Tim Sale: Black And White - Revised And Expanded

by Tim Sale, Richard Starkings, John Roshell

Tim Sale discusses his life and work in this comprehensive and lavishly illustrated volume. This new, revised, and expanded edition of the original sold-out and out-of-print Tim Sale: Black and White previously published by Active Images features never-before-seen art from the illustrator of NBC's Heroes!

Genres: Art, Comics, Graphic Novels

272 pages, Hardcover

First published May 21, 2004

About the author

Tim Sale was a comic book artist best known for his work with writer Jeph Loeb on Batman.

Reviews

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More pictures at parkablogs.com)

I only got to know Tim Sale through the paintings he did for Heroes, the TV series. The paintings were cool, so is this book.

This is a thick hardcover book without a dust jacket. There are 272 pages, mostly printed in black and white, with the last few pages devoted to some coloured pieces.

The book is written by Richard Starkings in a question and answer format throughout. It explores the life of Tim Sale, his inspiration, the many projects he has done so far, how he got to provide artwork for Heroes and other interesting stuff. The chapters are categorized primarily by his projects. There's quite a lot to read.

There are lots of sketches, comic panels, commissions and art done for fans at comic-con, etc. He dislike Johnny Depp but still drew Jack Sparrow for a fan. Most of his finished inks aren't coloured. Even the paintings that were used on Heroes were coloured by Dave Stewart - I didn't know that!

My first impression when I first flipped through the book was,"Hey, it's quite worth the money." That's probably because of the savings when printing without colour.

This review was first published on parkablogs.com. There are more pictures and videos on my blog.

[Frédéric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lavish book. The text is not so much an interview than a conversation between 2 friends. A must have for any fan of Tim Sale.

[Matt Graupman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve always liked Tim Sale’s art. I wouldn’t say I’m a super-fan or anything, I haven’t read a whole lot of his comics, but he’s got an immediately recognizable style that always makes me stop and flip through whatever he’s illustrated. So I noticed “Tim Sale: Black And White” on the shelves of my local comic book store (shout out to JAF Comics!) and thought, “An art book devoted to Tim Sale’s work? I should totally snag that,” and so I did. It was sealed in plastic, however, so I didn’t really know what was in it until I got it home. The actual contents (and I should note that I have the original version, not the revised and expanded one, but Goodreads didn’t have an entry for the basic version) are somehow both better than I imagined but also kind of disappointing.

“Tim Sale: Black And White” is much more of an extended conversation between Sale and the book’s authors, his friends, letterer extraordinaire Richard Starkings and John Roshell. That is to say that this book is much, MUCH more text heavy than I initially thought. There’s definitely plenty of reproductions of his work as well as unreleased sketches and studies and other ephemera but the bulk of the book is the transcripts of a series of far-reaching interviews with the superstar artist. Thankfully, Sale is a great interviewee. He’s candid, opinionated, and just a bit (but not too much) curmudgeonly; he knows exactly what he likes and he holds comic artists to a very high standard, himself most definitely included. The problem with “Tim Sale: Black And White” is the format. The book assumes the reader is well-acquainted with Sale’s body of work so the interviews, though roughly chronological, do tend to skip around a bit, which can be confusing. Instead of shoehorning their conversations into neat little categories, it would’ve been better to just print it from start to finish, in its entirety. Also, for a nicely printed, glossy art book, it’s really embarrassing how many typos and misspellings and other editorial gaffes are liberally sprinkled throughout. Maybe the updated version addresses those issues?

Tim Sale is one of the greats and he totally deserves to be honored with such a comprehensive retrospective. Though it wasn’t exactly what I had hoped for, “Tim Sale: Black And White” was nonetheless a fascinating look into the mind and sketchbook of one of the mainstream comic world’s stars. It makes me want to track down more of his work.

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Naturally the first thing I have to say is this book is just visually stunning, as it should be. It is Time Sale after all. What was also cool was getting an extended interview type biography of him as a person and artist as well as his frustrations with the industry. It also presented us with his evolution as an artist and his style which to this day maintains two rather distinct styles in my opinion. This book also gives a nice view into the workings of the comic industry from an artists point of view. Finally it is a glorious collection of his work.

[Diz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gorgeous volume filled with the black-and-white art (and a few color pieces in the back) of comic artist, Tim Sale. Sales does most of his own inking, so a majority of the pieces in this book are inked. There is a lot of artwork from both DC and Marvel, so fans of both will be satisfied. This is a really sturdy large hardback book that would be great for coffee table display. A must-have for comic art fans.

[Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting format; Written like an interview/conversation between two friends. Tim Sale is one of my favorite artists of all time and one of the creators of one of my favorite books of all time (Spider-Man: Blue). I loved reading about all of his opinions of other creators in the business and also his reflection on the work that he's done. Great read if you're a fan of Tim Sale, comics, or just art in general

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've loved Tim Sale's artwork and his ability to tell a story with it ever since I first saw his work on Grendel.