Booklog: ATLA: The Art of the Animated Series (Konietzko / DiMartino)

[nebroadwe]

My copy of Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Art of the Animated Series arrived last week and it's lovely: big, glossy, and filled with character models, background paintings, key poses, storyboards, and random sketches. (And an overhead shot of the entire Fire Nation capital, which is going to be much consulted if I ever get up the gumption to attempt my "Aang and Zuko search for Ursa" novel.) Apart the fascinating "How we came up with this idea" section at the front end, it's light on commentary, which I find somewhat disappointing; then again, if artists expressed themselves in words, they'd be writers, not artists. (And the DVD commentaries probably cover most of what they'd have said, anyway, except maybe for insights such as: "After storyboarding the epic airship sequence, Joaquim Dos Santos said he never wanted to draw another pointy-tipped airship again.") My favorite part is the one on calligraphy, which translates some of the wanted posters and other signage, such as Aang's advertisement:

Have you seen my flying bison? His name is Appa. He has six legs and weighs ten tons. If you have any information, please contact Avatar Aang in the Upper Ring, 96th district, house #217.

Recommended for all fans of the series who want to delve a little more deeply into its construction -- and specifically to my fellow fanficcers, as a hugely useful visual reference tome.

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I have tnose (FMA manga art) and the anime art (first one, with Wistful!Ed on the cover). I'd like to get the movie ones, just for the art.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping there'll be another manga art book now, even if I have to get it from Japan. (Though I do enjoy the translated comments, but the bottom's so out of the anime/manga market now, I don't think we'll see an English translation. Boo, hiss.) kanja_177 got me one of the Japanese postcard books for my birthday -- talk about something I'll never use in the manner intended. All I want to do is look at the pretty pictures.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Is that the Brotherhood postcard book? I purchased one for myself as a late birthday present and stared in delight.

And promptly put it on the shelf, wondering why a hardcover book is a postcard book...no, they don't want you to buy two or anything, no, not at all.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's the one. And there's a marketing genius in there somewhere thinking, "Of course they'll buy it! They're FANS!"

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Somewhere I have my Dirty Pair postcard set which came free in my copy of Animage. Along with tape cassette covers and VHS strips to label my illegally gotten tapes! So, yeah...miss the old days.