Art of District 9

So I'll confide to you that Im already a long time Neill Blomkamp fan so obviously I'm going to beam about this Art of District 9 book. The production design of that film was absolutely tremendous. This book details a lot of what was put into that world. Of course all the alien weaponry and ships are super impressive and dripping with cool, but one thing that this book really highlights is all the fantastic graphic design that was created to sell that world as an actual, believable place. All the Alien and Human graphics, tags, vehicle markings and brand identity of the MNU is just so edgy and bad-ass. They really did a great job on this movie and I cant say enough on of how the art of book puts and explanation point or two behind the statement. Really good job you guys.

The Art of District 9: WETA Workshop
160 pages HC
ISBN 978-1-86950-902-6
Harpers Collins Publishers

The Art of Steamboy

This weeks Peek-a-Book is The Art of Steamboy, Katsuhiro Otomo's 2004 steampunk masterpiece. This book seemingly has all the background paintings and a lot of the preliminary sketches, and I seriously mean, a lot. A shame there aren't many mechanical model sheets or sketches, because the Steamboy film had some really great mechanics. Still if you're a background artist or interested in background art or old Victorian England, this is a book you should definitely check out.

The Art of Steamboy
Kodansha
272 pages HC
ISBN4-06-364602-5