‘The Art Of Sean Phillips’ Coming From Dynamite In September [Preview Pages + Art]

If you pay attention to our yearly deluxe book gift guides, you know that we at ComicsAlliance are big fans of coffee table books, particularly those dedicated to the work of our favorite comic book artists. Dynamite Entertainment has been building an impressive business in this area over the last few years with great books based on the art of different eras of Vampirella and singling out important talents like Howard Chaykin, Ramona Fradon and Alex Ross.

Joining those ranks in September will be Sean Phillips, who with co-writer Eddie Robinson has authored a 312-page book that looks back on the consistently excellent body of work Phillips has created throughout his career with books like Criminal, Marvel Zombies, Hellblazer, Sleeper, Judge Dredd and much more. Images presented The Art of Sean Phillipsare hand-picked by the artist himself -- from work for all the major publishers including Vertigo, Marvel, Image, WildStorm and 2000 AD, not to mention comics he created as a child -- and are accompanied by commentary and interviews with Phillips' closest collaborators.

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"Putting this book together has been a welcome reminder that I might not have wasted my life drawing comics," said Phillips in the Dynamite press release. "Looking back, I see that I've managed a wide variety of work in a range of genres that I might not have been that comfortable with drawing beforehand. That I can still bear to look at some of this work means that it's a lot better than I thought it was at the time that I drew it. It's never as good on paper as it was in my head, but seeing the highlights brought together in a proper hardcover retrospective makes me think that maybe I've got the hang of this comics stuff after all."

As mentioned above, The Art of Sean Phillips will also come with remarks from some of the artist's notable collaborators. Among them is of course Ed Bruabker, with whom Phillips has created his most acclaimed work in the form of Criminal, Fatale, Sleeper and Incognito. Additional commentary comes from Phillips' WildC.A.T.s collaborator Joe Casey; Peter Milligan, co-creator of Phillips' The Minx; former Hellblazer writer Jamie Delano; and Vertigo founder and former Executive Editor Karen Berger.

In the press release, co-writer Edie Robson points out that the text portions of the art book are substantial, saying, "...we were keen for there to be value in the text too, so it's 60,000 words, which would comfortably fill a 200-page paperback on its own. It's not just a few bits of puff to fill in the spaces around the artwork; it's a full and frank account of Sean's career from the beginning to the present day."

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