The Art of Hellboy

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely gorgeous
Review: I don't know if I'd really say that Mike Mignola is one of my 100%, all-time favorite artists, though I do like his work. Even so, when I saw this book I just had to buy it (even at the fairly steep cover price) because it's just plain beautiful. It has to be one of the best-produced art books I've ever seen. The reproduction, even on Mignola's little scribbles and sketches, is top notch. Yoo can actually see his brush strokes in the black ink, and the non-repro blue sketch lines that would fall away in the normal comic book printing process. Even if you've seen many of these comic pages and drawings before, you'll see them in a new light once you view them here. If you're one of those who loves to see how artists do what they do, get this book.

Rating:
Summary: Great art collection
Review: I paid retail for this book and have no qualms about doing so. It's defintely worth it, whether bought from Amazon or some other vendor. The Art of Hellboy is an oversized cloth-bound harcover with embossing, metallic ink, and a glued illustration on the cover. A fairly short introduction gets you set up for the barrage of Hellboy-related art that is to follow! You get color works, covers, pin-ups, sketches, preliminary drawings, comic page roughs, completed comic pages, concept art... the list goes on and on. The only downside is that many of these pieces have either been used in other Hellboy books or have appeared elsewhere. Still, it's nice to see them in a larger size. This is a beautiful book, end of story!

Rating:
Summary: Great art collection
Review: I paid retail for this book and have no qualms about doing so. It's defintely worth it, whether bought from Amazon or some other vendor. The Art of Hellboy is an oversized cloth-bound harcover with embossing, metallic ink, and a glued illustration on the cover. A fairly short introduction gets you set up for the barrage of Hellboy-related art that is to follow! You get color works, covers, pin-ups, sketches, preliminary drawings, comic page roughs, completed comic pages, concept art... the list goes on and on. The only downside is that many of these pieces have either been used in other Hellboy books or have appeared elsewhere. Still, it's nice to see them in a larger size. This is a beautiful book, end of story!

Rating:
Summary: Before you spurge on this, do consider...
Review: I would be warry of spending too many of your hard earned dollars on this book. I am a new fan to Hellboy, and absolutely love Mignola's art. However, the reason I would be heasitant about recommending this art book is that there is very little new art in it. Most of it is just rehashed covers, pages and posters. Probably about 10% of it is stuff that you've never seen before; which in my mind, does not warrant the hefty price tag. If you have all the books in the series then you already have 90% of the art found in this book. The sketches and other doodles that are only in this book can most likely be found floating around the net if you look hard enough for it.

Rating:
Summary: 200 pages of pure Love of Comic Art.
Review: Mike Mignola is the master of what not to put in a finished peice of art. While he draws loads of details with the original pencil lines as soon as the ink is applied, he buries them. What makes that technique work so well is that regardless of no evidence of the black flooded pencils the viewer knows the details are there. That masterful ambiguity is what makes the Hellboy art so creepy, menacing. From out of the shadows lurch horrors not meant for the eyes of humans. This is quirky, fun and scary without having to overwork the skilled designs and careful layouts. When I look at all the cartoony comic artists, with their minimalist leanings, and contrast them with the guys who insist on drawing every hair on a head while laying in invented overdone musculature that fairly bulges through a sweatshirt, it is refreshing to see Mignola's seeming ease and inpeccable black spotting that shapes even the things not seen, but definitely suspected, along with shambling ancient horror and explosions of combative violence in the defense of the human race against festering ancient evil.Words? In this book? My brain is full of words unread but ever present. That's Mike's other gift to me.My only question is when will we see a volume collecting his myriad other works?

Rating:
Summary: Oh, hell with it
Review: Mike Mignola's comic books are great. You should buy them instead of this overpriced collection of Mignola art. The very thing that makes Hellboy so beautiful, the simplicity and elegance of design, means that looking at a Mignola sketch is exactly like looking at a finished comic book panel, except you can see the India ink brush marks in the black areas, and there is no supporting narrative thrust to give the picture meaning. The same goes for his pencils (of which there are few included- I don't think this guy makes a mark on paper without inking and publishing it). There is not even a discussion of Mignola's sources or inspirations, no bibliography of the occult (oh, I forgot, we're living in post-literate America). There is no insight to be gained by investing in the Art of Hellboy, because it is just a sampler of beautifully designed panels that look better in the comic books.

Rating:
Summary: Oh, hell with it
Review: Mike Mignola's comic books are great. You should buy them instead of this overpriced collection of Mignola art. The very thing that makes Hellboy so beautiful, the simplicity and elegance of design, means that looking at a Mignola sketch is exactly like looking at a finished comic book panel, except you can see the India ink brush marks in the black areas, and there is no supporting narrative thrust to give the picture meaning. The same goes for his pencils (of which there are few included- I don't think this guy makes a mark on paper without inking and publishing it). There is not even a discussion of Mignola's sources or inspirations, no bibliography of the occult (oh, I forgot, we're living in post-literate America). There is no insight to be gained by investing in the Art of Hellboy, because it is just a sampler of beautifully designed panels that look better in the comic books.

Rating:
Summary: A MUST OWN FOR HELLBOY FANS
Review: This book is absolutely gorgeous. Basically, it is a compilation of practically all the Hellboy comic book covers, pin-ups, merchendise designs, rare ads, prints - things like that. In addition, the book contains some of Mignola's sketches, unpublished drawings, conceptual ideas, finnished pages from some of the comic books, and a decent amount of convention sketches.

All in all, the book is well executed and the quality and thought that went into it really shows. My only gripe is that more of Mignola's sketchbook pages would have been a great addition, but trust me, if youre a Hellboy fan or like the art style, this book is definetly for you.