The Art Of Greg Horn [ペーパーバック]

Similar to Alex Ross's "Mythology" that was released last year, "The Art of Greg Horn" chronicles the many different styles and artistic pieces Greg has released throughout his career. From sexy pin-up pieces of the White Queen (Emma Frost) to his various Spiderman, Black Widow, and other comic book pieces, Greg Horn's creations have blanketed the comic industry for many years. This book thankfully covers those years with an in depth look at the artwork, while often providing the original pencils and artwork Greg bases his fabulous computer painting on.

Granted only true Greg Horn fans like myself will probably part with our hard earned dough for this great book, but if you like the cover art I promise it is well worth the money. The interior pages of this book are to die for.

If God were an artist, this is the book She'd make. So much art variety in this, just makes me want to gawk at each page in admiration. And that's what I did. Each page has so much detail, emotion, flavor, color, intensity, and freshness that you just want to hold the book open and just stare at a page for a long time.

My personal favorites:
(there are no page numbers so I'll try to describe them)

Emma Frost #1 - this was a marvel comic cover - emma is a popular comic book character with blonde hair wearing a white oufit, white thigh highs, with her hands in white gloves and an alluring bustline looking downwards with ivy stonework behind her - her skin looks so real you want to just bite her

Elektra #3 - another marvel comic cover - elektra holds two daggers crossing each other with a red bandana on her head and there is smoke and fire behind her and fire in her eyes, detailed ribbons on her arms, and dripping water all over her body. HOT!

2004 Olympic Basketball Team - This is probably one of his most well-known pieces of art, especially to those not familiar with his comic books. It shows the entire Olympic Basketball Team - their faces, bodies, and jersies are recognized around the world and look exactly like them. Greg Horn even talks about the difficulty it took to put this together, considering several players were replaced during the making of his painting.

Bacardi DJ Babe - Some people have seen this on the Bacardi website - a hot brunette chick wearing a black bikini top while spinning her fingers over a turntable with disco lights spinning behind her. Popular piece. And you see why!

2 Fast 2 Furious - This is probably my absolute favorite! A hot chick with tall high heeled sandals and a short skirt showing the most amazing legs you've ever seen who is standing between two drag racing cars. Most of the painting is black and white but the cars are red and green and have these electro lights shooting at you through the page.

This book even has pictures of how he completes the task of a "painting" which involves sketching, coloring, computer airbrushing, color correction, touchups, etc. Very well put-together!

Some of the subject matter includes: spiderman, black widow, emma frost, elektra, iron man, the hulk, battleship scenes, circus acts for the Ringling Bros, the Lebron James Billboard, medieval withchblade and horses, cars, vampires, black tiger, fathom, S.K.U.M.M., serpentor, several Lord of the Rings illustrations, angel warrior, tomb raider, lightning, ninjas, sexy gorgeous babes, military theme stuff with soldiers and machine guns, mythology, women in bikinis, and too much to mention!

I love the way it is all layed out too. It's not done boring like some books where they just put the art and that's it. Greg Horn designed all the pages himself and it looks really high-tech and very professional. Sometimes he'll write a sentence or two on the side of the page to describe how he got the inspiration to start it. He has a great (well it's not so great but it's funny) introduction by Brian Michael Bendis who is another well-liked artist.

In the back of the book is a spread of pages of behind-the-scenes photos where you see Greg Horn at home with his wife, you see him with other artists like David Mack and James Hudnall.... you see photos of the models he used to create some of the illustrations, photos of the emma frost statue, different marvel paraphernilia such as books, action figures, even a PEZ dispenser that has Greg Horn's art on it.

I had the pleasure of meeting Greg at the San Diego Comic-Con and he is as nice in person as he is talented. And he even writes his fans back. I really can't tell you how much I like this book and can't wait to see his second!

Greg Horn is a pioneer with his use of the digital medium in comicbook covers. He uses models who are 'perfect' for most of his artwork, and his composition of characters is excellent. However, there are many digital artists out there who can do similar type of work with similar skill in terms of producing similar type of art. Greg Horn's point of difference is that he found a niche with comicbook heroes... which is great to see! This book is definitely worth the money!