Rolling Thunder: The Art of Dave Dorman [ハードカバー]

Rolling thunder is the culmination of many years of work and does a great job chronicling Dave's career as a working artist, the challenges of pursuing a dream and ensuring you can bring home a paycheck (I know that sounds bad, but that is the reality of being a professional artist!). Don't get me wrong, for those looking for a coffee table art book, this certainly has enough high quality pieces to qualify. But for me what makes it stand apart from other "art of" books is that the tone of the text makes it really personal and conveys empathy (not to be confused with sympathy!) for the professional artist. This is no more evident than in the Afterword where Dave discusses his thoughts on the future. I had the opportunity to attend a short how-to session with Dave a few years ago (SDCC 09) and this feels like a true extension of that candid and enlightening presentation. I think if you're a big fan of Dave and his work you'll see this as a gift from Dave to you, a sort of private journal of his career and future. If you're just looking for some great comic related art you won't be disappointed. My only regret is not being able to purchase and get it signed in person!

Note about limited edition: the limited edition book is hand numbered to 300 copies and is signed by Dave on a special page preceding the title page. In addition, the book has a different cover. Shortly after the release, Dave was also offering a super special edition of the book on his website where he would provide a custom drawing (of your choice) in the book! If you're tight on cash you can also order the regular edition Rolling Thunder: The Art of Dave Dorman

Just FYI the book is broken down into the following chapters
Foreword by Stephen D. Smith
Introduction : Early Years
Chapter 1 : Comics
Chapter 2 : Gaming
Chapter 3 : Illustration
Chapter 4 : Aliens/Predator
Chapter 5 : Lucasfilm
Chapter 6 : Wasted Lands
Chapter 7 : Personal Work
Afterword : The Road Ahead

Final note: Dave's grandparents/parents are from Northampton MA. Pioneer Valley represent!

I stumbled upon Dave Dorman's work when I picked up a zombie book a few weeks ago that he did the cover for, "DJ Zom-B & The Ungrateful Dead." I bought it with my son but it was too outrageous for the little guy, and I soon left him behind to enjoy it for myself. But he loves the cover. So I found "Rolling Thunder" for him, and it's just page-after-page of fantastic comic book art. My son has his favorites, and I have mine. It sits on my coffee table now, and everyone who has seen it has bought it since. A beautiful book, and I simply cannot imagine someone out there doing better covers for graphic novels, etc.