Book Review: Last Man Standing: Killbook of a Bounty Hunter
When I first saw the book, I was like "Is this for real?". This book is huge! It's almost A3 size, and it's 272 pages thick. This is the IMAX of artbooks.
If you look closely at the cover, you'll see the actual killbook attached in chains to the belt of Gabriel, the protagonist that artist Dan Luvisi has created for his story.
Gabriel is a super soldier who was framed by a military corporation with global power. The story isn't really original, but it's still quite interesting to see this world that Gabriel lives in. With the help of a secret agent, he managed to escape the prison and is now back for revenge. This killbook collects all the bad guys on his hit list.
The book is presented as a scrapbook, with photos, artworks, documents and notes. The writing style is like snapshots from what Gabriel still can remember. Basically, there's no actual flow to the story. The book starts off with the introduction and background to the world, and then moves on immediately the the hit list, and ends with a gallery of concept art from children who still believe in the innocence of Gabriel.
While the writing isn't as good as it can be, the idea is fantastic. There are lots of bad guys with profiles and interesting analysis. Since the genre is sci-fi, you get characters that are not humans. There is a lot of content to read through and digest.
The last part of the book is quite creepy. It features fan art of Gabriel and other characters by children, fictitious of course, mostly under the age of 10. The artworks are look great, and there lies the creepiness because the kid's photos are shown beside their art. It's difficult to imagine young kids creating such accomplished pieces of work. Imagine a 5-year-old with an almost 3D painting of a muscular man-shark or shark-man with teeth that looks like it can bite through your neck like french fries. Interestingly, when you follow the websites of these kids, you'll be brought to the actual artists who created them.
This is a visually wonderful book and could be more awesome with better editing.
Last Man Standing: Killbook of a Bounty Hunter is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)
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Comments
From what I remember, the
From what I remember, the profile pictures next to each fan piece are in fact photos of those artists as children. It is to represent their inner child's imagination (As they say; Fantasy artists never grow up and have a creative inner child).
I think editing is what
I think editing is what nagged me. I loved the book and the extensive attention to detial and well... all this work. But I guess after you put so much love, you don't want to cut enough out.
Oh lord. This book. The first
Oh lord. This book. The first version was written even worse. I guess an editor spoke to him and told him that it was pretty juvenile so then the creator said "HEY GUYS THIS IS SATIRE NOW. THE HERO MAKES FUN OF HIMSELF. I'M SELF AWARE AND WITTY AHH DERRR." It's like c'mon dude. Your 'writing' is pretty shit and the whole concept is one cliche after another. "BUT ITS SATIRE NOW! I SWEAR!" Snore. Dude get's a book deal and thinks he's internet Jesus. And it will never be a movie but he'll keep telling his "fans" that it will be.
Thanks for the photos of the
Thanks for the photos of the inside pages. I have been wondering about this for a while. It helps with my decision whether to buy it or not.
Have you seen Anomaly the comic? It is a massive tome as well.
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