Graphics Books

The world that Jim Woodring has created is unique and very different. His drawing is precise and clear so you have no difficulty understanding what shapes and forms you are looking at, but it isn't a place you've ever been to before. Fortunately, it's just barely familiar enough to be understandable and, also fortunately, it's also so different that it's totally fascinating.
The book consists of a number of short stories or episodes collected from the Frank comic book series. There is no dialogue but Woodring is brilliant at telling a story with pictures. Some stories have an understandable plot and some don't. At least on the conscious level they don't. They often still feel like a story even though you would be hard-pressed to explain why.
It's very satisfying to read/view the Frank stories, but you should probably be someone who enjoys David Lynch, surreal art, sci-fi, fantasy, and jazz.

Sitting in front of a computer screen, trying to think of a title that would truly encompass the spirit of Jim Woodring's insane little fables, only the word "Wow" came to mind. Wow. Regardless of whom you are, what walk of life you come from, even what language you speak, "Frank" will floor you, simple as that.

On first glance these stories look like the drug-fueled dreams of a madman, simultaneously evoking a sense of awe and horror from the reader. The world of Frank, an anamorphic creature that looks like a combination of several different animals, is one that's utterly alien to our own yet oddly familiar. Frank himself is an enigma, at times innocently curious, while other times cruel and vengeful. The creatures, if you could call them that, which share this world with Frank are just as odd: from Frank's faithful companion Pupshaw to the vile and conniving Manhog.

The stories that occur within this world are equally bizarre and seemingly nonsensical, yet underneath the surreal nature of these stories lurks meaning. I won't even attempt to analyze the themes of these tales, as I seriously doubt there is a single concrete message to any of the stories contained in this volume. Every person probably has different interpretations for Frank's world: biblical metaphor, morality tale, apocalyptic fable or just insane fun. You can look as deep as you want into these stories, or just read them for hallucinogenic kicks.

I've never read, seen or imagined anything quite like the world of Frank, and I doubt I ever will. It manages to tap into a universal subconscious, screw around with it, and spit out a couple dozen of insane little stories for your reading pleasure. It's a staggering work of a demented genius and needs to be experienced by anyone who calls themselves a comic fan.

...or something like that. How else to describe beautiful art like this? It is an art that goes well beyond simply capturing our dreams and nightmares. Rather, it brings them back to us along with the whole pieces and scattered fragments that we'd forgotten we'd experienced. Absurd and thought-provoking, it brings joy to our hearts with one moment and shocking fear to our brains with the next. It is as grotesque and sublime as life, but at first glance it looks nothing like it. But once you immerse yourself into it, you will see it and you will enjoy it. I promise you will.

Nothing can be said to describe the experience of reading this book. The only way to understand is to read it yourself -which I cannot recommend enough.

Just buy this book.

I read The Frank Book, and my eyeballs fell out.

A vast preponderance of our civilzation found this to be quite amusing. I would give it two thumbs up, but our species has no thumbs. Order this book. Immediately. Zoltan out.

My cousin in America gave me this book for Christmas. I have to confess, I opened it early and read it already! I'm glad I did, because I am going to read it again before the holiday break is over! An intergalactic cat.. and it's not as preposterous as it sounds! I don't want to spoil anything in the plotline for you, but this is a funny read, and not just for sci-fi fans! (Or cat fans).

A friend gave me this book to read on a flight. By the time we had landed, I had finished it! I've never read a book in one sitting before! It really never gets boring.

This was a really funny read. I hardly ever laugh out loud when I'm reading, but I did several times while reading "Galactically Speaking."

My reading tastes generally don't go to this type of book, but I was laughing out loud with Galactically Speaking. It's a refreshing change of pace and makes you think at the same time. A fun and interesting book.

I have to say, this book is awesome. It taught me how to build models and understand why I am doing what I am doing. I use it all the time and hopefully he will release a new version for us folks who will outgrow this one. Covers all bases and it's worth 2x what I paid for it...

this is very good because it teaches step by step and it makes sense too.

The book is a very clear, step-by-step of all the processes involved in making a game character leading up to the animation. The animation is covered but not in as much detail. Everything else is though, including the awesome rigging machine which comes with the book.

Its refreshing to see that someone wasnt limited by a publisher to keep the book size down, and he obviously was able to take his time really illusrating every step.

Its a great book.

This is my first time to write this kind of review, therefore, I don't know how to do a good one. But what I can say for this book is it is easy to follow and the method of modeling that I have learned from it is very useful. If you can follow the tutorials patiently, you can gradually build a very good foundation of your modeling skill. ^-^.. I am looking forward for the next edition.

1)This book highlights some important issues in modeling & rigging that no other books bother to emphasis.

2)The accompanying CD contains very insightful scripts (that acutally works) - goodies other books only PRETEND to give.

3)It guides beginners and ease them through relatively advanced topics in character animation.

4)If you really need to achieve something in a hurry in Maya. Yes, this is the book to get.

For a book to be called game development this book sure is lacking on the game side of things.You create one big game at the end,but other than that there is really nothing else in there I would consider a game.That's why the book is getting 4 stars not 5.With that out of the way this book is very well written and the author explains things in great detail. There are alot of good nuggets of coding techniques in this book.

I had used Flash 4 for some time. In Flash 4, if you wanted to do a certain command, like go to a different scene you went to the point and click menu and selected that.But I felt that was rather lacking in what you could do, so I wanted to get the latest and greatest version of Flash. I went out and bought it, (MX 2004) and I soon found out, that there really wasn't a point and click menu, and you needed at least some knowledge in ActionScript. I looked around, and found this book. And I am glad I did. The book is exellent. It's really easy to follow, between the detailed explantions and the demo's on the cd. I found it really easy to understand everything, and it gives you a great way to start programming.

It comes with a demo of Flash MX 2004, but I highly recommend buying it (I got it at an educational discount). Both MX and this book were well worth the money.

There are few author's that take the beginner's (dummy) route to teaching programming to the masses and this book shines brightly in that department. From start to finish, it seems that the author knows what I want to do and shows me thoroughly how to do it properly with different ways to tackle it. I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to take FLASH MX to sky high heights and not just leave this wonderful program to websites.

This is an enthusiastic book to read because once you open it and see how easy it is to follow you'll be excited to continue to read, and learn how to use flash mx. The author shows excellence in communicating the information to his readers. I am not fimilar with programming, but interested in programming and i was able to gain a lot of information that I was able to apply(which is the most important concept of the book). I definitely recommend this book to those who may want to enhance their knowledge or one who is just curious of the field.

I'm a business man looking for a programming book to spice up my computer knowledge & some fun, something different and exciting, I came across this book, in Barns & Noble, sitting on the shelve in the actionscript section. The book is very easy to understan, comes packed with not only that but the CD comes packed with cool samples and games and comes with Flash MX 2004!!! Defenietly I recommend it.

There was a time when artists bread and butter work was painting true to life pictures: portraits, battle scenes, ships, landscapes. With the advent of photography, art changed to other forms, some of which bore no recognizable appearance of anything known to anyone but the artist.

With the advent of digital photography and the necessary software to manipulate images, digital artists began to move in the way of the painters. Their digital images are formed by the manipulation of multiple images, of changes that can be made down to the bit level if desired.

This book explores digital art. While as of yet this is not well received by the conventional art community, it is a sign of coming times. Specifically in this book the same three specific images have been given to seventeen artists to use to illustrate what they might create. The procedures they followed to create new images coming from these three seed images are documented. The results are wildly different between the resulting pictures.

This is the forefront of digital art.

Joseph Nalven and JD Jarvis' Going Digital: The Practice And Vision Of Digital Artists is written by a cultural anthropologist who developed photography as a tool for working on ethnographic research, and an author who has long worked in TV production and graphic design: the two together offer a survey of the digital process as it applies to creating the art, from photos to finished products. 17 artists were asked to take three seed photos and use the images creatively in their own works of digital art: Going Digital takes these 17 efforts and blends them with discussions and examples of digital art from around the world, considering common challenges, presenting step-by-step processes from digital pioneer efforts, and creating a solid set of practical examples. A must for any aspiring digital artist.

Anything written about the practice of digital art today is doomed to be obsolete shortly. Very little is likely to survive even as being "quaint" in the way of Bill Gates's famous comment that 640 bytes were enough for anyone.
Since we have digital artists in the thousands, however, all eager to learn more technique, to make the most of all that's available, to see what each other is doing, we need resource material to serve them. "Going Digital" does this admirably in an original way. Seventeen artists each take the same three given photographic images and use up-to-the-minute tools to mold their own creations. The results are startlingly different. Most important, each artist has recorded his or her creative process in a sort of running diary, illustrated with dozens of images used or discarded en route to the final one.
The technology will more than likely change drastically as artists and computer scientists continue to interact. What will remain exciting and inspiring in Joe Nalven and JD Jarvis's book is the implicit discussions among editors and contributors about the meaning of art, the value of art, the place of artists, what changes and what abides. Both the many fine prints and the thoughtful questions raised fit into the history and practice of art, as always fascinating every one of us. Every question has more than one answer; rarely are these answers just yes and no. Although the discussion is implicit, the reader knows that he is in the hands of experienced teachers. The authors leave no doubt that their book goes past "now".
You'll want this book on your shelf or in your hand always. I wish that Amazon would let me give it a sixth star.

There is little that I can add to the previous excellent, detailed reviews. But I did want to add my two cents worth:

I received my "Going Digital" from Amazon a few days ago and read it cover to cover in two sittings - loved it! I especially enjoyed the participant's musings on the three seed photos. It was interesting that most all of them liked the image of the figure.

The resulting prints could not have been more different - a very interesting intellectual/artistic exercise indeed. It is a "must have" book for all digital artists - and will undoubtedly be a classic text book on the subject.

(...)

I find that having to create something with images not of your own choosing forces
you to stretch the limits - to step outside of your comfort zone. I have produced images that I NEVER would have done otherwise.

I have been working digitally less than two years, most of that time I have been in
an internet group with weekly challenges. I credit the "seed image" restriction with helping me grow and find my own voice in this digital world.

When I switched to digital everything was so new and unfamiliar. I have not been able to get into a comfortable rut with the ever-changing challenges. They have pushed me in directions I never would have chosen for myself- and that's a good thing!

When I finished the book I looked for a website that had the images available - I was dying to try my hand at it!

Buy the book, then try out the concept of "seed images" for yourself. It is a fantastic learning experience.

Oh wait... while I am here. Harald Johnson's other book "Mastering Digital Printing" (second edition) is another "must have" if you are serious about your digital art.

Carol
(...)

This book is a treasure trove of ideas for aspiring digital artists. Digital art has come of age, and Nalvin and Jarvis offer a comprehensive overview of the revolution that is transpiring before our very eyes. The book features an international group of digital artists working their magic on three simple images, while explaining their techniques and exposing their creative thought process at every step along the way. For the reader, each chapter provides a compelling intimate journey through the creative mind of a digital artist. My favorite was Greg Klamt, whose creativity is boundless. For me, this is digital art its at its very best. As Jarvis has stated in his digital manifesto, in the digital art world ".high cost will no longer signify superior work. Galleries and critics alike will soon have to realize that creativity, vision, diversity and craftsmanship have returned as the benchmarks of "value". Bravo!

Flipping through the first collection of Gunsmith Cats it becomes very obvious that Sonoda has three main obsessions; guns, cars and hot girls. He lavishes detail on all three of his subjects with glorious detail. Guns are highly detailed: including angles on spent shell casings and notes about the types of weapons used. Cars are drawn in loving detail and Sonoda loves showcasing his cars in action. Then there are the lovely ladies. Sonoda's character design is definitely old school (he worked on the original "Bubblegum Crisis" and "Gall Force") but his character design is appealing and he doesn't hold back on showing his ladies is various stages of undress.

But what about the story? The framing plot involving the deadly brother and sister duo of Bonnie and Clyde Dorman reminds me of 80's action movie madness. It's a simple tale of revenge with Bonnie coming across like a complete nut job and Clyde the dedicated brother. The ending is a bit of an anticlimax, but it acts as a warm-up for the following confrontation with Gray.

There's plenty to love here though. The initial story "Feeding Trouble" introducing our girls and Bonnie captures the feel of the series right off the bat (even if the girls obsessions are over the top). Rally's pursuit of Clyde and the smash up in the alleyway are classic. I also love Bonnie's various weapons and the look on her face when she's taking out her enemies (nut job!). The one shot stories are good too, but Gunsmith Cats seems to work better with the story arcs revolving around one villain or plot.

One thing is obvious from the beginning, Sonoda can draw action. He frames it well, and its pretty easy to follow what's happening, who's shooting at who and how a car ends up upside down wedged between two walls. He only gets better at this creating some of the best shootouts and car chases I've ever seen in manga form.

For me Gunsmith Cats is like a fun popcorn movie. It's a great read between brainier material, and it never lets you down. "Bonnie and Clyde" was the first episode. It's good stuff, but it was going to get better. Overall a solid beginning to a great series.

*** A Note ***
If you've seen the anime one shot "Riding Bean" you may notice that a woman named Rally appears in it. She loves guns and helps Bean out when things get rough. Interestingly enough Bonnie looks a lot like that version of Rally. I always wondered if Sonada was unable to use that design because of rights issues, so he turned his original Rally into Bonnie and then had a new Rally take over (with Minnie May of course). In any case we get Rally vs. Rally in this first book. Weird, eh?

then you'll love the manga. Rally, with her love of guns, and Minnie-May, with her love of bombs, are the most dangerous bounty hunters in the Windy City. In this first volume they run into Bonnie and Clyde, a sister-brother team of hired guns, the most dangerous killers working for the mob in Chicago. A couple of one chapter stories plus a interview with Kenichi Sonoda at the start makes for interesting 'extras' in this volume.
Because of the blood and some scenes in a brothel this is not for kids. Cool guns, cool cars and cool cats. Gunsmith Cats, of course!

While the animation pays more attention than your typical anime to the details of guns, cars, weaponry, and Chicago, the manga does even moreso. The creator's earlier creation, Riding Bean, shows up later in the series. Some of the action scenes are over the top and there're more nudity and sexual situations in the comic. However, this only further distinguishes Gunsmitch Cats from other anime and manga. If you've only seen the DVD, you've barely seen Gunsmith Cats!

This book makes no effort to hide what it is - a no holds barred male fantasty hodgepodge of guns, girls and grenades.

Gunsmith Cats is the story of Rally Vincent (a teenage gun wizard) and her trusty nymphomaniac sidekick Minnie May Hopkins.
Together they work as bounty hunters on the streets of downtown Chicago, running into some rather nasty customers from time to time.

Despite the kinky and mature subject matter, this is quite an excellent book on multiple levels. First, the sheer artistic talent of Kenichi Sonoda is a sight to behold. Whether he's showing you a Shelby GT or a Baretta 9mm, the detail is all there, down to the very last lugnut or safety catch!

Also, the narratives of each episode are quite clever. Sonoda could have easily let the series turn into mindless, violent shoot-em-ups. But what is presented in this book are finely crafted stories, each with their own twist and crafty resolution.

The earlier Gunsmith Cats books (there are 9 total) are better than the last 3, but even those are excellent in their own right.

I highly recommend this manga for anyone even remotely interested in it!!

This is the first volume of the manga series. At the time of this writing, there are only two issues left of the manga to be published, and that will be it unless Kenichi Sonoda decides to write more.

Rally Vincent and Minnie-May Hopkins are bounty hunters in Chicago plus they own a gun shop. Rally is the gun and car expert while May knows how to make explosives. There is also Becky who can dig up any information that might be needed to get a job done.

This volume deals with basic development of the main characters and later, Bonnie becomes the focus as she tries to get revenge for the injuries she blames Rally for. Compared to later volumes, this one is more graphic than the others, and I would consider this R-rated material.

There is much information in the series about cars and guns. I'm not an expert on either, but based on what I read in the letter columns in the individual issues, it seems to be very accurate. None of the letters are published in these volumes.

When my friend told me about this manga 4 years ago my first reaction was "A manga about Igo (or Wei-Chi in Chinese)? Who'd want to read that?!" I resisted for about a year until I finally gave in to his naggings and picked up the first volume...and was completely hooked by the end of it. I immediately went and get a set for myseif, and to this day it has remained on the top of my favoriates (no small feat for someone who has hundreds of mangas and changes favoriates constantly). The story, the artworks, the characters... everything just grabs you and pulls you in and never letting go, and you don't want to be let go. I'm glad that they are bringing this manga to the US, and I'm going to collect the English version as well so I can introduce this wonderful work to my friends who can't read Japanese or Chinese. Do yourself a favor and pick it up, you won't be disappointed. This truly is a title that any manga or anime fans shouldn't do without.

Hikaru Shindo needs money fast and he's getting pretty desperate, even looking through his granfather's attic with his best friend, Akari, for any old junk he can sell. He's short of money because his allowance has been taken away by his parents for his bad grades in school. They manage to find an old Go board with what appears to be a bloodstain on it. Soon after that Hikaru begins to hear a disembodied voice only audible to him and then the voice is joined by a ghostly apparition of an 1000 year old Go player named Fujiwara-no-Sai from the Heian Period. He used to be the instructor to the Emperor, but a rival's plots threw him into disgrace and he eventually committed suicide. But his soul yearned to play more Go, and he has been able to appear to certain people through the ages to help him on his quest to play the "Divine Move". Now he hopes to enlist Hikaru in the drive to that goal.

I've found over the years that I can read manga or watch anime that get me interested in subjects I would never have sought on my own. The game of Go was something I had heard of but had no idea how to play before watching and reading Hikaru No Go. Even though I didn't understand every move being played by the characters I did get the GIST of what was going on, and felt suspense or excitement in what is essentially a mental game instead of a physical one. That is the true triumph of the writer and the artist. Making something that shouldn't be inherently interesting to non-players exciting and entertaining. Yumi Hotta's passion for the game really shows. Sometimes you can get swept up into another's passion through sheer force of will. The characters introduced in Volume 1 are likeable even though Sai is a little too girly for me. There's even a rival for Hikaru to go up against that is his own age, Akira Toya, the son of the best Go player in Japan, and a great talent in his own right. Great book. The anime series is good too.

I am amazed at how powerful an effect these books have had on my children. I mean that now that they have been reading these books they have developed an interest in playing go. They knew I played and have seen my go board but they never asked me to teach them until after they started reading these books. Within two weeks of the purchase of this book my 14 and 10 year old sons were playing go and I had never given any lessons to my 10 year old. They are continually asking me to get more of the series. It is great. I am very happy.

i love this manga its the coolest!!its about a kid named hikuru and he finds a spirt that used to play go and it helps him play go.its realy good i recemend it for all ages!

Yeah! I've seen the whole anime series (in chinese) already, and believe me it's really good! The end is sort of a "you choose" type of ending, so... you get my point.

Hikaru no go is a great manga promoting the ancient chinese/japanese game go. The object of the game is use black and white pieces and occupy most of the board. You can "eat" sections of your opponent's part by totally surrounding a portion of his pieces. Hikaru no go is about a young boy (6th grade) named Hikaru who just happens to find a go board in his father's attic! It seems that only he can see the blood stains on the board and suddenly a human/ghost come out of the board and has been longing to play go for the past hundred years. Sai (the ghost that looks totally like a person) couldn't die and go to heaven until he mastered the "divine move".

At first Hikaru, like any sane person, denys Sai what he wants (to just play go) Then, also like any sane person, consents when Sai's unquenchable sadness causes Hikaru to get sick. In Japan some people devote their whole lives just playing to and become go instructors. The game originally came from China, but it became more popular in Japan. Back to the story, Hikaru goes into a go club and finds that the whole place is full of adults. The suddenly he spots a boy his age and asks to play with him. Turns out, however, that the boy his age named Akira is the son of the best go player in Japan! Sai directs Hikaru in where to put the pieces and he wins without any effort. Akira is naturally shocked seeing that the way Hikaru holds the go pieces is like a beginner, but his moves are from hundreds of years ago! Akira has basically never been beat before, being a go prodigy, so now he has a new goal: to beat Hikaru.

The story progresses and tells about how hikaru gets taught by Sai in how to play the game, and expert moves. Hikaru learns very quickly and goes from a school team, to the city tournament, to applying to become a go instructor for life! It also tells of his struggles to beat Akira and how all the upper go players are keeping an eye on him. It's interesting when Hikaru and Sai go play on-line go with other real players from around the world. You get to see Sai kicking other countries' best player's butts!

Oh yeah, did I mention that only 3 people get become go instructors each year? Akira already got a spot the year before. Do you think Hikaru is up to the challenge? If he does get in, will he be able to compete with people on/above his level?

If you like this manga, I strongly recommend "Whistle!" as well

Jeffrey Caldewey and Chuck House's Icon: Art Of The Wine Label is also a highly recommended, distinguished guide which offers a collection of work by the modern masters of wine label design who have for decades helped define global wine label design strategies around the world. Icon is a collection of some of their best works, providing both an artistic assessment of the art of iconography to examples of 120 wine labels and bottle designs complete with their distinctive branding qualities.

This book was not only interesting to read, the artwork and dedication to all aspects of wine was unbeleivable. This is one I will read over and over again. Ok, maybe I will be just looking at the pictures...

This is a great book for any wine enthusiast. It is the ideal coffee table book to have out when your friends stop by. The book is interesting and a great conversation starter. I really enjoyed this book. Of course, it didn't have every wine label I was looking for, but it did contain many of them. This book would make a perfect gift for anyone.

A designers must have! Great inspiration on pushing the envelope in packaging design. Jeffrey Caldewey and Chuck House are the top of their field and it shows in every design. A great gift for the upcoming holidays. Everyone from wine connoisseur to artist will enjoy this book.

ICON - the embodiment of spirit, matter, and time. In Einsteinian terms, ICON would be the equation that sums time, space, matter, and ideology.

ICON is a tour de force, a signature piece representing the extensive body of work by two of the wine industries brightest stars, Jeffrey Caldeway and Chuck House, package designers.

One once told me that the contents of a barrel, brown bag for a label, sans introduction, sipped from a coffee cup in your kitchen, will defy distinction by most and keep both the wine and the consumer most honest.

But we of sophistication desire more than honesty, and more is ours in ICON. To the vast universe of wine, the package brings order to chaos, diminishes chance, dispels mystery, stamps a caste, creates distinction, and strokes your ego and those of others. We assume the package as an intimate expression of Self, much in the same way one would don a designer creation. Albeit, a label does nothing to alter the wine.

In this treatise of wine package history, we are reminded that necessity is the mother of invention. Order to chaos produced the first labels. Labels of origin, distinction, and personality followed. It wasn't until recent times that ego drove the package, and Ego is the stuff of ICON.

This book reveals both Jeff and Chuck as modern day alchemists, intently stirring their witches brew of ego, dream, soil, anxiety, money, sweat, clone, ambition, microclimate, and desire, distilled into an amalgam of glass, cork, paper, and ink which will transform total of Past into the largesse of Future . . . a responsibility from which all but the most tempered would shrink.

And whom amongst us do we charge with this lofty responsibility? It must be entrusted to those select few who have the creative talent, skills, will, and ability to lift mere grape juice to the pedestal upon which it currently resides. Package designers must do for others what they are incapable of doing themselves.

Jeff Caldeway and Chuck House are gifted Iconoclasts, challenged with creating an artistic expression which will herald not only the product but, moreover, the totality of the person, the sole of the winemaker, the beast that lies within. We find the authors delving into a very intimate and complex process of discovery. Needs. Wants. Values. History. Family. Dreams. Hopes. Fears. Stuff. From all this they must derived a package that projects not only the person and the product, but also an expression that potentially becomes a fulcrum on which success and failure balance.

Drawing from ancient beginnings, Jeff Caldeway and Chuck House have successfully bred charm and aristocracy into the great wines and spirits of present day, inscribing pedigree after pedigree that will endure. Page after page brings to mind another example of success that can be directly attributable to the profound influence their package had on the wine selection process.

The depth and breadth of their body of work clearly place Jeff and Chuck at the forefront of the wine package business for more than three decades, leaving a legacy most others could only hope to achieve. ICON secures their place amongst the elite who's creativity exceeded all those before them, who's work will not soon be eclipsed.

Art, beauty, and finesse abound. ICON elicits something that is deeply satisfying, much like a well-turned ankle or great music. Printing, inks, paper, photography, binding are all first cabin. ICON is a calling card, a testament, and an example of excellence that the authors expect from themselves and deliver to others.

We are blessed to have such a fine compendium to grace our lives, the likes not often achieved. It is a gift, a reference, a history, a conversation maker, and a commanding centerpiece for any lover of wine and art. I would recommend you add ICON to your collection and see how long it stays on your coffee table! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Share it with a friend.

To finally have a chance to see Windsor McCay's artwork as it was intended is the treat of a lifetime. The reproductions I've seen in the past reduce the size of the art like watching a 70mm film on a regular TV set.

Nothing is being produced like this anymore. McCay's talent is beyond amazing, it would take a normal artist months to produce one page like he was doing every week. The book is exhausting and I can only read a dozen pages at a time. These are exact reproductions of actual newsprint pages from the time so all the printing imperfections are here but that should not dissuade the appreciation of this comic.

If you are a true drawn art aficionado find the money for this. You will not regret it.

Beautiful book.A splendid example of the quality of book production possible to-day. As for Little Nemo, one does not need to be a New Yorker- or even an American-to appreciate the artistry involved.
Chris Hunt, Alnwick, UK

This is a wonderful book - any digital animator should start here. Some of the frames look like storyboards for the Lord of the Rings films. It is amazing that a work of art of this quality appeared in a popular newspaper - and reproducing it now, at full scale, was a true labor of love. Winsor McKay was a fantastic artist.

This is the most beautiful book I have ever seen. Having purchased the complete Little Nemo book series in the 1980's I really looked forward to finally being able to see this lovely comic in its original format. When the book arrived today I realised that it was even better than I had hoped for, extremely high quality and of impressive size.

The only drawback is that it does only contain a selection of the story, but I can always read the missing pages in the cheaper old edition. A big applaud for the publisher who dared produce this wonderfull piece of art.

Let's be honest: this book's not cheap. Is it worth the price tag? Without question or hesitation: yes. If you're even contemplating buying this book, I probably don't have to tell you how great the Little Nemo strip was. What you'll want to know is that this book will make you feel like you've never really seen Little Nemo until now. It is a magnificent, absolutely stunning book.

First of all, this book is huge. McCay's work is reproduced at its original size, which reveals his superb draftsmanship in all its glory. If you remember Little Nemo as lovely but kind of cramped, you're not going to believe how open and expansive the strips look here.

Secondly, the color reproduction is superb. I'll take the editor's word that a great deal of effort was expended to match McCay's original coloring directions. What I will say is that the colors here are vibrant without being garish. It's really unbelievable that such sophisticated color work comes from a strip that's a hundred years old. I don't think most newspapers today could pull this off.

You really have to see the book to appreciate how incredible it is. This really sets a standard against which the other collections I've seen fall far short. If you can swing the price, you won't be sorry. You might, however, have a hard time finding a place to store it!

This book was really good along with the whole manga collection of love hina. The thing is that I watchd the whole love hina on TV. Once you get to book 4 or 5 then the plot changes. For instance on TV naru and keitaro never do it well in the manga they did. This book is still really good...but it just bugged me how it went off topic from the TV plot.

SPOILER WARNING

I'm not usually one to get emotional over manga or anything, but the end affected me realy strongly (especially the part with the time capsule). Keitaro and Naru get married (which the cover kind of gives away, but whatever), and maybe they get to finally "do it" without being interrupted. ;)

Anyway, I hear there's a manga sequel coming out in Japan. Maybe untrue but I can only hope...

I have loved 'Love Hina' from the beginning. Most of the people that I've come in contact I try to get them to read it but they look at say it's just a simple comic it's for kids (which is just so wrong) or I try to explain about and they go. "oooh it's a porno comedy!" So, I had to stop! 'sigh' however, if your looking at this book do yourself a favor and get from the beginning! Trust me!!!

This great manga series comes to a satisfying conclusion. True love wins out, and all that jazz. If you read the first 13 books in this series, you know you have to find out how it ends.

I borrowed the Love Hina manga collection from my friend and after reading the first volume, I instantly got hooked. Reading 5 volumes a day. It just kept wanting to find out what happened next. Bieng a romance comedy and me bieng a guy, I doubt I would enjoy that but this manga series has become ome of my top 5. I was so sad to see it end. Did I cry? Heck yah. It was a great ending to a great manga series. I knew you had it in you, Keitaro!!