Dragons. They reign above the eternal snows or in the depths of the abyss... They are marvelous, magical, malicious creatures... But, where do these winged creatures with sparkling scales and fearsome claws come from?
This collection of illustrations on the theme of dragons brings together the best illustrators and comic book authors from around the world: French, English, Danish, Spanish, Italian, American, Canadian... From John Howe, designer of The Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia, to Todd Lockwood, illustrator of Dungeons & Dragons, and Olivier Ledroit, creator of the Chronicles of the Black Moon and Adrian Smith, one of the authors of Warhammer, and more... They’ve pooled their talents in a Tolkien-style universe where dragons coexist or fight Dwarves, Orcs, Elves and Humans...
The result is this illustrated encyclopedia, which combines extraordinary texts on the history of dragons, with drawings of remarkable quality, realism of line and thoroughness of detail.
The Dragon Universe is a wonderfully diverse encyclopedia of dragonkind tied together by short vignette text, but it's the fantasy art that is the main attraction. Released 10th May 2022 and distributed in North America by Diamond Comics, it's 198 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook/comiXology formats.
This is a wide ranging collection of vastly varying styles and art of different media types from pen and ink to oils. The artists are diverse and only a few were previously familiar to me. The formatting reminds me quite a lot of "The art of..." collections from the past.
This is a nice collection for fantasy art enthusiasts and a good resource for inspiration and for finding new artists to follow.
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
