blog:nattoli, tag:AZ PLAY

Dengeki Daioh GENESIS is a new comic-focused magazine that comes out quarterly like Gelatin. The first issue came out January 2010, and also like Gelatin the comics featured inside are original, and oftentimes meant to be "one shot" features done by popular artists. But unlike Gelatin, this phone-book thick magazine includes only monochrome comics. So why the interest? The original magazine exclusive posters by artists like Redjuice and Kishida Mel, of course.

Truthfully, I didn't like Hatsune Miku GRAPHICS Vocaloid Art & Comic when it first arrived amidst many better art books at the beginning of March. But having been recently reminded of it, I decided to have another look through to see how I was feeling about it. I'm slightly more appreciative of the new and exclusive art works done for the collection, but for the most part I still feel like art book really lacks focus and even quality consistency from page to page.

Though Peco is probably best known for being the original designer of the characters from the newly animated series Mayoi Neko Overrun!, his just released art book Peco Artworks - Peco no Kiseki shows us that his talents in illustrating go far beyond what is presented with that series.

I always tell myself, I'm not going to buy anymore doujinshi from Ito Noizi at the start of each Comiket. I think I've forgotten the reason why... oh wait, it's because no matter what she releases, it will be expensive. Noizi Collection "H" Specialty 2001-2009 wasn't an exception to that rule, but it was definitely worth it, with a 100-page (covers counted) full color collection that was more of an art book than a doujinshi.

I feel like I'll never really be quite thorough enough with magazine reviews, so I was thinking I'll just start focusing more on the highlights and overall stuff that interested me in an issue. I suppose if you're here, you ought to have some degree of similar interests ;D So, Megami Magazine Creators Volume 19 came out at the end of last month, and it was a pretty good issue for illustrations.

The Winter 2009 edition of KEI's gallery paid tribute to Vocaloids and Voiceroids, both young and old alike. And though that's kind of expected from KEI at this point, there were still tidbits from other popular games and series like Toradora and Love Plus all done in the artist's very recognizable style.

Mibu Natsuki's art book Tetsudou Musume Illustrations is another of the many art books that came out during the end of March, beginning of April period. Tetsudou Musume Illustrations is a softcover A4-sized, 128 page collection of Japan's railway girls in uniform that has spawned a TV drama, manga, video games and figurines.

Hiiro Yuki's main release for Comiket 77 was Fabularisia Minus Art Works 1999-2009 which is a full color, hardcover collection for ten years of illustrations. He also released a second, small doujinshi from his continuing Snow Drawing Works 2009 series that will also be covered in this post, since I feel it's not heavy enough on illustrations to warrant its own post ^^;

I hadn't intended to buy White Blend Coffee Kizoku Artworks mostly because I had already seen scans of the doujinshi early on and knew it didn't interest me. But what I did want was Hiiro Yuki's Fabularisia, and I ended up winning an auction that included both for cheap, so now I have it anyways ^^;

Girl's Avenue Vol. 1 was not at all what I expected, and that's a shame because my expectations weren't too hard to meet. I was expecting a chronological presentation of the first half of Girl's Avenue posters that started appearing in Megami Magazines at volume 15. Instead, what I got was a rather disorganized assortment of selected posters, many of which were from issues as recent as the past year. Added into that mix were some of the illustrations that had only appeared in Megami Creators Magazine, so there's plenty of material for them to easily milk this franchise---the next Girl's Avenue art book is already advertised on this one to be released August 2010.

Koto was a relatively new artist to me when I first decided to pick up Marchen Original Illustrations. My previous exposure to her art work was from the first Pixiv Girls Collection art book, where she had one piece showcased and the Pixiv 2009 Year Book with six of her illustrations . In fact, many of the illustrations in Marchen can be found on her Pixiv account and on her website, but as usual they look better in print ^^;

Sugina Miki Work Collection Nuregarasu is a collection of illustrations from all the Innocent Grey games that have been made since 2005. I found the "work collection" part of the title a little suspect and worried there would be excessive amounts of re-printed game CGs. But I'm pleased to say the book focuses on the high quality promotional art works used for various magazines along with including several pages of Sugina Miki's original illustrations.