I wouldn’t say what the world needs now is a 272-page book of Kirby artwork, but it certainly can’t hurt.
Published by Viz Media in English earlier this week, the Kirby Art & Style Collection is a $30 hardbound tome filled with official art, concept art, box art, and sketches spanning 25 years of Kirby history. Accompanying the artwork are notes from the artists who have drawn eyes and mouths on pink circles over the decades. Also feet, but not human feet.
I enjoy seeing bright and colorful works of Kirby art alongside the rough sketches that inspired them. It’s like using an x-ray to see the bones of the art.
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Pages filled with isolated characters in various costumes and poses are not specifically meant to inspire video game tattoos, but they definitely do. Bring the Kirby Art & Style Collection to your local tattoo artist, pick a page, and get inked. Maybe not the table of contents. Or maybe so, it’s your body.
He’s so cute it makes my teeth ache. Do I want to eat Kirby? I don’t know. Maybe?
The Kirby Art & Style Collection is now available wherever fine books are sold. It comes in a slipcover that several Amazon reviews say was damaged during shipping. My Amazon order isn’t shipping until May, so maybe check around other stores.
DISCUSSION
Any book that ships from Amazon has a high chance of arriving damaged. They don’t package books safely at all. I once ordered an atlas, and they just threw it in a gigantic box with no packing materials and no protection but shrink wrap. For a company that started off selling books, they really dgaf anymore.