Rating: 
Summary: BEAUTIFUL
Review: Absolutely beautiful. Alex Ross have captured the essence of each DC character in near photographic quality paintings.This books shows of a collection of his work for DC. Not only that, we are also taken through the steps of creating the paintings. From the inspirations (Queen's album cover) to models to the layout, steps & final piece of art. He also recommended a few techniques and reference books for any budding artists out there. It's also interesting to know how Alex's talent surfaced at a very young age. His drawings when he was 3, 7, 9 were included. You can tell that way back then, the kid has talent. Recommended for all fans of good art, not just comic lovers. It's worth every penny.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: Alex Ross brings the characters of DC Comics to life in all their glory in this excellent collection. In a multi media medium like comics, moving to an adult level requires elevating every component. In his magnificent painted work, Ross does just that, offering true art and bringing these deep characters to life. The choice of titles, "Mythology" proves prescient, for that is exactly what Ross does to the mythic DC characters of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the rest. This stands in sharp contrast to his work in Marvels, which does not appear in this collection, where he emphasizes the Marvel characters gritty humanity. While his flexibility allows him to do either scale, his style better suits the more mythological and epic milieu of DC lore. Ross contributes mightily to the stories he illustrates. Each character remains distinctive for reasons beyond the logo on their chests. Wonder Woman's pride, Batman's determination, Superman's essential naiveté, all show through in Ross's work. Indeed, who can forget his work in Kingdom Come where he literally created a new universe of characters? With each brush stroke, brings his art leaping off the page and into the readers mind. Any adult lover of comics will delight in this tremendous collection of one the genres living masters.
Rating:
Summary: The magic of superheroes, recaptured
Review: Alex Ross brought a new technique and style to superhero artwork that had never quite been seen before in comics. Working almost exclusively in watercolor gouache, he brought a photorealistic style that takes almost everyone's breath away. It marvelously recaptures the essential thrill of comic books: the fantasy of what it would be like if a man could really fly, or run at incredible speeds, or had a magic ring that could do anything. He's often been compared to Norman Rockwell (in his hyperrealism and love of dramatic facial expression), but Ross is his own artist. His intense love of dramatic composition, lighting, and figural motion suggests his roots also extend to the greats of comic artwork, including Dick Sprang, Steve Ditko, Gil Kane, and Neal Adams. This wonderful collection captures many of his childhood attempts at art and documents not only his changing style but also his creative process (using live and inanimate models, photography, and high-contrast lighting). It also showcases a plethora of his best work for DC, and even includes many rare and uncollected images done for fan publications and even a collector's plates series (!). The fancy-shmancy book design by designer and comics fan Chip Kidd is sometimes a drawback (too many images are sometimes crammed into one doublepage spread, reducing the detail to the detriment of all the images), but the book is terrific nonetheless. It greatly benefits from commentary by Ross throughout explaining what he finds interesting and exciting about each classic Golden and Silver Age comics character.
Rating:
Summary: gorgeous coffee table tribute to a magnificent artist
Review: Alex Ross has drawn some of the most beautiul comic art of our time, and this beautiful collection of his work will make your jaw drop. In addition to spectacular full-page four-color art divided into chapters on the superheroes (Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, etc) and various projects (Kingdom Come, Justice League, Hanna-Barbera, etc), you will find informatin on Ross's early EARLY work (age 7!), his parents, drawings, sketches, models and more. My favorites are the mature superheroes. The book concludes with a bibliography. Absolutely gorgeous.
Rating:
Summary: A Coffee Table Book For the Comic Book Lover In Your Life
Review: Alex Ross has to be one of the most talented and the most overlooked artist in the 21st century. After hitting the ground running with the smash hit graphic novels KINGDOM COME and MARVELS, Ross has set the bar not only for comic book artist, but the art world itself. Ross's style could be that compared to Norman Rockwell's. Each piece is life like and poingnant. MYTHOLOGY even covers the process that Ross undertakes to bring his creations to life. Not so unlike Norman Rockwell, Ross uses models and snapshots
to help him create depth in his pieces. It was facinating to read how he accomplishes this feat. MYTHOLOGY covers Alex Ross's life from his early artwork from age 5 up to present day. A nice touch to see how his artistic style has changed and matured as he grew up.
Also covered are never before seen sample artwork for KINGDOM COME as well as MARVELS.
The Justice League is given much press with unpublished paintings and drawings that never went to the printing press. Ross even shares his notebook with the reader, as we delve into
character studies for an unpublished CRISIS ON THE INFINITE EARTHS story as well as an unpublished script synopsis for a Christian themed superhero. However great MYTHOLOGY is as a coffee table book, or even an art lovers book, I did have a problem with it. Main problem is the font used for the text. Ross opted for a low font size which is printed over many of the pictures in book. Keeping true to a comic book style, this is terrific, but extremely difficult to read. Granted this book is a book to be looked at and absorbed on its artistic merits alone, but Alex's story also holds it's own and deserved to be read. Overall, MYTHOLOGY is a must have book.
Insightful for the artist wannabe.
Breathtaking for the comicbook collector.
Astounding for the art lover.
Make it the one to place on your coffee table.
Rating: 
Summary: Showcasing the world's greatest painter of superheroes...
Review: Alex Ross rose to fame with 1994's Marvels, a mini-series that chronicled the Marvel Universe from the perspective of an ordinary person. Yet the comic book painter's career really took off when he began working extensively at DC Comics (the Pepsi to Marvel's Coke). This is largely because Marvel has attempted to strip superheroes of their myth-like aura while DC has more or less embraced it and there is something very mythic about Ross' art. His paintings are larger-than-life, and fully embrace the fantastic nature of superheroes. Common to Ross' work is not only flying supermen, but shocked crowds, birds-eye-views of cities and extremes of light and darkness. Meanwhile his use of vintage costumes and reproductions of classic images resonate deeply in the American psyche, where these characters are held as icons. Yet his superheroes are also very human in a way. He never forgets Superman's integrity, Batman's determination, or Wonder Woman's pride and makes each hero's defining characteristic evident in their faces. He even paints a wonderfully cheeky Plastic Man. The coffee table book Mythology is an excellent sampling of the comics books, posters and T-shirts and more Ross has painted for the company. The three biggest focuses are his kindly, luminous Superman, his dark, noble Batman and his almost overwhelming portraits of the all-star Justice League of America. Lesser coverage is given to Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Green Lantern and others. Mythology also takes readers behind the scenes of Ross' work. They get to see fully grown men pose in Superman and Captain Marvel costumes as Ross' models and see how a painting develops, step-by-step. There are extensive also looks at Uncle Sam, a series about a homeless man who embodies America's lost dreams (one of Ross' few non-superhero works), and Kingdom Come, Ross' beloved series about the DC Universe's distopian future. Mythology can be repetitive (How many mighty-looking pictures of superheroes standing together in a chorus line does anyone need?), yet there is no denying that he is the best painter of comic books in the medium's history. His versions of DC characters are bold, captivating and embody all that makes them American icons. For anyone who holds close to his or her heart the creation we call the superhero, Mythology will be a real treat.
Rating:
Summary: BRILLIANT TALENT OF ALEX ROSS
Review: As FRazetta re-defined Fantasy art in the 1960's and 1970's, so had Alex Ross re-defined comic book art in the last Decade. Beginning with the stunning Kingdom Come, Ross has given us Superheroes with class and regal flair that escapes so many of the current generation of "Image" inspired artists who think drawing big [...] is great art.
Ross is a man who understands the human anatomy. His heroes are muscled, but proportionately so..not looking like they are steroid freaks of nature. Ross doesn't really do pencils and inks, he works in watercolor and any one who has ever read Marvels or Kingdom Come knows that because of this no other person in comics has ever brought these four color characters to life like he has. The book is full of tons of art work showing how he came up with his representations of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the rest. It is fascinating to see him go from simple sketches to the finished project and how he based certain characters' faces on real life people, like Gregory Peck for Batman or Kathy Ireland for Mary Marvel.
Along with looks at his work with Superman, Batman,, Wonder Woman, and Captain Marvel, the book looks at his most controversial work, Uncle Sam, an unflinching and not altogether positive look at American history that still contains a seed of hope inside the story. Not popular on it's release, it has come to stand along side such works as Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, From Hell, and Road To Perdition as an example of how comics can be an adult form of entertainment and even literature at times.
The last section of the book shows his process of making realistic pictures. Quite simply put he has friends, wearing costumes pose for him so that he can see how the muscles move under the outfits and how such a powerful person would appear in real life. It is kind of humorous as well as interesting to see someone pose as Plastic Man or Mr. Mxyzptlk and then see the finished product. After this section is an original short story featuring Superman and Batman, The Trust.
Brilliant and unrivaled!
Rating:
Summary: Excelent!!!
Review: Excelent!!! I dont expect less than that from Ross. BUT WHAT IS ROSS WAITING FOR THE SKETCHBOOK
Rating:
Summary: Genius (pay no attention to J. Goodman's review below)
Review: First of all, let me say that "J. Goodman" is absolutely out of line in his pathetic review below, suggesting that Alex Ross is in some way disturbed to do the work that he does. That's about the saddest assessment of Ross' work I've ever read. Alex Ross is an amazing painter, and his depiction of the DC comics universe in a photo-realistic form is breathtaking, and true labor of love on the part of an artist who grew up loving these characters. To suggest that he "needs to get out more" is such a juvenile, cynical, and mean-spirited way of looking at this amazing artist and his work. God forbid he should want to present them in this way, to say "hey, if these guys were real, this is what they'd look like." That's it. Nothing more. Trying to read more into it than that says more about the reviewer's own apparent hang-ups than anything he's trying to say about a powerful talent like Alex Ross. If you love superheroes you will love this book. Period. Leave your cynicism at the door.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome book!
Review: For collectors of Alex Ross' work, this is a must! A pity that it just focuses on his DC Comics work but, no doubt, another book will appear at some point showcasing his work for Marvel & other comic-book studios.
Besides the art, the book also gives an insight into how Alex's mind works, what influences him & his art...For instance: it was interesting to read that Queen is his all-time favourite band! It would be nice to see more books like this appear showcasing the work of other great comic-book artists...
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