In our latest Geek Pick of the Week, we’re diving into the newest Art of Star Wars book to launch from Abrams Books, which focuses on The High Republic initiative!
As the Holiday season approaches, we’re bringing back our Geek Pick of the Week. Each week leading up to Christmas, we’ll be highlighting a cool product we’ve found that we feel would be the perfect gift for geeks of all kinds. Use these to help fill in your own wish list or find the perfect gift for the nerds in your life. Click HERE to read more about previous Picks of the Week!
We’ve covered pretty much all of Abrams Books’ impressive “Art Of” books from Star Wars over the years. In the absence of actual “making of” material, these tomes have served as both reference guides and our best look at behind the scenes of the most recent Star Wars endeavors. In short, they’re all pretty amazing, and offer fun insights (not to mention great artwork) into the production of such things.
The difference here, however, is this marks the first time one of these books have been done for the publishing side of Star Wars. It’s kind of wild to think about…I mean, I can’t think of many other books that have gotten concept art in general, let alone enough to fill a book! Even the massive initiatives in Legends didn’t warrant such a thing. It’s a testament to how big, and impactful, The High Republic era has been for both fans and Lucasfilm, and I couldn’t be happier.
Here on the site, we’re pretty big fans of The High Republic so far. We’re at the midway point of the initiative’s Phase II, and they aren’t slowing down on the quality. As such, this Art of book serves as both an incredible resource, and a way to help fill the time while we wait to see what our favorite characters get up to next (and who will survive).
As one would expect from Abrams Books, there’s just not much to find fault with in this latest release. Seriously, it’s pretty damn spectacular. It’s filled with great details on the formation of the team behind the scenes, and how they crafted the unique story they decided to tell. For me, that was the best part of this, seeing how they all brainstormed, hammered out ideas, and worked together to tell engaging stories that manage to intersect in fun ways.
Beyond that, the book dives deeper into the specifics of each character and major location. It’s laid out in a super clear way, that allows readers to jump to a specific thing they want to read about, while still flowing smoothly if you’re going cover to cover. Kristin Baver lends her writing talents to this series for the first time, and her overall style and enthusiasm comes through nicely on the page.
Of course, the real highlight of it all, are the oodles of artwork to pour through. From early rough sketches (things little more than impressions/ideas) to finalized alternatives for our favorite characters, this book is LOADED with interesting pieces. Like the previous Abrams art of novels, the oversized, thick pages make looking at each art piece as easy as can be, allowing plenty of room for fine details to shine through. There’s even a handy character chart (showing connections and lineage), as well as plenty of gorgeous pieces from the comics in all their unlettered glory.
Like the previous Art of Star Wars books, this tome works as both a simple coffee table book (something to pick up casually and flip through), or an engaging behind the scenes resource you can read cover to cover. If you enjoyed any of the previous Abrams releases, or love The High Republic, there’s literally no reason to pass up on this one. If you’ve got a Star Wars fan on your shopping list this year, it’s definitely something they’ll enjoy finding underneath the tree.
The Art of Star Wars: The High Republic is available now via online retailers and wherever books are sold.
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