The Dynamite Art of Alex Ross HC

by Alex Ross

Alex Ross has made his home at Dynamite Entertainment for the past several years with the creation of his own universe in Project Superpowers. Having produced many other illustrations for Dynamite comic books like Green Hornet and Vampirella, and having reunited with his Marvels collaborator, Kurt Busiek, with Genesis, there can be no argument that Alex Ross is as popular and dynamite as ever Collecting all of Alex''s Dynamite cover and interior art in one complete hardcover volume, along with commentary and special bonus material, this is a package not to be missed

Genres: Comics, Art, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Reference, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published December 13, 2011

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[L. McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

SUPER FAST REVIEW:
So this book is good. As you could expect the artwork in it is really fucking great but why would you expect different? It’s Alex Ross! I even ended up with some stuff I gotta add to my reading list after reading this book.

Unfortunately some iconic Dynamite characters were barely present, I particularly noticed it with Red Sonja and Vampirella. Especially surprising with Vampirella since she’s on the center of the cover and the spine of the book, sorta makes this feel clickbait-y.

For real though, we somehow ended up with more Captain America than some of the most beloved Dynamite characters in this book. Just seems weird to me.
Overall still a very good art book!

4/5

[Little Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic art book by one of top 3 modern comic artists. Wonderful and beautiful cover and page reproductions. Highly recommended

[Frédéric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could be grumbling against the lack of contents (history, techniques, anecdotes...) of this book but that would be utterly pointless since this has never been its goal.
Its only purpose is to highlight Ross' concepts and art for Dynamite so it's basically covers and pencil studies. Drawing on this, either you like Ross' art or you don't.
I do.
I've never heard of some 90% of the heroes presented but the covers are beautiful nonetheless. Fair enough as far as I'm concerned.

[Eric Mesa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's mostly his covers along with some interior art. He has this amazing style on his covers that looks like the type of drawing they used to go for magazine covers before they could print photos.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's Alex Ross, so of course it's going to be nice.

His covers are, of course, amazing. His realistic painting style is rarely matched by any of his peers. Still, I did find some of it somewhat repetitive in that his character designs seem to pretty much all be the same but with slight differences, I suppose they tend to stand out and sort of clutter the book after a while. Seeing characters simply standing and "posing" (something he tends to do with his DC characters as well) might be a good way to "show" what the character looks like, but it lacks the energy of an action filled cover or painting.

Another thing that I found somewhat lacking, or dispropotionately pictured, were women.
Sure there a a few nice paintings of Vampirella and Red Sonja at the beginning of the book, but overall, very few major females in comparisson to the number of males "heroes".

Seeing as this was published at the end of 2011, there are now more than a full year's worth of additional material "missing" from this book... I have no doubt that a "Volume 2" will eventually appear sometime in the forseeable future.

The "coffee-table" size of this book makes it look great on the shelves next to others of it's caliber.

[Stephen Theaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of amazing artwork, some from comics I've read and loved, like Kirby Genesis, others from comics I didn't even know existed. His style is as stunning as ever, and his talent for revitalising old characters is as remarkable as Alan Moore's, but by the end you do wish he would do fewer covers and more interiors. It's as if the world's greatest actor just appeared on film posters rather than appearing in the films.

[KRYSE · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely book filled with absolutely stunning artworks. Along with his covers/polished works, this books contains lots of his pencil sketches and it's cool to see his thought process behind character design. This book is mostly artwork with a little bit of info on each of his projects, but it's definitely an inspiring read for the artist and would make a lovely complement to an art book collection.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ross’ work is stellar as usual here, there’s just far less basis for comparison since the Dynamite stuff is usually comprised of lesser known or forgotten (until now) characters. Still, if you love Ross’ output you need this book.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a fun book to page through, if you're an Alex Ross fan.

[Jenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alex Ross is one of my favorite comic book artists and I love flipping through his gorgeous artwork. I honestly didn't read any of the words but it wasn't pertinent to my enjoyment of the book. I didn't know the context of the illustrations but it was a good time overall. I hope to discover new artists through my comics and read more artbooks to give my brain a rest in the future.

[Trike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alex Ross has the ability to make even the most outlandish and goofy costumes look plausible and attractive. This gorgeous (and gigantic) book put that beautifully on display. If you like art and superheroes, this is a no-brained of a purchase.

The title of the book is a play on words, in that Ross' art *is* dynamite, but it's specifically about his work for the comic book publisher Dynamite. What Dynamite has been doing lately is publish a few original titles but primarily focused on licensed characters and properties that have fallen into the public domain. For Ross, that means working on a variety of comics about superhero characters who have been languishing, forgotten, for decades.

But the art collected here is not just the D-list characters from the various back catalogues of defunct publishers concatenated into the "Project Superheroes" series, it's also characters such as Flash Gordon, Green Hornet (whose redesign by Ross looks amazing), Voltron, The Phantom and The Bionic Man. Or, as everyone who grew up during the 70s knows him, The Six Million Dollar Man.

The only thing I would've liked to see more of would be the various iterations of characters as Ross worked out their final designs. I've always enjoyed the process of "getting here from there." Perhaps some of these sprung fully-formed from Ross' pencil, but surely there must have been a lot of sweat equity invested in some of the designs as he got them just-so.

All in all, though, an excellent collection of lovely art, with some nice tidbits of text explaining what each item is and how it came to be.

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More pictures on my blog)

Alex Ross' third art book has as much impact as Mythology and Rough Justice. However, it's a little different from those two books.

It features art for the lesser known superheroes (to me) from Dynamite. Most of the characters are new to me, like those from Project Superpowers, Kirby: Genesis. There's also The Torch, Bionic Man, Green Hornet, Flash Gordon Zeitgeist, The Shadow and even Voltron (yes, that Voltron). There are sketches, designs, layouts, pencils, panels and plenty of covers.

Having gotten used to seeing DC superheroes like Superman and Batman from Alex Ross, I wasn't expecting a whole new cast of characters in the book. The art for Kirby: Genesis is quite radical with the wild costumes and unfamiliar colour palette.

The bulk of the book features completely new art so there's no duplication with the earlier art books. This one's a 328-page hardcover. Many illustrations come with short commentary from Alex Ross. The art is fantastic, very typical of Alex Ross' style of realism and lighting.

This is another impressive art book for those who can't get enough of Alex Ross.

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

I may have read a different version than the one here - the collection I saw had 330 pages. It's basically a big advertisement for Dynamite's various series, decorated with full page versions of Ross' work. Which is admittedly beautiful - his painterly takes on comic characters have become iconic, and this book houses great examples, although almost exclusively from his time with Dynamite (so few pieces coming from the DC canon, and only a little more of Marvel). Still, it's all gorgeous work, if a bit on the cheesecake side, and it does make me curious to read the stories they decorate, so I'd say it served its purpose.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comecei a reparar no traço de Alex Ross na série Flash Gordon Zeitgeist, onde a ilustração esplendorosa se aproximava do estilo clássico e elegante de Alex Raymond. Depois comecei a reparar melhor nas capas dos principais comics da Dynamite e percebi que tinham a mesma mistura de espectacularidade, cor viva, linha elegante e estilismo próximo do classicismo da era dourada da banda desenhada. Este livro colige um vasto conjunto de ilustrações representativas do estilo pessoal deste desenhador norte-americano.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really love Vampirella. I really liked a lot of the art here, though most of the characters were totally foreign to me. He also seems to have one dimensional shapes to his figures, especially the females. My sons found the name choices extremely funny, laughable at times. All the good names are taken. Some characters seemed way too close to established characters in other brands. I certainly would think about trying some of these series.

[Soledad P · Rating 5 out of 5]

A diferencia de los otros dos libros de Alex Ross, éste se enfoca en su trabajo con editoriales independientes. El arte es espléndido, como siempre, pero ya no vemos a personajes muy reconocibles sino antiguos y descontinuados. Sin embargo, es destacable ver cómo se esfuerza por reactivar series y personajes antiguos (como El Avispón Verde, por ejemplo) dándoles un toque y profundidad moderna.

Este libro es una joyita para los fans del arte de Ross.

[Mark Smiley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. I was looking forward to reading about his DC and Marvel heroes, techniques of painting and such. This book touched ever so briefly on the but went instead on and on about reviving golden age heroes that were very obscure. I was looking for inspiration and the book did not provide it.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hope to purchase someday. $40 for this much content, plus color, easily makes this a bargain compared to my past puchase of a SDCC $50 B&W sketchbook that has probably fewer pages than a standard comic book.

[Tamahome · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing artist. Painted and very photo realistic people (the opposite of inside the Buffy comic). Did he do the interiors of all those Dynamite titles?

[Ryan Musick · Rating 4 out of 5]

amazing art!