The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
A review by rosepetals1984
Art of Dejah Thoris and the Worlds of Mars by Robert Greenberger
2.0
*exhales slowly* Quick review for a quick read. This might be among the easiest books that I review because - long story short - this is just a compilation of cover art/fantasy illustrations in Dynamite's Warlord of Mars/Dejah Thoris comic series spanning across a number of years and series collections. Please note that this is an adult, NSFW/mature collection of illustrations, but that's a given considering the Dynamite comic series is an adult comic series with graphic nudity and violence. Still, I'm putting it as a disclaimer before I jump into my thoughts about this compilation to start.
The introduction to this art book was a nice bit of history on "A Princess of Mars" and the creation of Dejah Thoris's character in Edgar Rice Burroughs' original series. It also talks about its impact on science fiction and the genre shaping in itself, which I thought was worth reading. I could probably write a dissertation talking about how sci-fi has been developed by and beyond stories like this, with aspects of this story that truly don't age well, but that's a discussion for another time and a retracing I'd rather do when revisiting Burroughs's original series. Also I'd rather do more indepth discussions on the Dynamite comic stories for their individual volumes. Some of them I've already reviewed in depth on my blog and Goodreads in reviews, because I got them either as galleys from NetGalley or I picked them up myself.
I feel like I'm being generous giving this first volume compilation 2 stars, because - if I'm centering it on the talents of the artists featured in the compilation, some of them range from absolutely stunning and ones I would purchase larger prints for to... and I'm direct quoting something I said in conversation to someone after finishing: "We know you can quick draw scantily clad or nude women with boobs in sexually suggestive poses, but you really did nothing to represent Dejah herself or the world of Warlord of Mars and the stories contained within." *groans* It really is a mixed bag of fantasy art and interpretations of Dejah Thoris's character alongside other characters in the series including John Carter and Tars Tarkkas. While someone could probably debate with me "Well, the stories in the Dynamite series featured some of these storylines and they weren't far from the quality of the artwork in those volumes" - that's what I'm getting at as well with my critique. It wasn't consistent and sometimes the shift for quality was jarring. I touched on that in some of my reviews for those volumes as well.
It's not so much that I can't appreciate what different artists bring to the table when interpreting characters or a realm for a series. If you look at animated films such as the Animatrix and Batman: Gotham Knight as examples - stories can be told across a range with different animators giving their take on a character or a world as they see it. The same is true across comics and graphic novels where you have different interpretations like Wonder Woman or Spider-Man. But I'd argue that I wonder what made some of these images in this compilation be chosen as covers for volumes in the series versus others.
If I had to say it, the second volume is actually a much better range and quality than this compilation, but it was worth me holding onto this particular volume for some of the illustrations made by Lucio Parillo and Joe Jusko to name a few.
If I can attach a few screens of some of the ones I found to be very well done, I'll do so in this review. But overall, it was just okay.
Overall score: 2/5 stars.
The introduction to this art book was a nice bit of history on "A Princess of Mars" and the creation of Dejah Thoris's character in Edgar Rice Burroughs' original series. It also talks about its impact on science fiction and the genre shaping in itself, which I thought was worth reading. I could probably write a dissertation talking about how sci-fi has been developed by and beyond stories like this, with aspects of this story that truly don't age well, but that's a discussion for another time and a retracing I'd rather do when revisiting Burroughs's original series. Also I'd rather do more indepth discussions on the Dynamite comic stories for their individual volumes. Some of them I've already reviewed in depth on my blog and Goodreads in reviews, because I got them either as galleys from NetGalley or I picked them up myself.
I feel like I'm being generous giving this first volume compilation 2 stars, because - if I'm centering it on the talents of the artists featured in the compilation, some of them range from absolutely stunning and ones I would purchase larger prints for to... and I'm direct quoting something I said in conversation to someone after finishing: "We know you can quick draw scantily clad or nude women with boobs in sexually suggestive poses, but you really did nothing to represent Dejah herself or the world of Warlord of Mars and the stories contained within." *groans* It really is a mixed bag of fantasy art and interpretations of Dejah Thoris's character alongside other characters in the series including John Carter and Tars Tarkkas. While someone could probably debate with me "Well, the stories in the Dynamite series featured some of these storylines and they weren't far from the quality of the artwork in those volumes" - that's what I'm getting at as well with my critique. It wasn't consistent and sometimes the shift for quality was jarring. I touched on that in some of my reviews for those volumes as well.
It's not so much that I can't appreciate what different artists bring to the table when interpreting characters or a realm for a series. If you look at animated films such as the Animatrix and Batman: Gotham Knight as examples - stories can be told across a range with different animators giving their take on a character or a world as they see it. The same is true across comics and graphic novels where you have different interpretations like Wonder Woman or Spider-Man. But I'd argue that I wonder what made some of these images in this compilation be chosen as covers for volumes in the series versus others.
If I had to say it, the second volume is actually a much better range and quality than this compilation, but it was worth me holding onto this particular volume for some of the illustrations made by Lucio Parillo and Joe Jusko to name a few.
If I can attach a few screens of some of the ones I found to be very well done, I'll do so in this review. But overall, it was just okay.
Overall score: 2/5 stars.