Book Review: The Dark North

The Dark North is an unusual artbook. It's actually an anthology that features 5 short stories, each written and told with accompanying full-page artworks. From the description at the back of the book, it says that this is the first volume, which implies there may be future volumes.

The 5 stories are all written by Martin Dunelind, a writer of sci-fi, fantasy and horror. While there's no horror-type horror in this book, you'll see sci-fi and fantasy stories. The stories are like those mysterious or dark folklore-type stories you see in RPG games.

The highlight of the book would be the beautiful art from the 5 Swedish artists, namely Peter Bergting, Henrik Pettersson, Joakim Ericsson, Magnus Olsson, and Lukas Thelin. Peter Bergting's art of landscapes are misty always shrouded in mystery. Joakim Ericsson's sci-fi art reminded me a bit of Stephan Martiniere and Fred Gambino. Lukas Thelin and Henrik Pettersson's art have the game card fantasy feel. Magnus Mojo Olsson's art has a more folklore type of style.

The artworks are wonderful even though they may sometimes feel detached from the stories.

Overall, the concept of the book, the idea of presenting stories with accompanying illustrations like this feels very different from most artbooks I've seen. As mentioned earlier, it's quite an unusual artbook.

You can find out more information of the book at http://www.darknorthart.com/

If you like this kind of book, be sure to check out Simon Stålenhag's artbooks too.

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