CMON: The Art of Adrian Smith
110Contrary to popular belief, it was Smith's Chronopia art that got my interest more than his GW work. There aren't too many collected editions of his art either- there's the Blood Rage art book, an out of print Black Library book as well as some French editions I'd love to some day acquire.
I remember stumbling across his early art for the HATE graphic novels before they were officially released and really digging it. I remember seeing the comic shop solicitations for the actual graphic novels and impatiently chomping at the bit to get it. I wasn't disappointed- other than the fact it was done and there was no more to it.
Until the kickstarter for Chronicles of Hate that is. While a big vanity project for CMON, I couldn't have been happier as the artwork, art direction, and sculpts were all firing on point.
Then they dropped this art book, which I believe is still one of the largest art books CMON has published. It includes all the full color painted warrior portraits, but more interestingly it includes all the short vignettes that CMON used to introduce each tribe during the Kickstarter campaign, in the form of a short 10 to 12 page comic.
There's also tons of line art, sketches, and early designs all throughout the book. As someone who really enjoyed the graphic novels, it was pretty impressive that there was still stuff I hadn't even come across before!