Marvel Monograph: The Art of Arthur Adams – X-Men

Marvel Monograph

by Arthur Adams (Art)

Arthur Adams' incredibly detailed rendering has established him as a fan-favorite artist in Marvel's pantheon of talent. From LONGSHOT to UNCANNY X-MEN, HULK, FANTASTIC FOUR and beyond, Adams' distinctive, snappy style has brought innumerable comics and covers to life. The Marvel Monograph series captures the magic of Arthur Adams' ouvre from every angle in an artist study that will be a keepsake for your art book collection

112 pages, Paperback

First published February 25, 2020

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Arthur "Art" Adams is an American comic book artist and writer. He first broke into the American comic book industry with the 1985 Marvel Comics miniseries Longshot. His subsequent interior comics work includes a number Marvel's major books, including The Uncanny X-Men, Excalibur, X-Factor, Fantastic Four, Hulk and Ultimate X, as well books by various other publishers, such as Action Comics, Vampirella, The Rocketeer and The Authority. Adams has also illustrated books featuring characters for which he has a personal love, such as Godzilla, The Creature from the Black Lagoon and Gumby, the latter of which garnered him a 1988 Eisner Award for Best Single Issue.

Reviews

[Miles · Rating 3 out of 5]

These Marvel Monographs are a great introduction to an artist's work. Going in, however, readers should understand that this series mostly reprints images from that artist's previously published work. There are a handful of inked pages without the color, penciled pages, and character studies, but the majority of the images are lifted straight from previously published work. There is some corresponding text that gives the artist's recollections of the work, but there are not in-depth reviews of the artist's process, approach, tools, goals, etc. With all of that being said, if you are looking for a collection of some of the most interesting examples of Adams's X-Men work, this book provides a great overview.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arthur (Art) Adams is one of the greatest comic artists of my generation (in my opinion). He has influenced the best of the best and so this was a book I was highly interested in reading and enjoying! The book delivers and was close (very close) to reaching a 5-star book but fell a little short. I'll start with what I felt held it back. Lack of dialogue hurts the entire series. I know that the art is the star, but insight and perspective always add flavoring in my opinion. The other is the fact that Art Adams has a lot (LOT) of covers within his resume and I felt this book could have easily been bigger. They limited it by specifically focusing on X-men...but I would have preferred a double (or triple) sized collection that shows a great wealth of the work he has done and continues to do. That said, look at this book and see his evolution as an artist. Some of his earliest published work and I will say the quote by him to end the book...BRILLIANT!

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've never seen Adams's X-Men artwork this would be pretty cool. But this is mainly just interior art and covers lifted straight from the comics. Those can be found in collections already. There's some variant covers and a few pieces from the art boards or uncolored but overall there's just not much new here to make this interesting. Just go out and find the books Adams worked on. All of his X-Men stuff has been collected and it's terrific. I suggest you just do that instead.