Monday, May 17, 2010

The Rocketeer Artist's Edition

This is the cover to the new Rocketeer Artist's Edition book


This is the endpapers for the front part of the book.


This is the title page for the book


This is the credit page spread for the book


This is a sample page from the book


This was IDW's editor Scott Dunbier's dream project. This book contains the original artwork from the entire Rocketeer story shot at original size. That means the size of the book is 12" x 17." It is spectacular in it's enormity. The book weighs in at about 4 pounds. It is a hefty, beefy, masculine volume.

Even though the artwork is basically black and white, all the pages were scanned in color. Because of this, you can see all the blueline art that was part of the creation process. This is the closest you can come to looking at a Dave Steven's original without owning one. When it comes to illustration work, I'm kind of a process junkie. I love seeing all of the peliminary sketches and design that go into creating a page of art. These pages are certainly an eye opening experience. The detail that Dave puts into each panel can only be appreciated at it's actual size. It was almost like discovering his art for the first time. His ability to create atmosphere and character expression, along with the craftsmanship of inking with a brush really shines on these pages. This takes the idea of "funny books" to a whole new level. The stuff is really beautiful!

The book will be sold directly through IDW, so check out their website. I have a feeling this will sell out rather quickly, remember the Deluxe Edition of the Rocketeer? The price on it is $100.00, not really cheap, but certainly worth it for something as unique and beautiful as this.