Hellboy II: The Art of the Movie [ペーパーバック]

Anyone who purchased the first Art of HELLBOY will not be disappointed by this "sequel". Mike Mignola & Wayne Barlowe are now joined by the talents of Francisco Ruiz Valasco & Stephen Scott. Guillermo Del Toro again includes his notebook sketches for some evolutionary insight between his imagining to finished character. The complete & final script is once again included. As impressive as this book is I must admit I am even more eager about the forthcoming Monsters of Hellboy II. But this book does stand alone quite easily for anyone, Either for fans of the series or anyone interested in design.

This book wasn't hard covered and had 224 pages. The paper stock belonged more to the magazine type, but much thicker.

The artbook features plenty of concept art throughout the pages with relating movie scripts. A considerable amount of artwork was draw using pencil. I haven't seen as much pencil coverage on other books. There are lots of painted stuff too. All felt very raw and simulated pages that had just come off the artists' drawing board.

The drawings, storyboards, character designs were captioned by original Hellboy artist Mike Mignola, and other concept artists, providing plenty of insights into the designs.

3D computer graphics write up was missing from the book. Computer graphics fans looking to read about how the characters are modeled and the technology behind the movie, be prepared to be disappointed. This artbook is all about concept.

More monster art will be featured in the other artbook called Monsters of Hellboy II.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

If I needed any further evidence that Guillermo Del Toro is the ideal man to venture back into Middle-Earth, this would be it.

"The Art of Hellboy II" takes the most visually stunning fantasy movie in years, and turns it inside out for scrutiny. It's crammed with countless images, models, photos and sketches for the dozens of weird, bizarre creatures in Del Toro's steampunky fairy world, as well as the full-length shooting script. For anyone who enjoyed the movie, this is bliss.

First of all -- despite the "Art" title -- there's Del Toro's introduction, in which he explores the origins of the second Hellboy movie (and his original concept, which had nothing to do with fairies). Not only does he cite Lord Dunsany as a shaping influence, but he describes how they struggled to get a studio to accept such an unconventional fantasy movie.Then the script. It's a pretty detailed script with plenty of details and witty lines ("One day mankind will realize its mistake. Eight track was the way to go!").

And accompanying the script is art. Lots of art, following the storyline so that people reading it can see what appears on the screen -- for example, the scene where Hellboy get literally blown out of his room is accompanied by a storyboard of Manning and Abe watching the steel door fly toward them. There's a lot of storyboards, actually -- and some of them are wonderfully detailed, such as the scene where Johann temporarily revives a fairy.

But there are also plenty of other kinds of concept drawings, sometimes for things that only appear for a few seconds. It soon becomes obvious that Del Toro not only has his own style -- in this movie, sort of a mixture of ancient Celtic, Neil Gaimanesque dark fantasy, and steampunk -- but a great eye for detail. He works out elaborate masks, a fey alphabet, all the little switches and nozzles on Johann's suit, and countless other such things.

Among the gems here -- layout of the BPRD, the vast ruined city, the NYC street where the plant elemental appears, and several of the Troll Market. There are even even puppets for the whole "bedtime story scene" and maquettes (such as the legless goblin).

There are also lot sketches for supporting characters' appearances and clothing. We get metal masks, robes, "princessy" gowns for Nuala, Balor's big steampunk throne, the Butcher Guards' masks and leather butcher aprons, and so on. Even Johann Krauss's helmet and the Angel of Death's gameboard went through several evolutions. Virtually every one is accompanied with a quotation about how they envisioned/created this or that -- for example, Wink was named after Selma Blair's dog.

Some of these resemble the final product, sometimes not -- we get to see several different versions of Wink the Ogre, the Angel of Death (including a many-jawed hollow-eyed skull) and the plant elemental (which looks downright cute in some shots). Just so readers don't get confused about what is eventually used, they're usually accompanied with movie photos to show what was in the actual film.

But the crowning gems of this book are undoubtedly the glimpses into the Troll Market -- this was probably the most alluring and otherworldly scene in the movie, and it's given even greater significance when you see the elaborate sketches of its architecture. Not to mention the inhabitants -- Cathedral-Head, the masked nuns, the mushroom man, the mummy vendor, and the Sacred Fluid Dispenser. Since I love the way that sounds, I'll say it again -- Sacred Fluid Dispenser.

And the last page of the script is quite intriguing, since it leads in to a possible third movie (you know, when Del Toro actually has some free time). And Del Toro's diary entries -- still in untranslated Spanish with lots of coloured sketches -- are a nice finishing touch.

The wealth of concept art and background information in "Hellboy II: The Art of the Movie" are stunning in their complexity -- and anyone who appreciated Del Toro's artistry in the movie should take a peek at this.