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Fables
Fables: Covers
Now, for the first time, the exquisite Fables covers by James Jean, winner of multiple Eisner and Harvey Awards, whose diverse clients include Prada and Pepsi, are collected in one extraordinary volume!
Perfect for any art-book library or Fables completist, this volume includes never-before-seen sketch material, along with insightful commentary and remarkable insights into Jean's creative process. Also included is a afterword by celebrated Fables writer/creator Bill Willingham. Designed and annotated by the artist, this deluxe, oversized hardcover includes ten vellum sleeve inserts, an embossed case and other fine art details that make Fables: Covers by James Jean as elegant and unique as the Fables covers themselves.
Perfect for any art-book library or Fables completist, this volume includes never-before-seen sketch material, along with insightful commentary and remarkable insights into Jean's creative process. Also included is a afterword by celebrated Fables writer/creator Bill Willingham. Designed and annotated by the artist, this deluxe, oversized hardcover includes ten vellum sleeve inserts, an embossed case and other fine art details that make Fables: Covers by James Jean as elegant and unique as the Fables covers themselves.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published November 18, 2008
About the author
James Jean
168 books64 followersJames Jean is a Taiwanese-American award winning artist and illustrator living in Los Angeles. He was born in Taiwan but was raised in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey. He was educated at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Upon graduating in 2001, he quickly became a cover artist for DC Comics, garnering seven Eisner awards, three consecutive Harvey awards, two gold medals and a silver from the Society of Illustrators of LA, and a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators of NY. He has also worked in advertising, and has contributed to many national and international publications. His clients include Time Magazine, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, ESPN, Atlantic Records, Target, Playboy, Knopf, Prada among others. He has also illustrated covers for the comic book series Fables and The Umbrella Academy, for which he has won six Eisner Awards for "Best Cover Artist".
James Jean currently has seven published works, all of which collect his illustrations and art.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Jean
Upon graduating in 2001, he quickly became a cover artist for DC Comics, garnering seven Eisner awards, three consecutive Harvey awards, two gold medals and a silver from the Society of Illustrators of LA, and a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators of NY. He has also worked in advertising, and has contributed to many national and international publications. His clients include Time Magazine, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, ESPN, Atlantic Records, Target, Playboy, Knopf, Prada among others. He has also illustrated covers for the comic book series Fables and The Umbrella Academy, for which he has won six Eisner Awards for "Best Cover Artist".
James Jean currently has seven published works, all of which collect his illustrations and art.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Jean
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
May 17, 2018
Eisnein's No.10 Favorite Artist/Artbook. Check Out No.11 Right HERE. Go Back to No.1 HERE.
Fables: The Covers by James Jean
I've bitched at length and often about the cheap, terrible production values of DC trade paper-backs and 'deluxe' hardcovers; and the Absolute editions, though well-constructed, are very over-priced. For these greedy fuckhead maneuvers and many other comic-book related crimes, I can only shake my head and let James Jean do the talking for me:
But I'll give them the credit they deserve on this one: 'Fables: The Covers by James Jean' matches the very high standards of art-book publishers like Rizzoli, Hatje Cantz and Thames and Hudson. There is absolutely no reason to bitch about this book, which includes James Jean's entire cover run on 'Fables', work that justly earned him multiple Eisner awards and made 'Fables' seem like a better series than it actually was. I'm kidding, to some extent. It was an enjoyable enough comic up to the end of the first storyline, with it's Pinocchio-related twist. That's also about the time Jean's run ended, after 75 issues and a dozen or so trade paperback covers. That's also about the time I checked out.
An example of Jean's fine art, from 'Rebus' - 'Toymaker':
The covers stand up beautifully on their own. Fresh out of art school, Jean's portfolio earned him his gig for DC/Vertigo, and he proved to be well-worth taking a chance on. His art unquestionably helped make 'Fables' Vertigo's biggest hit since 'Sandman', and made Jean one of the most sought-after illustrators of the 00's. He began with full oil-on-canvas paintings for the first few issues, but switched to the mixed-media approach he was part of popularizing in the illustration world. This included oils, acrylics, and/or colored pencil work being scanned and combined with computer graphics, coloring, formatting and finishes. 'Fables: The Covers by James Jean' includes the completed cover on the right, with sketches, preliminary paintings and the artist's comments on the left. This is just one example of Jean's remarkable talent not just as the artist, but as the book designer; using what is often just a blank page -- with a couple lines of text for the title, date and media -- to instead feature a wealth of fascinating insight on his creative process, well... that might seem pretty obvious but it's not. For many years the kind of detail necessary for the plates faithfully reproducing photos of the art required one image per page -- hence the name. I have many, many artbooks, dating back from the late 90's to a week ago, and not one artist thought to do something like it. I say without exaggeration that with this book, Jean produced one of the very best monograph designs I've seen. Another feather in his increasingly gaudy and bird-like cap.
'Ballad', work from 'Fables', and um... something else:
The dust-jacket has the rough pencil sketches for the cover painting printed on the verso, for fuck-sakes. A 2-sided dust-jacket. The cover is canvas board with paint-embossed decorative details and a fantastic illustration within the impressed frontispiece. The paper is primarily archival arctic-white 150gr/m2 stock -- very nice. There's also a fancy little paper-change for the appendix... very cool. Everything from the end-paper graphics to the tastefully decorative margin-borders are flawless.
Jean has since moved away from a ridiculously prolific career in illustration for a ridiculously prolific career as a fine artist. Both his illustrative triumphs and his first few years of gallery work are collected in the monograph James Jean: Rebus, published by Chronicle. As much as I love 'Fables: The Covers by James Jean', 'Rebus' features a far more complete survey of Jean's first decade as an artist and illustrator; the paintings and drawings it collects form an undeniable testament to an artistic genius who hasn't yet found his plateau. The one area it neglects entirely, however, is Jean's seminal work on 'Fables', and for fans of Jean, both books are absolutely essential. Jean has his faults; for example, he apparently can't answer even the simplest question without spouting embarrassingly lame and pretentious bullshit, often coming across as a total douchebag. Considering his close friendship with David Choe, the shit-talkin', ass-kickin', occasionally criminal, comic-graffiti-fine artist (who famously decorated the Facebook HQ for a 'small' stock share that ended up being worth well over $100 million), I'm surprised he isn't a bit more 'down-to-earth'. Whatever. I'm not too interested in what artists have to say... usually.
From 'Rebus':
For more serious Jean fans, this book is one of several hard-to-find early books that Jean honed his designer chops on -- a plastic-spiral-bound 11.5" x 16" landscape format book that collects his best illustrations on Bristol-board with perforated edges, each of its pages suitable for framing. His idea for including process work on the verso for the 'Fables' monograph came from the first two 'Process Recess' books. This one is the second, and it was already out of print and expensive when I found a copy several years ago:
Eisnein's No.10 Favorite Artist/Artbook. Check Out No.11 Right HERE. Go Back to No.1 HERE.
More Art-book Reviews
More Comic-book Reviews
More Novel Reviews
Fables: The Covers by James Jean
I've bitched at length and often about the cheap, terrible production values of DC trade paper-backs and 'deluxe' hardcovers; and the Absolute editions, though well-constructed, are very over-priced. For these greedy fuckhead maneuvers and many other comic-book related crimes, I can only shake my head and let James Jean do the talking for me:
But I'll give them the credit they deserve on this one: 'Fables: The Covers by James Jean' matches the very high standards of art-book publishers like Rizzoli, Hatje Cantz and Thames and Hudson. There is absolutely no reason to bitch about this book, which includes James Jean's entire cover run on 'Fables', work that justly earned him multiple Eisner awards and made 'Fables' seem like a better series than it actually was. I'm kidding, to some extent. It was an enjoyable enough comic up to the end of the first storyline, with it's Pinocchio-related twist. That's also about the time Jean's run ended, after 75 issues and a dozen or so trade paperback covers. That's also about the time I checked out.
An example of Jean's fine art, from 'Rebus' - 'Toymaker':
The covers stand up beautifully on their own. Fresh out of art school, Jean's portfolio earned him his gig for DC/Vertigo, and he proved to be well-worth taking a chance on. His art unquestionably helped make 'Fables' Vertigo's biggest hit since 'Sandman', and made Jean one of the most sought-after illustrators of the 00's. He began with full oil-on-canvas paintings for the first few issues, but switched to the mixed-media approach he was part of popularizing in the illustration world. This included oils, acrylics, and/or colored pencil work being scanned and combined with computer graphics, coloring, formatting and finishes. 'Fables: The Covers by James Jean' includes the completed cover on the right, with sketches, preliminary paintings and the artist's comments on the left. This is just one example of Jean's remarkable talent not just as the artist, but as the book designer; using what is often just a blank page -- with a couple lines of text for the title, date and media -- to instead feature a wealth of fascinating insight on his creative process, well... that might seem pretty obvious but it's not. For many years the kind of detail necessary for the plates faithfully reproducing photos of the art required one image per page -- hence the name. I have many, many artbooks, dating back from the late 90's to a week ago, and not one artist thought to do something like it. I say without exaggeration that with this book, Jean produced one of the very best monograph designs I've seen. Another feather in his increasingly gaudy and bird-like cap.
'Ballad', work from 'Fables', and um... something else:
The dust-jacket has the rough pencil sketches for the cover painting printed on the verso, for fuck-sakes. A 2-sided dust-jacket. The cover is canvas board with paint-embossed decorative details and a fantastic illustration within the impressed frontispiece. The paper is primarily archival arctic-white 150gr/m2 stock -- very nice. There's also a fancy little paper-change for the appendix... very cool. Everything from the end-paper graphics to the tastefully decorative margin-borders are flawless.
Jean has since moved away from a ridiculously prolific career in illustration for a ridiculously prolific career as a fine artist. Both his illustrative triumphs and his first few years of gallery work are collected in the monograph James Jean: Rebus, published by Chronicle. As much as I love 'Fables: The Covers by James Jean', 'Rebus' features a far more complete survey of Jean's first decade as an artist and illustrator; the paintings and drawings it collects form an undeniable testament to an artistic genius who hasn't yet found his plateau. The one area it neglects entirely, however, is Jean's seminal work on 'Fables', and for fans of Jean, both books are absolutely essential. Jean has his faults; for example, he apparently can't answer even the simplest question without spouting embarrassingly lame and pretentious bullshit, often coming across as a total douchebag. Considering his close friendship with David Choe, the shit-talkin', ass-kickin', occasionally criminal, comic-graffiti-fine artist (who famously decorated the Facebook HQ for a 'small' stock share that ended up being worth well over $100 million), I'm surprised he isn't a bit more 'down-to-earth'. Whatever. I'm not too interested in what artists have to say... usually.
From 'Rebus':
For more serious Jean fans, this book is one of several hard-to-find early books that Jean honed his designer chops on -- a plastic-spiral-bound 11.5" x 16" landscape format book that collects his best illustrations on Bristol-board with perforated edges, each of its pages suitable for framing. His idea for including process work on the verso for the 'Fables' monograph came from the first two 'Process Recess' books. This one is the second, and it was already out of print and expensive when I found a copy several years ago:
Eisnein's No.10 Favorite Artist/Artbook. Check Out No.11 Right HERE. Go Back to No.1 HERE.
More Art-book Reviews
More Comic-book Reviews
More Novel Reviews
February 1, 2016
Read Einstein's typically awesome review for a real review and to see examples from the text.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I read this because Eisnein lists it as one of his top ten art books ever, and you can't ignore Eisnein on this type of thing. I am making my way through his list, and recommend you do the same.
I am not really a fan of Fables, found it sort of hit and miss with a decline in quality over the years. I actually stopped rating/reviewing them after a bit, even if I picked one up. But for me the art was always pretty much the best feature of the series. And these covers by the rock star illustrator Jean are pretty awesome, just gorgeous, fine art.
This is a rerelease, a gorgeous artifact, with Jean showing you the process for each cover from sketch to full color display, and with writing about the process as well. A must collectible for the Fables completist, I should think.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I read this because Eisnein lists it as one of his top ten art books ever, and you can't ignore Eisnein on this type of thing. I am making my way through his list, and recommend you do the same.
I am not really a fan of Fables, found it sort of hit and miss with a decline in quality over the years. I actually stopped rating/reviewing them after a bit, even if I picked one up. But for me the art was always pretty much the best feature of the series. And these covers by the rock star illustrator Jean are pretty awesome, just gorgeous, fine art.
This is a rerelease, a gorgeous artifact, with Jean showing you the process for each cover from sketch to full color display, and with writing about the process as well. A must collectible for the Fables completist, I should think.
July 23, 2023
I haven't read much of Fables, but I definitely enjoyed looking through all of the cover art. James Jean has a pretty unique style that blends comics with fine art. He creates a ton of intrigue and its made me want to go back and read the series now. I have to imagine his artwork helped Fables become a best-seller.
Each complete piece has a bit of process art included which is pretty neat. I'd love to see a video of Jean creating a piece from scratch. He seems to have a unique method.
Each complete piece has a bit of process art included which is pretty neat. I'd love to see a video of Jean creating a piece from scratch. He seems to have a unique method.
June 4, 2009
Designed and annotated by the artist, James Jean, this deluxe, over sized hardcover includes ten vellum sleeve inserts, an embossed case as well as an afterword by celebrated "Fables" writer/creator Bill Willingham.
I absolutely loved the entire art book! I have always admired the way James Jean was not only able to capture the spirit of the magic behind Willingham's "Fables" series, but he has this ingenious way of leaving you visual clues about the plot which will unfold. Ever since I first read "Fables", James Jean entered my list of favorite illustrators/artists, along with the likes of Charles Vess and P. Craig Russell.
The great thing about the book is that on one side you get part of the process he uses to get to the finished product such as preliminary sketches and drawings. My only complaint would be that Jean does some commentary on his covers for the trade paperbacks of the series, but he doesn't do any commentary on the individual covers. I hope he'll do just that on his other works.
Book Details:
Title Fables Covers: The Art of James Jean Vol. 1
Author James Jean
Reviewed By Purplycookie
I absolutely loved the entire art book! I have always admired the way James Jean was not only able to capture the spirit of the magic behind Willingham's "Fables" series, but he has this ingenious way of leaving you visual clues about the plot which will unfold. Ever since I first read "Fables", James Jean entered my list of favorite illustrators/artists, along with the likes of Charles Vess and P. Craig Russell.
The great thing about the book is that on one side you get part of the process he uses to get to the finished product such as preliminary sketches and drawings. My only complaint would be that Jean does some commentary on his covers for the trade paperbacks of the series, but he doesn't do any commentary on the individual covers. I hope he'll do just that on his other works.
Book Details:
Title Fables Covers: The Art of James Jean Vol. 1
Author James Jean
Reviewed By Purplycookie
April 13, 2019
James Jean is absolutely exceptional. He creates some of the more elaborate, complex and unique covers in the comics industry, each one of them containing a lot of info, easter eggs and references that are easy to miss the first time. This book, among others, serves the purpose of giving the reader the time and scale needed to absorb each cover as it deserves. Buy this, on digital form it cuts off a lot of the magic. I'll surely do.
James Jean, your charisma played a major part to what the Fables series came to be. Each of it's issues was extra magical with proper amounts of foreshadowing when it had your work on the first page. After you left on #81, the series, albeit still great, lost a bit of its magic. I hope I stumble upon your paintings again.
James Jean, your charisma played a major part to what the Fables series came to be. Each of it's issues was extra magical with proper amounts of foreshadowing when it had your work on the first page. After you left on #81, the series, albeit still great, lost a bit of its magic. I hope I stumble upon your paintings again.
March 5, 2011
One of the greatest collections of comic book covers ever.
March 21, 2017
Some beautiful covers indeed!
October 15, 2019
I have always loved the artists who created the Fables covers. So when I found this book that collected the cover art of this long running series I jumped on it. It is gorgeous! I really liked how you are treated to the sketch art for the cover, with a small capsule of information about the issue and a small picture of the cover. Turn the page and you get a gorgeous full page cover.
While I wouldn't call this a "comic" book, nor not even a "comic reference", I think comic fans will enjoy this art. This falls more into the category of "art book". IMHO Fables covers are truly gorgeous and interesting. To have a beautiful book that collects all of them, gives me some background and is well put together gives me a great pleasure.
You do not need to like Fables, you do not need to like comics. But you do need to like art. If you do then you will love this gorgeous volume collecting all the covers from Fables.
While I wouldn't call this a "comic" book, nor not even a "comic reference", I think comic fans will enjoy this art. This falls more into the category of "art book". IMHO Fables covers are truly gorgeous and interesting. To have a beautiful book that collects all of them, gives me some background and is well put together gives me a great pleasure.
You do not need to like Fables, you do not need to like comics. But you do need to like art. If you do then you will love this gorgeous volume collecting all the covers from Fables.
January 5, 2009
w/each page, an epiphany.
July 22, 2023
The single best part about Fables in one handsome collection. There's even occasional process commentary by Jean the wraparound covers; that alone makes up like a whole star.
November 22, 2008
I'm actually not a Fables fan, but I love the art in this book. The layout truly makes it something special, with the process for each cover, from preliminary sketches to final product, being shown. Even the cover of this book has its development revealed on the inside of the dust jacket! Very classy.
October 6, 2015
I finally get to read this book. Yes it is mostly covers to the greatest comic ever but has other additional info on each issue and some tidbit information. Can't wait to fall asleep with it.
September 8, 2014
O Trabalho de James Jean é de babar. E agora João Ruas não deixa a desejar como novo capista da série Fábulas.
![Profile Image for Amanda [Novel Addiction].](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/users/1415744673i/4886503._UX200_CR0,36,200,200_.jpg)
August 3, 2015
3.5. Cool pictures. And it was nice to see the artwork from the paperbacks without all the words/branding on it.
Not something I would purchase for myself. I like Fables but not that much.
Not something I would purchase for myself. I like Fables but not that much.
August 4, 2020
This art book has very little written input from James Jean himself (which for me was the only mildly disappointing part).
Each two-page spread contains: thumbnail sketches and preliminary drawings on the left, plus the final cover art on the right, without the typography on it.
The left page also includes brief quotes from Fables, with a list of the mediums used to create the artwork, and a tiny version of the finished cover with the typography.
For artists looking to buy this book to learn from it, as an artist myself I can definitely tell you this book is GREAT for studying composition and contrast.
It’s often easier to study Jean’s compositional choices when viewing them as small graphite sketches on bond, rather than in the fully rendered covers.
As for contrast, he often mixes highly contrasting mediums such as fuzzy oil paints with some stark and flat digital lines. It’s really interesting to see his medium choices and how it often doesn’t just stop at a fully-rendered acrylic painting.
Loved it overall, even though I wished it had more written input from the artist.
Each two-page spread contains: thumbnail sketches and preliminary drawings on the left, plus the final cover art on the right, without the typography on it.
The left page also includes brief quotes from Fables, with a list of the mediums used to create the artwork, and a tiny version of the finished cover with the typography.
For artists looking to buy this book to learn from it, as an artist myself I can definitely tell you this book is GREAT for studying composition and contrast.
It’s often easier to study Jean’s compositional choices when viewing them as small graphite sketches on bond, rather than in the fully rendered covers.
As for contrast, he often mixes highly contrasting mediums such as fuzzy oil paints with some stark and flat digital lines. It’s really interesting to see his medium choices and how it often doesn’t just stop at a fully-rendered acrylic painting.
Loved it overall, even though I wished it had more written input from the artist.
September 14, 2020
Hace un par de años el dependiente de una tienda en el mercado de Camden Town se mostró extrañadísimo (y feliz) de que yo le preguntara si el print de Blade Runner que estaba mirando era efectivamente una creación de James Jean. No podía creer que alguien más que él conociera a un autor que, aunque ya es famoso a nivel mundial no es tan mencionado siempre. Hablamos un rato de su obra y obvio finalmente terminamos por mencionar las portadas de FABLES, las contenidas en este libro. Lo más interesante de todo es que no solo se ve el proceso de cada una de las portadas, si no también el proceso de "cocción" o de descubrimiento de voz del propio artista, en algunas de las muchas portadas ya se puede ver la línea experimental que Jean trabaja hoy en día, prácticamente perfecta. Creo que eso es lo que hace valioso a este libro.
October 7, 2022
I’ve been a fan of the comic book series Fables since it began in 2001, and ignited my interest in comics and sequential storytelling. Discovering this book of covers reminded me of all the layered richness in that series. I’m going to have to re-read Fables again! I feel compelled. Yes, the brilliant and varied cover art by James Jean has that effect on me. There’s not much text among the sketches, comps, and wrap-around cover-spreads, but the few insights from the artist are interesting and I will definitely notice each cover in context of the story as I read Fables again.
Read
October 18, 2019One of the few books I own, the artwork of fables covers is some of the finest work of James Jean.
October 27, 2020
So much wonderful artwork!
February 12, 2022
These covers are amazing. The insight on them and progress images are great as well.
July 22, 2012
This is a beautiful oversized, hardback book collecting James Jean's work as a cover artist on Fables. The book collects covers from the main series (#1-10 and 12-75), standalone books (The Last Castle and [1001 Nights of Snowfall) and the wraparound covers for the first 10 trade paperback collections.
The format of the book is pretty rigid. There is a double page spread for each single issue. The left hand page consists of preliminary sketches and paintings along with a relevant quote from the script for that issue and a thumbnail of the final cover as published. The right hand page is a full page reprint of the cover normally without logos, issue numbers, barcodes and other text or graphic elements unless these form an integral part of the design of the image.
The wraparound covers are treated slightly differently. These get 4 pages devoted to them. The first two have have the preliminary sketches, drawings and paintings with a thumbnail of the final cover and a short commentary from Jean himself on the cover. The next two pages is a reproduction of the cover alone without logos etc.
It goes without saying that if you love Jean's work then you will love this book. It shows which covers went through a number of iterations before settling on a final image and which seem to have been fully formed from the start. Amazing as the final covers are, some of my favourite illustrations are clean line drawings - the details are amazing and sometimes get lost in the colouring process. Visit his web site which has lots of examples of his other work.
The format of the book is pretty rigid. There is a double page spread for each single issue. The left hand page consists of preliminary sketches and paintings along with a relevant quote from the script for that issue and a thumbnail of the final cover as published. The right hand page is a full page reprint of the cover normally without logos, issue numbers, barcodes and other text or graphic elements unless these form an integral part of the design of the image.
The wraparound covers are treated slightly differently. These get 4 pages devoted to them. The first two have have the preliminary sketches, drawings and paintings with a thumbnail of the final cover and a short commentary from Jean himself on the cover. The next two pages is a reproduction of the cover alone without logos etc.
It goes without saying that if you love Jean's work then you will love this book. It shows which covers went through a number of iterations before settling on a final image and which seem to have been fully formed from the start. Amazing as the final covers are, some of my favourite illustrations are clean line drawings - the details are amazing and sometimes get lost in the colouring process. Visit his web site which has lots of examples of his other work.
December 27, 2012
James Jean's covers were my favorite thing about the artwork of the Fables series, so I love that there is a book dedicated just to them! It's especially cool to see some of his sketches and compositional decisions, and processes such as those on p. 150 (comp, flatting, color & texture, wind, and snow). Although he is obviously a spectacular draftsman and painter on his own, it is interesting to me to see how much "oomph" is added to an already stellar painting via Photoshop layering and juicing up the lighting and color digitally.
James Jean also has a good handle on narrative imagery, though I sometimes think he adds too much -- the intricacies and texture of his covers are impressive, yet it's the ones with limited color or compositional elements that, to me, are the strongest. Examples of these are the cover of this book, and p. 151, 173, and 193.
"Hands play an important role in communicating intention and establishing relationships between characters in a narrative image. Geppetto's paternal touch is framed by hands that communicate death and destruction." -JJ
"A good fairy tale is a well of danger and depravity, of cooked human flesh, crooked deals, and abandoned children. A sense of foreboding is created by carefully composing the characters on a metaphorical stage, the choreography of gazes punctuated by the triangular configuration of candles. Snow White draws the curtain aside to reveal the strange and dark tales within." -JJ
James Jean also has a good handle on narrative imagery, though I sometimes think he adds too much -- the intricacies and texture of his covers are impressive, yet it's the ones with limited color or compositional elements that, to me, are the strongest. Examples of these are the cover of this book, and p. 151, 173, and 193.
"Hands play an important role in communicating intention and establishing relationships between characters in a narrative image. Geppetto's paternal touch is framed by hands that communicate death and destruction." -JJ
"A good fairy tale is a well of danger and depravity, of cooked human flesh, crooked deals, and abandoned children. A sense of foreboding is created by carefully composing the characters on a metaphorical stage, the choreography of gazes punctuated by the triangular configuration of candles. Snow White draws the curtain aside to reveal the strange and dark tales within." -JJ
December 5, 2012
(More pictures at parkablogs.com)
This book contains the covers drawn by James Jean for Fables.
Each cover is printed, in high resolution, on semi-gloss high quality paper. The book itself if hardcover with a dust jacket. The art on the hard cover is slightly embossed with a sticker pasted at the centre.
There are 75 single issues and 11 wraparounds, a wonderful look at his creative style over the years.
Also included are the sketches James Jean did for his covers. The covers are sometimes accompanied by his thoughts or some quote from the comic.
At the end of the book is an interview conducted by Bill Willingham with James Jean. On the last two pages are photos of his work area. One of them shows the Eisner Awards he has put neatly on his shelves. Strangely, the interview and photos are printed on non glossy paper, which I think will turn yellow in the future.
This is a higly recommended book for fans of James Jean or Fables.
http://parkablogs.com/content/book-re...
This review was first published on parkablogs.com. There are more pictures and videos on my blog.
February 27, 2014
The cover art of comic books is often forgotten in lieu of the artwork from the inner pages, but with a long running series like Fables it is difficult - if not impossible - to ignore the impact of long-time artist James Jean. Jean's work captures the spirit of every chapter of the Fables storyline, but his real talent shines in the creative and detail-filled covers for the collected editions, which must encompass an overall storyarc as well as the individual stories within. In collecting Jean's work we are able to see the progression of his artistic evolution - towards a more digital canvas - as well as recall all of our favourite Fables stories, so this book is well worth a perusal. The only thing that I wuld have liked to see more of is commentary on each cover. But I understand that including too much text may have drawn away from the artowkr itself, so I will be satisfied with the little commentary that they gave.
May 9, 2009
I really wanted to give this book 5 stars--James Jean's art is absolutely gorgeous! Sadly, I felt the presentation was a bit lacking. Every now and then we got some comments from Jean about what he was going for in a particular illustration, or a note from Willingham giving directions on what he was wanting emphasized, and most pages had a few quotes from whatever issue the cover was for. But it seemed too little and too far between, and there was no real context to the quotes--sometimes they didn't seem to correspond to the cover illustration at all, that I could tell. It LOOKS really nice, but I think it could have been done a lot better than it was. Even so, it's definitely worth it to see the covers all in order, and the preliminary sketches for them.
December 26, 2008
Technically, I wouldn't call this a "read"; worded sections are small, with the afterword being the longest and most meaty, but you find yourself not caring. The artwork is gorgeous and the layout is clean and effective. I enjoyed reading about, and seeing the sketches for, James Jean's artistic process for every issue's cover. They're far more clever than I first gave them credit for. I dearly hope to see more of James Jean's work in the future. As a Christmas gift, I loved this!
October 7, 2010
James Jean is among my favorite comic book cover artists artists along with Alex Ross and Adam Hughes.
He is now becoming one of the best artists in advertising and wider art world. This book will be interesting no matter how you found out about James Jean. If you love his comic book covers you get an amazing collection of them, and if you have only seen he other art and didn't even know he did comic book art then this collection will let you enjoy his past works
He is now becoming one of the best artists in advertising and wider art world. This book will be interesting no matter how you found out about James Jean. If you love his comic book covers you get an amazing collection of them, and if you have only seen he other art and didn't even know he did comic book art then this collection will let you enjoy his past works
February 27, 2011
Everything is beautiful, and i like how they adding sketch and concept from James Jean's art for this series.
The thing that made me dissapointed that this book didn't have complete arts for his Fables work, missing 6 cover
The thing that made me dissapointed that this book didn't have complete arts for his Fables work, missing 6 cover
August 4, 2015
I expected to see the awesome James Jean covers from the fables but what I got was a work of art in itself. I needed this in my life and I'm seriously looking at exploring more art books like this in the future.
November 27, 2008
james jean's artist is amazing and this book is, too. even if you don't read fables, if you are a fan of beautiful art, then you have to get this book.
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