Book Review: Sumi: Vagabond Illustration Collection
The edition published by Viz Media is soft cover with a dust jacket. But the cover is actually quick thick and hardy. There are 164 pages to give this book a nice thickness.
This is the art book by Inoue Takehiko. It's based off the manga Vagabond. If you like the manga and the line art, this book is definitely for you. It contains many black and white full page illustrations, some of which comes from panels in the comic book.
The illustrations, when blown up to full page, show an incredible amount of detail. I'm talking about details in brush strokes, textures, line art and cross hatching. It's a showcase of technical prowess with manga ink. Every page is a delight.
At the end of the book are two very interesting pages. One is a full page photo of his workplace. The other is a collage of photos on his tools. There is a Stevie Wonder CD among his collection of CDs.
This book has no captions. It doesn't need them.
Fans of Inoue Takehiko or his comic should find this book very satisfying.
There are two art books released based on the Vagabond comic. This is one of them. The other is called Water: Vagabond Illustration Collection which contains water colour illustrations. Check out the my review for Water too.
Sumi (Vagabond Illustration Collection) is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)
Visit Amazon to check out more reviews.
If you buy from the links, I get a little commission that helps me get more books to feature.
Here are direct links to the book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp | Amazon.cn
The original Japanese version is called バガボンド画集 墨 by 井上 雄彦 and is available at:
Amazon Japan | YesAsia USA | CDJapan.co.jp
Here's Amazon Japan shipping rates for your reference.
Comments
hi Dear Teoh first of all i
hi Dear Teoh
first of all i would like to thank you for your great blog,the art book review is so helpful
my name is Mohammad Modarres and 3dcharacter artist from iran.
i will 1 week trip to Singapore in December for siggraph convention,and want to buy more art book for my collection so if it possible for you please give me some info about good bookstore for buying.i know Borders,Mph and kinukonia book stores but if you have or know better choises let me know.
since i have not credit cart i can't buy from amazon but any help greatly appreciated
Best Regards
Mohammad Modarres
Mohammad.Modarres — Hi,
Mohammad.Modarres — Hi, welcome to Singapore. There are several bookshops you can check out.
1. Basheer Bookshop - It's located at Bras Basah, 3rd floor. You can reach there from City Hall MRT station. Just ask around for directions to Bras Basah Complex.
2. Kinokuniya - There are two branches. One as Orchard (bigger) and the other at Bugis (smaller). Both are on the 3rd floor. Just beside the Bugis branch, there's a comic shop called Absolute comics which sells comics and art books too.
3. Borders - Located at Orchard, inside Wheelock building. First floor.
Borders sometimes offer online coupon discounts. Some people post them online at this link. Do check the expiration date.
For Kinokuniya, their discounts are only for members. Occasionally, they might have discounts from newspaper coupons. You might want to check out this link to check the existence of such coupons.
Basheer offers discounts for regulars only. But it's a great bookshop to walk into.
Remember that books are heavy, and not travel-friendly.
oh thanks man ,very
oh thanks man ,very informative,and another questions do you buy your book online from amazon or from local book stores?
i see the anime expo in your blog....
is there any comic colectible store in Singapore?
thank man
Mohammad.Modarres - I buy
In reply to oh thanks man ,very by Mohammad.Modarres (not verified)
Mohammad.Modarres - I buy mine from Amazon. They are much cheaper than buying locally, even after shipping (amazingly).
The only comic collectible shops I know is a shop called Absolute Comics. They have two stores at Bugis Junction and Suntec City.
You might want to check out some local online toy forums, like sgcollect.
Hi! :) you got awesome
Hi! :) you got awesome reviews on your blog, very interesting and helpfull.
This is the thing... my boyfriend's birthday is soon, he loves takehiko inoue's work and i'm really confused between buy him this book Sumi or Water.
Which would you think is better?
Please help me!!
@Michele Tough choice. They
@Michele
Tough choice. They are both good. I guess you can go with Water, the coloured one.
Thank u for your reply
Thank u for your reply :)
Please can u tell me why Water?
I't would be very helpful to make my decision ^^
@Michele Because it's got
In reply to Thank u for your reply by Michele (not verified)
@Michele
Because it's got colour? Anyway, your boyfriend will probably go out and buy for himself the other copy after seeing whatever you give him.
hahaha OK In that case i'll
hahaha OK
In that case i'll flip a coin to decide
again thanks for take ur time to answer my questions :)
Hi, thanks for your reviews
Hi, thanks for your reviews parka, I'd like to get your opinions on which version to get, the japanses version or the VIS version, are they in the same size? as I know the japanese version are similar to A3 in size.
Thanks
Johnny
@Johnny They are the same
In reply to Hi, thanks for your reviews by Johnny (not verified)
@Johnny
They are the same size.
As for construction, I don't know how good the Japanese edition is, but the VIZ edition has good binding, paper and cover. There's not much point in getting the Japanese edition because the shipping cost is going to be expensive.
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