Honoring a creative legend.
Creative Staff
Art: Katsuhiro Otomo
Organized: Angouléme International Comics Festival
Translation/Adaptation: Kevin Steinbach
What They Say
OTOMO: A Global Tribute to the Mind Behind Akira is a collection of works from more than 80 fine artists, illustrators, and comics legends which pay tribute to the creator of Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo, with full-color illustrations.
With the manga and anime Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo changed art and pop culture worldwide. Now some of the most admired illustrators and comics artists in the world have come together to pay tribute to this master, in a beautiful tribute art book.
This 168-page collection began life as a limited-edition tribute to Otomo given only to attendees of the prestigious Angoulême International Comics Festival, where Otomo was recipient of the Grand Prize in 2015. Now it’s available to readers and collectors around the world, with additional content from a list of more than 80 fine artists, illustrators, and comics legends, including Stan Sakai, Jiro Taniguchi, Tomer and Asaf Hanuka, and many others. In full color at a large size.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The art book begins with a tribute to Katsuhiro Otomo, followed by a brief history of the artist. The table of contents alphabetically lists all the globally contributing artists. The book replicates the exhibit nicely with information about the art piece on the left and the art on the right. The information about each art piece is very similar to a card of information you would find at any art gallery. A very short post face at the end is by Otomo.
In Summary
This may be my first art book review, but it is not my first art book I own. I did grade the content a little lower, because this isn’t a story to be read and enjoyed or not. It was relating mostly facts and half the book was illustrations. What is unique is this exhibit style art book. Usually art books simply display a collection of illustration with very minimal words. This style of art book really gives the art book more depth and background about Otomo himself and those that honored him. What else is unusual is that this book is originally from France and not Japan.
While I have watched Akira and am familiar with Otomo’s works, this art book gave me a larger knowledge of Otomo and those that honored him in this book. This is definitely a must have collectors who are fans or Otomo or Akira. It will be a centerpiece to anyone’s collection with it’s large size, hardcover and full color illustrations.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Kodansha
Release Date: March 28th, 2017
MSRP: $29.99
