Among my other most treasured items is THE STUDIO book. For those not in the know, it's a 12" X 12" book in the same format as Roger Dean's VIEWS book (both published by Dragon's Dream, that later continued publishing as Paper Tiger). The book was published in 1979, covering the work of Jeff Jones, Barry Windsor-Smith, Michael Kaluta, and Berni Wrightson. Displaying most of the posters, prints and portfolios they each did in this era, it covers the period from 1975 to 1979 when the four artists shared a studio, and how each at the peak of their talent inspired each other to even greater heights of excellence.
Most of the works I first saw in this book I later purchased in poster or print form, much of which is on my walls. I recently (preparing for hurricane Irma) was moving items to safety, and found a cache of about 100 posters and prints by these artists and others. And was a bit saddened by the fact they had remained in storage for 20 years or so, and were not in frames and displayed on the walls as I'd previously intended. But hey, it's impossible to display everything.
I'd say this 160-page book (split into four roughly 40-page sections spotlighting each artist) is the single best representation of comic book art I've ever seen.
The only other that comes close is BERNI WRIGHTSON: A LOOK BACK, the 1980 book by Chris Zavisa, that gives its sole focus to Berni Wrightson, and displays virtually every poster and print Wrightson had ever done up to that point. But even so, THE STUDIO is still a far more beautiful book.
