Films, no; game-related, heck yes. :) Other than pre-order art books, which I do have quite a bit of, all of my books are imported from Japan. I'm surprised that so many are being released in the US these days.

Probably most of my art books are tri-Ace related. Mayumi Azuma's Treasure and Second Treasure, Star Ocean EX Sketch Book, Valkyrie Profile Material Collection and Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth & Silmeria Material Collection, etc. I have an absurd tri-Ace collection in general:

http://www.inverteddungeon.com/triacesu … ction.html

But I also pick up whatever art I really fall in love with, sometimes even when I don't care about the games themselves much (like with my Chrono Cross Missing Pieces book [although that's more of a "fan book"]). I also love my two Art of SNK World books, and one of my very favorite books in my collection is Guardian by Sachiko Kamimura. I fell in love with her style because of the Japanese cover of Brain Lord, and while the art book has art from that and some other games, the other art in it, mostly anime-related I guess, is even better yet.

The only sore gap in my collection is that I still don't have an Akihiro Yamada art book. I absolutely love his art in Dracula XX, Mystic Ark, Front Mission 3, etc. He's got a wonderfully unique style.

How are those Valkyrie Profile books?  I've always been partial to the Yoshinari bros' style of art. 

Don't suppose any of those books cover Covenant of the Plume too, do they?

They're both very nice, but I'm partial to the original Material Collection. The Lenneth/Silmeria book is so ridiculously massive that it's unwieldy even to look through, let alone trying to find a way to store it. The original splits it up into two separate books, one for illustrations and the other with a lot of info to going along with the images, and they're both inside a nice slipcase. It's still quite large, but at least I can get it on a bookshelf. Plus there's just the fact that the Lenneth/Silmeria book feels a bit redundant in terms of Lenneth, and I'm not nearly as fond of Shunya Yamashita's Silmeria work as that of Kou & You. So considering how expensive the newer Material Collection is, it just seems like the original was a better value. Although this is from the perspective from someone who had the original set years before the recent book, so if I had to look at it from the perspective of someone who had neither and was picking only one, I suppose Lenneth/Silmeria would be a better overview of the series. There is plenty of art in the original not present in the newer book, though, so there's definitely no harm in having both.

Nada on Covenant of the Plume. The best bet for that would be the small, hardcover art book that was a pre-order bonus for the Japanese release.

Thanks for the Valkyrie Profile info, Tina.  Books I'll definitely be striving to get in the future. :)

While I didn't splurge on the BioShock 2 Special Edition, I did manage to acquire a copy of the included Deco Devolution art book.  However, seeing as how I'm nowhere near to completing the game yet, I don't dare fully peruse it for fear of spoilers.  I haven't looked at the major character profiles, but did take a gander at some of the environment shots and weapon renders.  It's definitely nice.

For cautionary measures, I cropped off the names of the locations, but if you're ever planning on playing the game completely fresh, you'll probably want to avoid these pics all together.

-Back cover
-Poster ads of Rapture
-Weapons - Machine Gun & Rivet Gun
-Splicer Variety
-Little Sister concepts
-Big Daddy doll
-Environment render 1
-Environment concept
-Environment render 2
-Environment render 3

For the Trekkies, this better-late-than-never (it was released in November 2009) Star Trek The Art of The Film is a nice visual companion/art collection piece to the recent film.  The most notable attribute of the book is its ultra glossy build; from front to back, the entire thing is ridiculously high-res and super shiny.  Trying to get decent shots with my camera's flash on while not being awash in blinding whiteness was kind of tough:

-Front Cover
-Contents page
-The Narada
-USS Enterprise exterior shots
-Star Fleet's space docks
-Aliens
-Planet Vulcan
-USS Enterprise interior shots
-Communicators and Phasers
-The Narada's drill
-Delta Vega's Big Red
-Keenser
-Spock Prime's ship
-The Golden Gate Bridge

Amazon dropped a bunch of the art books down to $14.99 prompting me to quickly pick up three of them:  Megaman, Megaman X, and Okami complete works.  Awesome!

Damn, those are some incredible prices.  Finally, I have an excuse to pick up the English Okami Complete Works and The Art of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

Thanks for the heads-up!

Figures, I just bought the Megaman book. I'll be glad to pick up more, though. Thanks for the tip!

Does anyone know if the Breath of Fire book was brought over? It probably wasn't

Has anyone heard anything, even rumors, about more Yoshitaka Amano FF art coming officially to North America? That "Dawn" book (FFI through FFIV) is one of my favorites in the collection, but I'd love to get more, and newer, stuff. Anyone in the loop on Amano and Dark Horse?

Also, NIS America shipped me an advanced copy of the hardcover artbook that comes with the limited edition of Sakura Wars ~So Long, My Love~ ... it's about 50 pages, and it's lookin' hot. Mostly full-page character art.

Now if only they'd give us, say, I&II on PSP and give us an artbook with that. I'd really dig that.

SPRING CLEANING:

I have some art books for sale/trade
If anyone is interested, the following are available (all are North American releases and in new condition):

Art Books

Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures (SC)
Assassin's Creed (HC)
City of Villains (SC)
Conan (HC)
Devil May Cry 4 (HC)
Everquest II (SC)
Guild Wars Book 2 (SC)
Guild Wars Factions (SC)
Guild Wars Nightfall (SC)
Grand Theft Auto IV (HC)
Makai Kingdom (SC)
Soul Calibur II (SC)
Suikoden IV (SC)
Tales of Legendia (SC)
Tales of Symphonia (SC)
Viking Battle for Asgard (HC)
Xenosaga Episode I Der Wille zur Macht (SC)

cheers,

-avatar!

Ballistic Publishing have just announced a new Art of the Game series with the first book on UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves. There's a preview of the book on their site: http://www.ballisticpublishing.com/books/uncharted2/

$65 + $18 shipping for the soft covered version alone is nothing to sniff at.  But man, what an incredible looking book......

Honestly wish I could find the two SaGa Frontier books... I love the water color art in that game, not to mention the characters.

Picked up The Art of How To Train Your Dragon.  Though I am completely in love with the film, I honestly didn't think the aesthetics in design were much to write home about.  Perusing the art book, though, there are definitely some terrific renders, particularly on the various dragons and scenic locations.  The descriptive writing and layout is really well done too, though I'd expect nothing less from Tracey Miller-Zarneke. (The Art of Kung Fu Panda and The Art and Making of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs.)

-Front cover
-The Dragons
-More dragons
-Still more dragons
-Seeing a pattern here?
-Cute dragon!
-Hiccup
-Astrid
-Contrast example
-Landscape renders
-Scenic render
-This Is Berk 1
-This Is Berk 2
-Berk residency
-Dragon Isle
-Scenic render 2
-Props
-One more scenic render

Despite how lackluster the film turned out to be, due points are given to the sharp art design.  As the title implies, Alice In Wonderland: A Visual Companion is less an "Art of" style book of conceptual sketches and renders, and more of a what's-what and who's-who showcasing of what went into developing the movie.  This includes location set and green-screen snapshots, costume designs, actor and director profiles, and finished composites. 

For a visual companion, it's adequate, but it could have used with a good bit more original art pieces.

-Front cover
-Eat Me
-Illustrations from past adaptations
-Welcome to Wonderland
-Tweedledum and Tweedledee..... with a freakish bit of Matt Lucas thrown in.
-Cheshire Fry
-The tea party
-Beside the Hatter's hat
-The Red Queen's castle
-Breaching the castle walls
-Leaping "headfirst"
-The croquet ground
-Flamingos and hedgehogs
-The Lion and the Unicorn
-The White Queen's castle
-The White Queen's castle bridge
-Beware the Jabberwock, my son!  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

As a heads-up, Amazon has begun taking preorders for The Art of Uncharted 2 - and for the far more reasonable rate of $40.95.  Eligible for free shipping too, provided you're willing to wait as late as July for them to receive their orders.

It looks as though Udon will be publishing another Capcom art compilation in a few months.  Strange, though, that I can't find an announcement of this art book anywhere except for this Amazon listing.

Yeah, not even Udon has made a formal announcement as of yet.  Being a huge fan of the first Art of Capcom, an all-new collection is definitely an exciting prospect - but my instincts are warning me that we may not see it for a while yet.  Two to one odds we won't be seeing it by that 8/18 release date, at least.

My latest art book pick up is one I've been waiting a while for; my copy of The Art of The Princess and the Frog finally arrived after an out-of-print five month delay.  It was worth the wait.  The conceptual renditions of New Orleans are particularly striking.

-Front
-Inset
-New Orleans
-The Crescent City
-Tiana
-"Princess" Tiana
-Frog Tiana
-Naveen
-Big Daddy LeBouff
-Charlotte
-Charlotte again.  Because Lottie freaken rocks.
-Dr. Facilier
-Louis
-Ray
-Mama Odie
-Maquette renderings
-The Garden District
-The Garden District 2
-The Masquerade Ball
-Mardi Gras
-The Shadow Man's minions
-Romance in the Bayou
-Tiana's Place posters
-The Evening Star
-The cards, the cards, the cards will tell....
-The Ending  **SPOILER**

I bought myself The Art of Iron Man 2 last night. If anything, this book is much more lavish with the beautiful slipcover, the hardcover (beautiful illustrations by two of the main concept artists), and packed with all details on the suits, suitcase suit concept, Stark Expo, the drones, Vanko and his Whiplash weaponry, etc... So gorgeous and perfect not only as a companion to the already awesome Iron Man 1 art book, but it makes for a good coffee table book, too.

Love Adi Granov's concept illustrations. War Machine and Iron Man look wonderfully badass.

The turnaround time between becoming a fan and ordering the art book for myself was quick indeed.  I just finished watching Book One/Season One, so in light of potential spoilers, I've only looked over that particular season.  (For reference, roughly 85 of the total 185 pages make up the introduction and Season One.)  The art book appears to be pretty thorough, showcasing both main and secondary characters from every episode, along with coverage for environments, weapons, and creatures.  The book itself is clearly up to Dark Horse quality standards, gorgeously hardbound and lavishly detailed.  Check out some of the shots:

The Last Airbender Book One / Season One:

-Front cover
-Back cover
-Front spine
-Yip yip, Appa!
-The first conceptual pieces for the pitch of the show
-Aang
-Katara
-Sokka
-Momo!
-Stills from the Pilot
-More Pilot shots
-Key animation frames
-Concepts for The Spirit World ~ Winter Solstice episode
-Jet and his gang
-Renditions for Jet's forest hideout
-The Blue Spirit
-June
-The Fire Festival from The Deserter
-The Northern Water Tribe Kingdom
-Promotional art
-SD Airbender

Nice pics there; my interest is piqued. I've only seen The Last Airbender in passing, but I had no idea of the quality behind it. Very artistic. I want to ride on that Appa creature--it reminds me of the cat bus from Totoro.

That was actually one of the influences that the creators cited. After all, there aren't many other six-legged creatures to draw inspiration from. And yes, there really was a lot of behind the scenes work that went into the animation and it shows too. Maybe not so much on an episode to episode basis, but definitely over the course of a season and the show over all.

I keep hoping for more behind the scenes material; artwork, footage, interviews, anything. :3

My copy of The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves came in today, and it may very well end up being the crown jewel of my collection.  Since the entirety of the book is available for perusal at Ballistic's site, I'm going to forgo the usual sampling of pages, and simply snap some scope shots of the front, back and spine.

-Front
-Back
-Spine

Every piece found in the in-game Bonus Gallery is accounted for, and they are IMPOSSIBLY gorgeous in their book-bound format.

Picked up The Art of Toy Story 3.  Bursting with wonderful pastels, the whole thing has a gorgeous watercolor sensibility.

-Front Cover
-Ready for lift-off!
-Andy's dresser
-(Jay, this one's for you.)  An evolutionary glance at the human modeling between the three films
-Saving the orphans
-Young Andy
-Andy's room
-Andy
-Andy's family
-Sunnyside Daycare
-Real life daycare reference shots
-Sunnyside's architectural layout
-Contrasting day/night for Sunnyside
-Lotso
-Ken & Barbie
-Daycare Toys
-Bonnie's Toys
-Bonnie's room
-Bonnie
-Mr. Pricklepants
-Buttercup
-Dolly
-Chuckles and Trixie
**END SPOILER SHOTS FROM THIS POINT ON:
-24
-25
-26
-27
-28
-29

Apparently a cheaper English version is in the works.

Edit: It looks as though the first Art of Capcom is back in stock on Amazon.  It had been available only from third-party vendors for some time at outrageous prices.  One caveat, though, is that I just bought what Amazon said was the last copy, but Amazon still shows the book as being in stock.  I'm not sure what to make of that.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: "Go, Udon, go!"   I'm glad I've held off on this one.

Yeah, when it came back in stock during May of last year, I made sure to grab it right up.  I'm really looking forward to that second compilation, which, according to Amazon, now has a targeted release date of September 7, 2010.

Shigenori Soejima Art Works 2004-2010

Soejima was the character designer for Personas 3 and 4.  Unsurprisingly, most of this book is dedicated to his art for these two games.

Front cover
P3 - Aegis in profile
P3 - full version of cover art
P3 - I had seen most of the P3 artwork in this book before, but the artwork on both of these pages is new to me.
P3 FES - Metis and Aegis
P4 - Chie wearing a yukata (?)
P4 - On the move.  I like that Yosuke is holding Chie's cracked DVD.
P4 - Naoto
P4 - Oops, did I spoil P4 for myself?  No, wait, don't tell me.
Persona: Trinity Soul
Other works
Other works
Soejima next to a mound of Persona merchandise

My copy of Udon's The Art of Capcom 2 arrived this week.  Despite the 314 pages the first book has over this one's 283, the book is actually THICKER in size -- and I can't figure out why.  There's just a small handful of repeats from the Street Fighter and Darkstalkers Tribute books (you can probably count the number of those pieces on one hand), but this is yet another impressively substantial collection of Capcom-based Udon artwork.

To answer SonicPanda's inquiry, yes, the book is again heavily favored toward the Street Fighter series -- even more so, it seems, than the first collection.  To give you an idea at just how much is SF-based, I've taken a photo of the two books stacked, and made a gauge from the color-coded pages.  Have a look here.

-Front Cover
-Lolibuki - one of my personal faves from the book 
-Rufus
-C. Viper
-Juri
-Eagle
-Necro
-Yang & Yun
-Karin
-Ibuki DS
-SSFII HD Remix stages
-Capcom vs Capcom 2004
-Chibi Darkstalkers
-Final Fight & Magic Sword Double Impact
-Tatsunoko vs Capcom promo art
-Viewtiful Joe
-TvC: Rock
-TvC: Roll
-TvC: Viewtiful Joe
-Capcom Olympics
-Fashion Fighters
-TvC: Frank West

Picked up The Art of Tangled today.  Wonderful art for a wonderful movie.  The Glen Keane pencil sketches of Rapunzel are especially nice.

-Front cover
-Side view
-Front page
-The Tower (1)
-The Tower (2)
-By the Tower window
-Tower environment renderings
-Inside the Tower (1)
-Inside the Tower (2)
-The bedroom
-Rapunzel (1)
-Rapunzel (2)
-Rapunzel (3)
-Rapunzel (4)
-Rapunzel (5)
-Rapunzel (6)
-Mother Gothel (1)
-Mother Gothel (2)
-Mother Gothel (3)
-Flynn Rider (1)
-Flynn Rider (2)
-Maximus (1)
-Maximus (2)
-Pascal
-Forest conceptual drawings
-Flynn & Rapunzel (1)
-Flynn & Rapunzel (2)
-The Snuggly Duckling
-Pub Thugs
-Inside the pub
-The Kingdom
-The Village (1)
-The Village (2)
-The Market

**MINOR SPOILER SHOTS:
-07
-24
-29
-37

So, Udon's Mega Man Tribute.  Weighing in at just under 300 pages, the big emphasis is on the core series, but there's a healthy share of everything: X, Zero, ZX, Legends, Battle Network, and Star Force.  It's a worthy accompaniment to the Official Complete Works line of books.

Check out some samples here.  This Air Man, Fire Man, and Sheep Man are my personal faves.

Mine came in the mail a few weeks ago, but at the time I wasn't in much of a celebratory mood.

Really, my only complaints are a few too many Marvel-Comics style super-muscled interpretations and a few too many takes on the turn-the-defeated-into-decorations joke. Aside from that, it's sumptuous. I'm a sucker for the giant mob shots the franchise lends itself to, and there's plenty of good shots with vibrant color and a sense of fun. Specific ones I want to call out would be pages 62 (probably my favorite gag), 104, 107, 163, 166, 209, 255, 279, 281, and 297...holy moly, 297.

It's a little bittersweet to see Aero in the Legends section (I guess she's the Elsa Walker of the MM line now), and to read in the back that they got more submissions for this than any previous tribute. It doesn't seem to count for much right now, anyway. Still, against my better judgement, I hold out hope that Capcom will give its first (ahem) Mega-star the treatment he deserves when his 25th hits next year.

Yeah, 297 is spectacular.  I'd kill to have a billboard-sized poster of that one hanging in my place.

I haven't checked out the Mega Man Tribute, hell, I didn't even know it was out, but I got another e-mail about the delay of the Mega Man: Robot Master Field Guide. I have to say I'm a little worried about this even coming out now that Mega Man is pretty much retired; the last delay I was hit with was six months.

I added The Essence of SaGa Frontier to my art book collection recently. I've never been a real big fan of watercolors but SaGa's art makes me change my mind.

But yeah... I know most people probably more interested in SaGa Frontier II than the first game but I love that ratty little game for some reason.