The Art of Darksiders is a 288-page paperback art book, thicker than I expected. The cover is nice and has some shimmer underneath the art.
Joe Madureira is the creative director for Darksiders and the artistic direction is largely influenced by his designs.
The book is packed with hundreds of concept art on the characters, environment, weapons, artifacts, CG models and other illustrations. There are lots of sketches for anything that moves. The environment art are mainly coloured pieces. The art is beautiful and there are details everywhere.
The text was lacking as there are only character and location descriptions. With so much art, I was expecting some artist commentary regarding the game but there is none. Strangely, there's also no foreword and introduction -- you go straight into the art on page 1.
The binding for a book this thick is quite bad, hence the average rating I gave. It's fragile and will break when you open it too much. The alternative hardcover edition is only sold at Udon's site and cost too much.
It's a great art book let down by the terrible binding. Darksiders and video game art fans can expect bittersweet satisfaction.
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16 Comments
awesome book with totally
Submitted by Anonymous on
awesome book with totally sick artwork. i am completely floored. very disappointed with the quality of the binding. my brand new book started to fall apart right after i began looking at it. the pages were popping away from the glue on the binding. to the extent that they were hanging by the threads. i am very fond of collecting art books and tend to baby them. this is hardly how a new book should be. sent it back to amazon for a replacement, which they were very quick about sending to me. yay! when i received the replacement, same problem! the second i opened the book past 30 degrees, i could hear the glue seams popping. rrrr. at this point, im thinkin i just gotta live with it. i like the book enought to consider buying the hardcover, but im worried that it might suffer from the same binding issues. anyone out there have any similar experiences?
here's the link to buy the
Submitted by Anonymous on
here's the link to buy the hardcover:
bout $80.
https://www.udonstore.com/JOE-MADURIERA-PRESENTS-ART-OF-DARKSIDERS-HARDC...
Oh yeah. If you guys noticed,
Submitted by Teoh Yi Chie on
Oh yeah. If you guys noticed, the first few pictures, I put the book quite wide which I regretted quite soon as can be seen from the later pictures.
have to say i was kinda
Submitted by Anonymous on
have to say i was kinda disappointed when i received the book: the layout is terrible-> all the fantastic art ist scaled down so you can cram 6 pictures onto one page.
there is not much madureira art in there, too -> all the paintings are availible in beautiful high res version on the net for 1-2 years!
and that´s it! hardly any new stuff from him! i was shocked.
on the plus side: A LOT of concept art. (too bad you can´t really appreciate it since it is printed so small...)
I´ve been trying to receive
Submitted by Andre on
I´ve been trying to receive two hardcover copies of the book, ordered in the Udon Store website... I´ve paid $50 for a priority shipping, but it´s been over a month ago and no sign of it.
After too much talking, they decided to send me another free shipment, but now, being this close to the holidays, I fear I´ll have to wait another month(I´m being optimistic).
Just to clarify, I live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil... but this doesn´t explain their poor customer service. Expired delivery dates, a lot of apologies, even more late replies.
A pity, really.
One of the best artbooks ever
Submitted by FAUNA on
One of the best artbooks ever to one of the best gothic art games ever created. The artwork in this volume simply mind-blowing. The quality of the book itself is incredible as well. Well worth every penny...
How is it the quality of the
Submitted by Invader on
How is it the quality of the paper?
Been waiting for this book
Submitted by Xiong ie on
Been waiting for this book for so long! :D
But ack, bad binding eh >.<;
Is it similar to Ballistic's paperback binding?
@Xiong ie Ballistic has
Submitted by Teoh Yi Chie on
@Xiong ie
Ballistic has better binding - more flexible - for the paper they are using.
This is a major and common
Submitted by Anonymous on
This is a major and common problem with most books from UDON. The binding of their books are terrible (ex: Street Fighter Volume, Art of Capcom, Art of capcom2). This is just too bad because the quality of their artwork is incredible.
I also have binding issues as
Submitted by Anonymous on
I also have binding issues as well, which really is a shame since a lot of Joe's pencil work are in the front.
On a side note, The Labyrinth from Toronto has a couple of hardcover copies of Darksiders, which are SIGNED by Joe Mad himself. Definitely worth looking into. I'd grab a copy myself, but I cheaped out for the softcover lol
When I first played the game
Submitted by Alexandru Popa on
When I first played the game I immediately checked amazon for the artbook and there it was in all it's glory. Instant preorder then buy after release. I'm an old amazon uk customer, but this time it's the 1st time when they "face loot" me.
1 .It's price was £18.59 and with all the necessary taxes £ 28.45. Is interesting how amazon doesn't show all the costs and therefore I actually had to pay £31. Where I'm from every dime counts.
2. When I finally got the package - today 09 dec 2010 - I was "kindly" surprised about the books condition. The the cover's edges were "somehow" damaged and what shocked me the most was the fact that I didn't get the chance to pass the 1st inner page that the book's spine broke up and all the pages almost fell off.
check the links for yourselves:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/25454204@N00/5247144709
https://www.flickr.com/photos/25454204@N00/5247144539
https://www.flickr.com/photos/25454204@N00/5247746966
https://www.flickr.com/photos/25454204@N00/5247746760
https://www.flickr.com/photos/25454204@N00/5247746592
https://www.flickr.com/photos/25454204@N00/5247746458
Can you tell me what would be the next step for me to do, in order to change the book "or" get my money back?
Thanks
this is the 1st time when I'm so disappointed whit a product.
@Alexandru Popa You should
Submitted by Teoh Yi Chie on
@Alexandru Popa
You should complain to Amazon UK. They will mail you a replacement copy (and you can probably get to keep that damaged copy without mailing back). Just remember to tell them to pack the book properly because their previous packaging damaged the book. Or you can choose to refund.
As for the binding. It's not very durable, even if you receive a pristine copy from them. If you open the book too wide, the spine will crack again.
How well made are the
Submitted by Anonymous on
How well made are the hardcover copies of this book? I would love too own one of them and would just like to be reassured that they won't fall apart on me...
No Reprint?
Submitted by Anonymous on
No Reprint?
I agree, a reprint would be
Submitted by SRG on
I agree, a reprint would be nice !
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