THE ART OF BRYAN TALBOT
Published by NBM

A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed THE ART OF GREG CAPULLO and gave it a resounding pan due to a number of glaringly bad decisions in design. So I was quite pleased to see this book in my mailbox- no North American publisher does better “Art” books than NBM, and I expected this would be excellent. As usual, they didn’t let me down.

This is how you do an “Art” book.

Bryan Talbot is one of the greatest living artists in our field, a man who has been mastering his craft for decades. He’s shown himself to be versatile, tackling superheroes, science fiction, fantasy, rock stars, and human interest. He can pencil, ink, paint… you name it… and he does so in brilliant fashion. And each bit of that is on display in this terrific over-sized book. You also get to see a retrospective of his whole career on display here; some of his earliest work is on these pages, along with some of his most recent. It allows the reader to see just how much talent he had to start with, and just how much he’s learned and progressed with over time.

There is also very little “white space” inside this book. Where there isn’t art (printed at all sizes) there is commentary text from Talbot explaining the origins of various works and how they came together. Sometimes he even expresses chagrin about the results, but he isn’t afraid to put them out there.

The book also comes with a lovely introduction by the great Neil Gaiman, but the real star is the life’s work of a man whose talents know no boundaries. Any serious collector of comic or pop culture art will want this excellent work on their shelves.

/Mason