has some of the greatest concept art I've had the pleasure of seeing. The book is written by Jason Surrell who was a Disney Imagineer for a long time and did books on Pirates and Haunted Mansion. With an introduction by Marvel Visual Development department concept artists Ryan Meinerding and Charlie Wen, they start by saying "The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a world whose foundation is based in art, or as we'd like to call it: an illustrator's dream." And it really is. It wasn't easy designing The Avengers. That's the one message that keeps coming up in the book.
There are many quotes from actors, Joss Whedon the director, James Chinlund and concept artists to help you feel what it was like to design such a huge film.
For the film they gave a core team of concept artists a character to focus on. Andy Park (), Phil Saunders and Adi Granov (Iron Man), Charlie Wen (Thor), Ryan Meinderding (Captain America), Rodney Fuentebella, Jacon Johnstson. Production Designer James Chinlund got an amazing group of freelance artists together to round out the team.
The art in the book is beautiful and the glossy oversize pages really let you see an amazing level of detail.
The introduction takes you through the set of movies from Iron Man to Thor and ends with an amazing timeline of the cinematic universe timeline that's three pages long.
The next three chapters take you through the events in the film in three acts: Incident in the Desert, Avengers Assemble and Common Threat.
"Act One: Incident in the Desert" takes you through the sets and designs from the beginning of the film and concept art for Nick Fury, Agent Maria Hill, Loki and Hawkeye.
"Act Two: Avengers Assemble" covers Bruce Banner/Hulk, Black Widow, Steve Rogers/Captain America, Tony Stark/Iron Man, Thor and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s vehicles including the massive Helicarrier. There is also a collection of storyboards
 |
| Andy Park's Black Widow "Cat Suit" designs with unused "Widow Stingers" coursing through the costume. |
Finally, "Act Three: A Common Threat" starts with designs of Iron Man's new armor and takes you through the design of the evil alien Chitauri. There's even a key frame of the post credit surprise cameo. It ends with an amazing storyboard of the final battle against the aliens by Bryan Andrews and Jim Mitchell
 |
| Bryan Andrews "Battle in the Desert" storyboards featuring Iron Man vs. Thor |
The final section, "Some Assembly Required" covers various aspects of the marketing from t-shirt designs to versions of the San Diego Comic-Con poster.
One nice feature that I hadn't seen before is a list of all the artists in the book along with the page numbers.
Here's the list of artists credited
- Aaron McBride
- Adi Granov
- Amanda Hunter
- Andy Park
- Ari Sachter-Zeltzer
- Ben Edelberg
- Bryan Andrews
- Bryan Hitch
- Charlie Wen
- Christian Alzmann
- Christopher Ross
- Dave Yee
- Fabien Lacey
- Iain McCaig
- Jack Kirby
- Jacon Johnstson
- Jeff Markwith
- Jim Mitchell
- John Giang
- Josh Herman
- Joe Simon
- Justin Sweet
- Jackson Sze
- Mark Goerner
- Michael Meyers
- Nathan Schroeder
- Nick Cross
- Olly Moss
- Paul Ozzimo
- Phil Saunders
- Paolo Rivera
- Raj Rihal
- Rick Buoen
- Rodney Fuentebella
- Ryan Meinderding
- Steve Jung
- Tani Kunitake
- Yanick Dusseault
This is a beautiful book and, with it's artist quotes, beautiful layout and insider information, is well worth reading.
4 1/2 of 5 stars
Timeline image via comicbookmovie.com
What do you think of the book? Are you going to look for it?
