Hi all, I meant to mention this earlier, but have only recently been able to look through this new book. This Yoshitaka Amano biography by Florent Gorges was originally published in France in 2015 by Pix'n Love Editions, who deal mainly in video game-related publications. This new English version was published in December, 2018 by Dark Horse Comics. The weighty hardback is an excellent look through Mr. Amano's life and career, starting from his childhood and running through to his current fine art offerings. As you probably know, Mr. Amano was an early employee of Tatsunoko Production, who started quite early himself; at the age of 15. The book contains a lengthy look at his time at Tatsunoko. Which is wise, because that's where he learned to hone his skills and work ethic. Among the projects he worked on were Mach GoGoGo (Speed Racer) [in a training capacity only], then Gatchaman, Casshan and Time Bokan mainly as a character designer. Mr. Amano discusses his life events in lengthy interview quotes interspersed with the author's comments and insights. Time spent talking about Gatchaman is brief, but there are several images and photographs from the production that have not been widely featured in books outside of Japan. He includes a lot of time discussing his work days at Tatsunoko along with several anecdotes about the president of the studio, and creator of Gatchaman, Tatsuo Yoshida. These are particularly interesting because they give even more detail about the creator and his personality. From there, the book focuses on his work outside of Tatsunoko including how he got involved in Vampire Hunter D, heavy content on the Final Fantasy video game franchise, Angel's Egg, Hero and more, plus how he got interested in displaying his original art at galleries and shows around the world. The book is lavishly illustrated in full-color with numerous personal photographs on top of rarely-seen art images, some with full-page reproductions to see details, and pictures of Amano creating pieces in his various studios. If you like Amano's work and can only get one book (and there are a lot out there), I think this is probably the one to invest in. It's a very impressive work that successfully delivers on its tagline of an "illustrated biography." Yoshitaka Amano: The Illustrated Biography Beyond the Fantasy By Florent Gorges Released 12-11-18 336 pages, 11" x 10" $49.99 Published by: Dark Horse Manga ISBN 978-1506707532 Should anyone be so inclined, there is also a limited edition box set available (500 copies): Released 12-11-18 424 pages, 11" x 13" $149.99 Published by: Dark Horse Manga ISBN 978-1506707549 Additional contents for this version include: Slipcase for the book 96-page "Paris Sketchbook" Region-free Blu-ray with almost 3 hours of discussion, commentary, and live drawing 2 mini-lithographs Signed card Links for the standard edition: Amazon Barnes & Noble Links for the limited edition: Amazon Barnes & Noble The other Jason www.battleoftheplanets.info

Impressive