Bryan Konietzko

It's not only a beautiful art book for the ATLA fans, but also a peek inside a creative process of making TV animated series from the scratch. Both, visuals and BTS stories, are amazing and make me appreciate the whole francise even more.

This book is a celebration of art and people - artists creating something they are trully passionate about and fans who respond to it with love. As far as art goes, it contains everything one could ask for and more. Selection makes sense, quality is superb, only size sometimes could be bigger - some illustration deserve full page treatment they don't get. However, people and process part make it absolutely incredible. Getting to know how the series was developed and produced, what was the contribution of different artists joining the crew, and what was the inspiration for stories told in ATLA was the most enjoyable thing for me.

It is a heartwarming book, I'll be surely coming back to it when blocked on my creative endeavors. It shows pains of making something original, the camraderie of artists figthing against the clock to make as little compromises as possible and have fun along the way, and finally viewers with whom the final product resonated and turned them into fans almost immediately.… (mehr)

(Second Edition)

I grew up watching Avatar the Last Airbender and many years later, when Avatar: The Legend of Korra was released, I was hooked from the start. I couldn’t wait to dive back into a world that felt like a second home. To say I liked Korra was a bit of an understatement. I did change my name to Korra II after all. That is to say, I may be a bit biased.

I tend to hyper-fixate on one of my interests for months or years on end. I knew there were Avatar graphic novels, I didn’t know there were companion art books, however. This book has been my introduction to the book’s side of the Avatar series and I see now that I have quite a few more to catch up on than I initially thought. I regret not following the news around the series more closely.

The art featured in this book is stunning. The locations all have a sense of grandeur, they have a way of making the world around them seem small and insignificant, despite being printed on a page. Locations and characters are seen from multiple angles; characters feature multiple facial expressions and stances. What’s even better is it’s not just limited to still images. The book includes storyboards from episodes, pencil sketches of the artwork alongside the colored in version. When you can see the architecture, spirits, and plant life without the action of the show, it helps you to better appreciate all the effort that went into building this new and yet familiar world Korra inhabits. It allows you to catch details you might not have otherwise given a second thought.

I’ve had coffee table art books before and what really sets this one apart for me is the creator commentary. As I mentioned before, I tend to obsess over my interests and I want to know everything there is to know about the world, lore, backstory, etc. This for me is a rare glimpse into the minds of the creators about a series I adore which would be enough of a selling point for me, the art is just a bonus.

This is definitely a copy I will be adding to my personal collection when it’s released. If you’re an Avatar fan, I think you really owe it to yourself to pick up a copy as well.

NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as an advanced reading copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.… (mehr)