making of the Animated Series is split into two sections, the history and making of the show, and the art. I like the separation here, it establishes how the show came about, then becomes a showcase of hundreds of images that brought the characters and world to the screen. The early section of the book is text heavy, though includes some images too, and focuses on the history of the original show and how the revival came to fruition. It then highlights the writing, art style, animation, FX, cast, and the shows opening for X-Men ’97. It’s a well written and interesting deep dive that fans will no doubt appreciate. It also includes comments from artists, creators and producers, each offering their perspective on what it was like bringing back the iconic series. It's worth noting that the writer Beau DeMayo is mentioned very briefly, not unexpected following his firing after working in the first season. The following art section dedicates each chapter to an episode, a common approach for artbooks based on shows. In these chapters you get sketches, storyboards, background art, costume designs, stills and animation exploration. As well as this, members of the X-Men team get character profiles too, describing their history and personalities, followed by art dedicated to their designs. The highlights for me in these sections are for the core team, as the costume art, and in some cases a look at different art styles, provide a look at what wasn’t used, often the most interesting part of any artbook. It’s just a shame that more early art wasn't used for other characters and backgrounds too. There is some other early art peppered throughout though that shows the artists working out how the animation and powers will look on screen, this is a great inclusion that you don't often see. Another nice section is for Episode 4: Lifedeath – Part 1, as it highlights the video game arcade art style after Jubilee is pulled into a Motendo by Mojo. Many artbooks based on 2D animated movies and shows lean on screenshots to fill pages, however this book does a much better job than most at including a lot of early art. Some of the images included do look like what you see on screen as that is the nature of art for an animation, but I appreciate that it isn’t dominated by this like others have been. An artbook trend that is seen here, one that I’m not a fan of, is making the page colour black for those dedicated to background art. It’s not consistent, but it tends to be the case that most are designed this way for this release. I don’t know why this has become a thing in artbooks, usually seen in those based on video games, but it doesn’t benefit an image that is dark in colour. I understand wanting to change the colour, but I personally don’t think that black is the right move. An example can be seen below. You also don’t get much in the way of commentary on individual pieces of art, there are a few bits here and there, but it’s not often. Although this would usually be a drawback, as the art follows the written 'making of' the series, it’s not really an issue with this release, as their artistic approach has already been covered. Credits The book does a fantastic job with crediting the artists, as each page includes the artists names with a number that matches those alongside each image. Marvel has always done right by their artists in this regard, so it’s a big positive to see them carry that on here. Use of Space As you can see in the previews, the pages are filled and no space is wasted. Again, this has always been consistent with a Marvel artbook, but is also expected for an animated show. With 224 pages and a show made up entirely of artwork, there would hardly be an excuse to not fill the pages up! Art that crosses the centre fold does have some unfortunate image loss, though there are very few images that spread across more than one page. As much as I like to see a large piece of work from an artist, I do like that it wasn’t done often because this is a common issue in artbooks. Value X-Men '97: The Art and Making of the Animated Series has an RRP of $50/ £40, which is standard pricing for an artbook in 2025, so nothing unusual here. I have no problem with this as the full price, but we all know that products are rarely sold at the top price point. Using Amazon as I always do for comparisons, in the US the book is already 13% off on its day of release. In the UK, that is increased to 21% off, coming in at just over £30, an already good deal for the book. Of course, these prices are temporary and will fluctuate, but it shows that this book can be picked up at a lower price if you shop around. For a large 224 page hardcover, $40/ £30 is a great deal for fans. Verdict X-Men '97: The Art and Making of the Animated Series delivers a fantastic history and behind the scenes dive into the show, followed up by art that allows the work of the team to shine. It's not trying to do anything special, but is an example of executing the basics very well and won’t leave fans disappointed for that reason. Despite some minor setbacks mentioned in the review, I’d be happy to recommend this to fans of the show, as well as Marvel fans in general. If you are interested in the book, you can add it to your own collection by ordering here; Tags; #XMen #XMen97 #Marvel #MarvelStudios #MarvelAnimation #AbramsBooks

July 1st 2025 Marvel Studios' Captain America: Brave New World - The Art of the Movie  releases on July 8th, coming with a slipcase, lithograph prints and 224 pages of concepts to pore over. As expected with another entry in the artbook series, it features a look at the art for the characters, weapons, locations, and key frames, with commentary from the development team and artists throughout. There are a lot of very interesting unused ideas in the book, but the most notable inclusion is a look at the early designs for The Leader. The on screen design for Samuel Sterns, played by actor Tim Blake, was criticised by fans, as although it was originally planned to resemble his appearances in the comics, it was later changed to look more grotesque instead. Art for that original design has already been released online, as were the prosthetics that were created to make it work on-screen, but now more takes on The Leader have been revealed, even one that would be better suited to a horror movie. As you can see in the images above from artist Ian Joyner, there were many different designs that explored The Leader's gamma infused brain and enlarged head. Some of the concepts incorporated technology and others, like those on the right, really pushed the size, almost resembling H.R. Giger's Xenomorph. The concept art further on in the book reveals even stranger takes the villain, giving him a mechanical body suit and straight body horror designs that would fit right at home in a Resident Evil game. You can see that the The Leader's head actually splits open, revealing his exposed brain and a slimy tenacle-like appendage shooting out too. These pages can be seen below, with art again from Ian Joyner, showcasing his ideas and also coming with the following quote from the artist about his intentions; "My favorite stuff is creature work. One of my favorite movies is The Thing. So whenever I get to play in that world, I have a lot of fun… We don’t necessarily want to lean into the full-on body horror, but I was delighted with the more recent comic-book interpretation of the Leader in the Immortal Hulk run – where he literally absorbs people’s brains, intelligence, and souls and everything. My idea was, like, could we actually just do something that crazy? I was considering that The Leader might be able to control minds with his brain and even sucking the brains out of other people." There are a good number of pages dedicated to how The Leader could have looked, some closer to what we got on screen, with others closer to what fans were likely expecting when it was revealed he would be the villain. That is the appeal of an artbook, getting to see the early and unused designs behind your favourite releases, with this one revealing more than expected, not just for the genius antagonist, but also for Red Hulk and the Serpent Society as well. Sam Wilson is of course featured too, though his concept art is a little less exciting, showing some small variations in his costume design, but this is not unexpected as he has been featured in multiple artbooks in the past. Check out a couple more spreads below from the book, with art by Ian Joyner and Keith Christensen. For those that aren't aware, Marvel have been releasing artbooks alongside every movie and most TV shows since the very first Iron Man in 2008. The releases that covered the Infinity Saga series came with a slipcase, but this was dropped early on for the Multiverse Saga, coming out as just a hardcover book. However, the slipcases made a return with added lithograph prints last year, starting with Marvel Studios' Deadpool & Wolverine: The Art of the Movie . The artbooks showcase the incredible talent of the artists that work on the projects, consistently providing superb artwork and interesting insights. They don't come without their problems though, as the last 26 books in a row have been delayed, with two cancelled, some images are too dark and the price increase to $100 is a lot to ask fans for. The upcoming artbook, Marvel Studios' Marvel Studios' The Fantastic Four: First Steps - The Art of the Movie has jumped again to $150, but will be the first to come as a two book set, with one titled 'Portfolio', although little is known about what it will include. Marvel Studios' Captain America: Brave New World - The Art of the Movie releases on July 8th and is published by Marvel themselves. It follows  Marvel Television's Agatha All Along: The Art of the Series , which was released on June 3rd. You can read an in depth review for that book here . Those interested in pre-ordering the upcoming artbook for Sam Wilson's solo movie debut can do so below; Tags; #CaptainAmerica #Marvel #MarvelStudios #CaptainAmericaBraveNewWorld #MCU

June 30th 2025 Another roundup video has been posted on The Artbook Collector YouTube channel that highlights the news of June 2025! This is the second entry in the new series, one that aims to bring news to a wider audience in video form. The editing and recording is still improving, as this is still very new, but it includes everything you need to know in the world of artbooks, including 4 updates, 8 delays, 8 new book reveals, and 6 upcoming books for the month of July. Check out the video below and feel free to leave feedback here or on YouTube, that way I can make positive changes going forward! The monthly roundups may miss out on news from the end of each month because of when I record, but they will be picked up in the next video, as a couple have been this time. Happy collecting and be sure to check out the upcoming books for the month of June here - Upcoming Artbooks: July 2025 Tags; #DarkHorse #TitanBooks #CookAndBecker #AbramsBooks #Marvel #MarvelStudios #Stalker2 #PixNLove #LostinCult #CloverPress #Thunderbolts #MetroidPrime #UdonEntertainment #StarWars #Loki #StarWarsOutlaws #Agatha #Jusant #TylerKirkham #JudgeDredd #Disney

June 30th 2025 As June comes to an end, a month that was light on artbooks after a long series of delays, we can now look toward July to bring a selection of 6 artbooks to look out for. Marvel, animation and video game titles will be available to add to your shelf very soon! 1st - X-Men '97: The Art and Making of the Animated Series Queue the guitar riff for this one, as X-Men fans start the month with a new artbook to jump into. After its hugely popular run in the 1990's, the animated series made its return as X-Men '97 in 2024, picking up where the original run ended. Marvel Animation added a modern shine to the visuals, while maintaining its style, capturing both fans of its first run, but also appealing to younger audiences that are newer to Marvel. X-Men '97: The Art and Making of the Animated Series takes a look at the art behind the revival of the show, highlighting concept art, storyboards, final designs and stills from the first season of the series. This is the perfect companion to the artbook based on the 1990's show, X-Men: The Art and Making of the Animated Series, also from Abrams Books. A preview can be seen below. If interested in the book, you can order it below; 8th - Marvel Studios' Captain America: Brave New World - The Art of the Movie Someone at Marvel might be hulking out, because they are on a mission to play catch-up with the artbooks, releasing this just 5 months after the movie was in cinemas. Marvel Studios' Captain America: Brave New World - The Art of the Movie comes with a slipcase, lithograph prints, and 224 pages of art and insights for the solo movie debut of Sam Wilson as Captain America. Expect a look at the concept art for the characters, locations and key frames from the art team, presented in a well designed book. The Marvel artbooks have been joining collections since 2008, so this will no doubt be on the radar for fans of both the books and those that enjoyed seeing Cap and Hulk face-off. If you are one of those wanting to grab a copy, you can order it here; 8th - GWENT: Art of the Witcher Card Game Volume 2 Retuning with another illustration showcase, CD Projekt Red and Dark Horse Books are back with the second artbook for the card game Gwent. Becoming popular with its appearance in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Gwent became its own game and has fans playing years after finishing the RPG it debuted in. The artists that worked on the game have their work on full display in GWENT: Art of the Witcher Card Game Volume 2 , with large prints of the art in a 9" x12" hardcover book. This time it focuses on the 8 expansions added to the game across over 200 pages of art. If you're wanting more from the world of the Witcher ahead of the launch of the 4th game, or are a Gwent player, you can order the book here; 22nd - The Art of DreamWorks The Bad Guys 2 *Out on August 28th in the UK and other parts of Europe. Returning to screens for another adventure, Mr. Wolf and the rest of the team and now rebranding as 'Good Guys', but one last job changes all of that and pulls them out of retirement. The Art of DreamWorks The Bad Guys 2 from Abrams Books will feature a look at the art behind the animated movie, which includes character designs, sketches, storyboards, and interviews from the writers and artists. It also boasts an exclusive 64-page insert with beat boards from director Pierre Perifel and production designer Luc Desmarchelier. You can pre-order book below; 29th - The Art of Smurfs Smurfs are back on the big screen this year and bring along an artbook from IDW Publishing big enough for them to build a house with. The 172-page book comes as a 11" x 12" hardcover with a look at the art for Smurfette, Gargamel, Papa Smurf, and the large and eccentric cast of more Smurfs. As expected, it will also highlight the settings of the animated movie, including Smurf Village, Smurfberry Glade, and Gargamel’s Evil Workshop. You can order The Art of Smurfs ahead of its release here; July- The Art of Still Wakes The Deep Still Wakes The Deep from The Chinese Room is an award-winning horror game set on a Scottish oil rig in the 1970's, creating an interesting and yet disturbing visual design to the game. Its industrial environments in combination with changes from an unknown substance will be explored in this book, but of course will also include the grotesque enemies encountered in the game as well! It will also delve into the development and themes behind the game. The Art of Still Wakes The Deep  was due to be released in May, but got a last minute delay as The Chinese Room wanted to add another chapter to the book, which is always a welcome reason to do so. Although no specific date was given, that same update from the publisher Cook & Becker stated that the book would be out this month. A Deluxe Edition is also available with a slipcase and other extras. You can order both versions on their website here . Any changes will be reported as they happen, with more future artbook releases found on the Upcoming page ! Tags; #Marvel #MarvelStudios #CaptainAmerica #DarkHorse #CookAndBecker #XMen97 #TheChineseRoom #StillWakesTheDeep #ChronicleBooks #TheBadGuys2 #Smurfs #AbramsBooks #Gwent

Book Details ISBN: 978-0785155096 Publisher: Marvel Page Count: 224 Format: Hardcover Slipcase Publication Date: 27/11/11 (November 11th 2011) Other Editions: N/A You can buy the rereleased edition, Marvel Studios' The Infinity Saga - Captain America: The First Avenger: The Art of the Movie, from Titan Books on Amazon here; About The Art of Captain America: The First Avenger highlights the concept art for the first appearance of Steve Rogers as he takes on Hydra during World War II. It features a look at the costumes, locations, weapons, vehicles, and more for the movie, with insights from the development team throughout. In 2024 the book was rereleased by Titan Books, titled Marvel Studios' The Infinity Saga - Captain America: The First Avenger: The Art of the Movie. Preview Categories Tags Based On: #CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger Series: #MarvelCinematicUniverse #MCU #CaptainAmerica Publisher: #Marvel Studio: #MarvelStudios Platform: #Movies #DisneyPlus Genre: #SuperHero #Action

Book Details ISBN: 978-1506750408 Publisher: Dark Horse Page Count: 248 Format: Hardcover Publication Date: 08/07/2025 (July 8th 2025) Other Editions: N/A About Dark Horse are back with another GWENT artbook. This will cover 8 expansions for the game, with more of the art displayed in fine detail in a hardcover book and across over 200 pages. Comments will also accompany the art from the art team. Preview N/A Categories Tags Based On: #GWENT #GWENTTheWitcherCardGame Series: #TheWitcher #GWENT Publisher: #DarkHorse Studio: #CDProjektRed Platform: #PC #Xbox #XboxOne #PlayStation #PS4 #Mobile Genre: #CardGame #Strategy

June 7th 2025 The latest preview on The Artbook Collector YouTube channel is a look at X-Men '97: The Art and Making of the Animated Series ! This 244-page artbook from Abrams Books is available from July 1st 2025 and comes as an oversized hardcover. Readers can dive into the art behind the show, with a look at sketches, designs, illustrations and stills for the characters and settings, as well as storyboards for the scenes too. It also features insights from the creative team behind the show that gives fans information on how it all came together. The hardcover book is not the first to be based on the series, as X-Men: The Art and Making of The Animated Series was released in 2020 for the original run from the 1990's. This is a direct follow up to that book, just as the show is, so makes the perfect pairing for those that enjoyed both. X-Men '97 was released on Disney+ as a sequel to the beloved 1990s X-Men: The Animated Series, picking up right after its original finale. It continues the same art style, but adds a more modern shine too. It follows the mutant team as they deal with the death of Professor Xavier in a world that still fears them, as well as the continued threats from Marvel villains. The return of the series brings back characters such as Jean Grey, Cyclops, Wolverine and Nightcrawler, appealing to both fans of the original series and a new audience discovering the iconic show for the first time. Check out a preview of X-Men '97: The Art and Making of the Animated Series above and subscribe to discover more! If you enjoyed the preview, you can order the book here; Tags; #AbramsBooks #XMen97 #Marvel #MarvelAnimation #Disney #DisneyPlus

June 27th 2025 Artbook delays are common, you only have to check out the news page on this website to see that, but it's not often a book gets to its release date and isn't available. This is the case with The Art of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, as the book was due on June 24th, but the book isn't available through retailers. This book is the English edition, published by Udon Entertainment, who are often responsible for releasing the books in the West after they have hit shelves in Japan. The Japanese version was released in July of 2023 by Kadokawa, 4 months after the game's launch. The book is long over due for audiences elsewhere then, but unfortunately it seems the wait will continue for those wanting to jump in to the RPG's art. A copy was on order for the collection here, but was out of stock on release. This is not unusual and happens at times when stock is still on its way to retailers, but that sadly turned out not to be the case. No retailer in the UK has any stock, even Amazon has a despatch estimate of 3 - 7 months, with no other sellers available. This is also the case for other countries too, so it seems this book has been delayed, but as so many websites still have it scheduled for June 24th, it seems they were not informed of any changes. The Art of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty book cover The new date for the book is not yet confirmed and search results don't help much either. I visited the Udon Entertainment website and could not find the book via the search option and their feed on X also gives no results for the game. These signs would usually indicate a cancellation, but two reliable websites have a new date for the book, Amazon US and Barnes and Noble . Both of these now have the release set for November 4th 2025, which is at least a sign it is still coming. The fact the dates match also increases confidence that it has not be quietly cancelled. It does seem odd that the vast majority of retailers, even some of the biggest sellers of books, have not been given this update. If the November release is correct, there may have been a lack of communication somewhere, as more would have updated their listings. I have reached out to a couple of retailers to see if they can get an update on when the artbook is expected to arrive and will update the story if I get any form of confirmation. If the release date is moved on more retailer websites to November 4th, I would also take this as confirmation of the the new date. The Art of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will feature a look at the concept art for the dark fantasy RPG, from developer Team NINJA and publisher Koei Tecmo. It will include lore and profiles for the characters, as well as the designs behind the characters, world, enemies, weapons, and more. Updates for the book will be reported here and when the the book is released it will also be reviewed. Those interested in ordering The Art of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty can do so below; Tags; #UdonEtnertainment #WoLongFallenDynasty #KoeiTecmo #TeamNinja #Delay

June 26th 2025 Clover Press have been busy working on artbooks and graphic novels, successfully funding many of their releases through Kickstarter. The latest campaign is for The Marvel Art of Tyler Kirkham , a premium hardcover book that showcases the incredible art from Kirkham on some of Marvel's most popular heroes and villains. Before the campaign ends on July 4th, I had the opportunity to interview Hank Kanalz, Publisher at Clover Press, about this book, 'The Marvel Art of' series, and using Kickstarter. Check it out below and be sure to visit the Kickstarter page here to back the project and secure your own copy - The Marvel Art of TYLER KIRKHAM--A Deluxe Hardcover & More! Thanks for taking the time to speak about ‘The Marvel Art of’ books! Your latest campaign is live for the 7th book in the series, The Marvel Art of Tyler Kirkham, which very quickly hit its funding goal. Kirkham creates incredible art for some of the most iconic characters in Marvel comics, what was it like working with him and putting this book together? Kanalz : Tyler’s amazing - he knows his strengths, and what his fans really respond to. He’s done a ton of amazing covers, so the toughest part was narrowing down what to include in the book. The Marvel Art of Tyler Kirkham book cover The Marvel Art of Tyler Kirkham will feature 200+ pages of his work for fans to pore over. What are you most excited for people to see in this showcase? Kanalz : I think people will be surprised at how much work Tyler puts into his line work. Usually his art is always published in full color, but going through his work, it’s amazing to see the detail he puts into each piece. While most of the book features his colored pieces, we’re showing off more of the stages in his work, too. There are a lot of incredibly talented artists that have worked at Marvel, with many different styles too, some of which you have already featured in previous books. What do you take into consideration when choosing who to give the artbook treatment to next, and what was it about Tyler Kirkham that had him join the other big names in the series?   Kanalz : Candidly, the artist has to first be an artist whose work we like. We can only publish so many books a year, so they may as well be with artists we like, right? And the crew at Clover can have some eclectic taste, so you’ll see a range of artists in our series. Plus, the artist has to have a body of work at Marvel, and have a fan following. Tyler met that criteria and more. How did the creation of this line of artbooks and partnership with Marvel first start? Kanalz : When I met with Ted and Robbie (Clover founders), we chatted a long while about the kinds of books I wanted to publish. First on my list was a series of comic artists art books. They agreed enthusiastically, as they were just about to roll out our first one, The Fantastic Illustrations of Timothy Truman. So we knew in that conversation that we were a good match, and I joined Clover Press as Publisher. The next conversations were with Marvel and DC, which lands us where we are now. The Kickstarter campaigns have all been hugely successful, what is it about the platform you like that has you returning to it for your books? Kanalz : It’s a fantastic way for our artists to connect directly with their fan base. While we are carried by comic shops and bookstores, it’s much more difficult to offer signed books or a limited number of sketches or commissions. And since we work with the artists directly, offering these books via Kickstarter benefits the artists more directly financially, as the rewards are provided directly to the backer, instead of going through a wholesaler. The previous 6 books in 'The Marvel Art of' series, each fully funded on Kickstarter. What are your long term goals for this series, as well as other artbooks? Are there other ideas or changes you are working on, or want to see in the future? Kanalz : We want the line to have “something for everyone” - we’ve done a great job of varying the styles and generations of artists represented in the line, and we want to continue that. We have a ton of new ideas to try out on future campaigns; it’s a matter of marrying the right thing with the right artists. And while we’ve focused on comic artists, we want to do more imported art books and eclectic artists art books (see My Way by Vinne, Spawn Till You Die: The Fin Art of Ray Troll by Ray Troll, or Woman & Man+ by Craig Yoe). And we’re excited to see that folks are coming back with each campaign. We have a set of supporters who only buy the artists they like, and we have a growing group of backers who have backed every single campaign.  To end the interview, let people know why they should check out The Marvel Art of Tyler Kirkham and feel free to highlight anything else Clover Press has going on! Kanalz : The Marvel Art of Tyler Kirkham is the ultimate collection of Tyler Kirkham’s Marvel art, so it’s a must have for any fan of Tyler’s. Some of the exclusives offered are amazing, including the X-Men Danger Room homage 1,000 piece puzzle, and some super cool sticker sheets. Coming very soon is our newest imported art book by Keisuke Unosawa, an award winning and accomplished designer and artist from Japan. He’s designed the holiday cards for MoMA for the last 30 years, and has led an extraordinarily interesting life. This book captures a taste of what he’s done. We’re going to be stepping up our ART OF series with Marvel and DC artists. We don’t reveal them in advance, and we like to keep folks guessing - thanks so much for your continued support!  Thanks to Hank Kanalz for taking the time to answer my questions about the book! The Marvel Art of Tyler Kirkham can be backed on Kickstarter until July 4th with lots of bundles available that include extras such as a dustjacket, a slipcase, stickers, prints, a portfolio, and more. These extras can also be added to your order as add-ons. The book is expected to ship in November of this year and will go on sale at retail at a later date. Visit the Kickstarter here - The Marvel Art of TYLER KIRKHAM--A Deluxe Hardcover & More! Tags; #CloverPress #TylerKirkham #Marvel #MarvelComics #Kickstarter #Interview

June 25th 2025 The artbook featuring a look at the iconic Judge Dredd from artist Jock has received another delay, this time moving the release date out of summer. The Art of Judge Dredd by Jock from Rebellion Publishing will highlight the work from the comic book artist Mark Simpson, best known to fans as Jock. It was announced in January and expected to hit shelves in May, before being delayed to July in the last update . Now though, the book has been moved again and will be released on October 21st, as seen on retailer listings online. Unlike the last delay, the new release date is more consistent, as it was previously listed for July for the UK, but in some regions, including the USA, it was set to be published in September. Now that the dates line up in all countries, it can hopefully be taken a positive sign that this will be the last schedule change. When this new shift happened is unknown, but noticed when working on the next Artbook News Roundup video . The current placeholder cover for The Art of Judge Dredd by Jock There is still no final cover art for the book, which can often be an indication that the book is not coming out anytime soon, as they get an update at least a couple of months in advance. I can't think of any artbook that has had a late cover reveal, so once there is one, fans can be more confident in this latest publication date. The Art of Judge Dredd by Jock will showcase early sketches and layouts throughout its 224 pages, as well as the finished pieces from the artist. Fans of both the comic series and Jock himself will enjoy seeing his creative process, which will make the book fit well in their collections alongside the comics themselves. The 2012 Dredd movie will be featured in this book too, highlighting Jock's concept art on the project. Updates for the book will be reported here and a copy will be joining the collection to be previewed and reviewed. Those interested in ordering The Art of Judge Dredd by Jock can do so below; Tags; #Jock #JudgeDredd #Dredd2012 #2000AD #Dredd #RebellionPublishingLtd

Book Details ISBN: 979-8887243696 Publisher: IDW Publishing Page Count: 176 Format: Hardcover Publication Date: 29/07/2025 (July 29th 2025) Other Editions: N/A Buy on Amazon here; About The Smurfs are back with an animated movie in July 2025. The Art of Smurfs gives fans a look at the art behind the characters like Smurfette, Papa Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, Gargamel, and more. It also includes settings such as Smurf Village, Smurfberry Glade, and Gargamel’s Evil Workshop. It comes as a 11" x 12" hardcover from IDW Publishing. Categories Tags Based On: #Smurfs Series: #TheSmurfs Publisher: #IDWPublishing Studio: #ParamountAnimation Platform: #Movies Genre: #Comedy #Family

June 24th 2025 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2's upcoming artbook is set to showcase the work of the art team from GSC Game World, giving fans a look at how the visuals came together through the early concept art, but the wait for that has just become a little longer. The Art of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl has been delayed five time now, but fortunately this time it is only by a week. The November 25th release date has now been moved to December 2nd, as spotted on the website of the book publisher Dark Horse. The 208-page hardcover book is set to feature the art for characters, weapons, creatures, environments and items of the survival FPS. It will also come with insights from the development team at GSC Game World, giving details about the making of the game, as well as the art and design. The book has had a turbulent release schedule, with multiple delays well in advance of its publication date. It was revealed in September 2024 for release in May of 2025, but received its first push not long after. Since it was first announced, it has be moved to June, September, November 4th, and then November 25th before this latest update. Each schedule shift is getting smaller, but it will still be coming more than a year after the game was put into the hands of players on Xbox consoles and PC. The reasons for the delays are still unknown, though that's often the case in the world of artbooks, it is only unusual this time because of how far in advance they are happening. The new date now has it hitting shelves on the same day as the The Art of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 , which was revealed by Dark Horse earlier this month. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a survival horror first-person shooter that launched on November 20th 2024 for PC and Xbox. A release on PS5 has been speculated on, but no official word yet on if it is coming. The game has sold more than 3 million copies and covered its development costs in just 24 hours, a huge success for the studio. As mentioned in the last update, a copy of The Art of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl will be joining the collection here, so a full in-depth review can be expected late this year. If you are wanting to add the book to your own collection, you can pre-order it below; Tags; Based On: #STALKER2HeartOfChornobyl Series: #STALKER Publisher: #DarkHorse Studio: #GSCGameWorld

June 23rd 2025 The animated Netflix series Castlevania: Nocturne, based on the hit video game series, is getting the artbook treatment for the first two seasons of the show. Castlevania: Nocturne--The Art of the Animated Series has not had an official press reveal from publisher Dark Horse, but has already appeared on their website and some online retailer listings. The 208 page hardcover book is set for release on March 3rd 2026 with an RRP of $54.99. Like almost all the artbooks from the publisher, it will also come in a portrait 9" x 12" oversized format. The book is set to feature hundreds of pieces of art that includes a look at the characters, vampires, and settings of the show. With early concept art, production designs, and storyboards getting a showcase in this release, fans of Nocturne wanting to see how how the visuals came together will have a lot to enjoy when it arrives next year. Castlevania: Nocturne--The Art of the Animated Series cover art Most artbooks get a social media and blog post from Dark Horse, which may still be coming, but the above details of the upcoming hardcover are already available on their website. The listing was spotted while checking their upcoming books list , something I often visit check for date changes and new listings. An official unveiling may still be coming though and there will certainly be some promotion in the run up to its publication in 9 months time. Castlevania: Nocturne is a dark fantasy animated series that follows the original Castlevania show, moving forward 300 years to 18th-century France during the Revolution. It follows Richter Belmont, a descendant of the legendary vampire-hunting Belmont family, as he works with others to save humanity from being enslaved. The series is based on Konami's original game, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, which was released in 1993. With gothic visuals and anime-style action, Powerhouse Animation Studio continued to show their talent on the franchise for Netflix with Nocturne, getting praise from both fans of the original games and those that are new to the world of Castlevania. This is the second artbook for a Castlevania show, as the original animated offering from Netflix also had a Dark Horse release in 2021, titled Castlevania: The Art of the Animated Series . This artbook also boasted concept art and illustrations as expected, as well as commentary from the team behind it. Although commentary isn't noted in the description of the upcoming book for Nocturne, it will very likely be a included too. Those interested in Castlevania: Nocturne--The Art of the Animated Series can pre-order it here; Tags; #Castlevania #CastlevaniaNocturne #Netflix #DarkHorse #PowerhouseAnimationStudio

Book Details ISBN: 978-1506715704 Publisher: Dark Horse Books Page Count: 208 Format: Hardcover Publication Date: 02/11/2021 (November 2nd 2021) Other Editions: N/A About Dive into the art of the hit Netflix animated show based on the popular Castlevania video game series. Castlevania: The Art of the Animated Series featured hundreds of pieces of art for the show, including concept art and illustrations for the characters, monsters and locations, as well as commentary from the team that helped create it. An artbook for the follow up series, Castlevania: Nocturne was later released by Dark Horse, titled Castlevania: Nocturne--The Art of the Animated Series Categories Tags Based On: #Castlevania Series: #Castlevania Publisher: #DarkHorse Studios: #Konami #PowerhouseAnimationStudios Platform: #Netflix #TV #Fantasy #Horror

Book Details ISBN: 978-0785143208 Publisher: Marvel Page Count: 208 Format: Hardcover Slipcase Publication Date: 19/05/10 (May 19th 2010) Other Editions: N/A You can buy the rereleased edition, Marvel Studios' The Infinity Saga - Iron Man: The Art of the Movie, from Titan Books on Amazon here; About The Art of Iron Man 2 features the concept art for the return of Tony Stark, with a look at the characters, armor, enemies, settings and more for the 2010 movie. The book also features insights from the development team, perfect for those wanting the behind-the-scenes details. In 2024 the book was rereleased by Titan Books, titled Marvel Studios' The Infinity Saga - Iron Man 2: The Art of the Movie. Preview Categories Tags Based On: #IronMan2 Series: #MarvelCinematicUniverse #MCU #IronMan Publisher: #Marvel Studio: #MarvelStudios Platform: #Movies #DisneyPlus Genre: #SuperHero #Action

June 20th 2025 This week on The Artbook Collector YouTube channel is a preview of Marvel Studios' The Infinity Saga - Doctor Strange: The Art of the Movie ! The book is a part of the Infinity Saga series from publisher Titan Books, one that is rereleasing the Marvel Studios artbooks as a new matching set. This will include 24 books in total, starting with Iron Man and ending with Spider-Man: Far From Home, with this being the 13th release. This is the new version of Marvel’s Doctor Strange: The Art of the Movie that was published in 2016. The book comes with 344 pages that features early concept art for the characters, dimensions, locations, weapons, magical items and key frames. As well as this, it provides a look at some of the storyboards and marketing art, covering everything the art team worked on. It's a great book for fans and one of the strongest in the series, not just because of the volume of art, but also because everything here was new to the MCU, so there is a lot of unused designs to see. There are also comments throughout from the cast, crew and artists, providing insights into both the art and the movie. You can read my full review of the book with comparisons to the original release here - Book Review - Marvel Studios' The Infinity Saga - Doctor Strange: The Art of the Movie . As you can see in the preview, the pages are completely filled with art, wasting absolutely no space across its high page count. It also includes a lot of double page spreads with key frames, a great feature as it was before they limited the page count to just 224 pages, as seen with all of the Multiverse Saga releases, so this doesn't mean less pieces are included. This version has the same contents as the original too, so those that missed out before now have the chance to add the concepts to their collection. The Doctor Strange movie was released in 2016 and introduced magic into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as Stephen Strange himself, now a staple of the franchise. Along side him, others also made their first appearance too, including Mordo, The Ancient One, Kaecilius, and Wong, who is also a fan favourite. The movie was a big hit and the sequel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, was released following his appearances in other movies in 2022. Before the movie though, Doctor Strange was already a big name in Marvel Comics having been created in 1963 by Steve Ditko. He has since been in endless comic runs, appearing alongside characters from all corners of the Marvel universe, making his on screen debut highly anticipated at the time. Check out a preview of Marvel Studios' The Infinity Saga - Doctor Strange: The Art of the Movie above and subscribe to discover more artbooks! If you like what you see, you can order the book here; Tags; #DoctorStrange #InfinitySaga #TitanBooks #Marvel #MarvelCinematicUniverse #MCU #Disney #MarvelStudios