Today’s gift giving suggestions cater to the fans of comic book art.  The following art books would be a welcome addition to many collectors libraries.

1.) The Art of Brian Bolland

Fans of Mr. Bolland are treated to an incredibly in depth career retrospective. This weighty, decades spanning volume is loaded with informative essays and gorgeous fantasy and superhero art brought to life by one of Britain’s top illustrators.

2.) The Art of P. Craig Russell

P. Craig Russell’s illustrations have a very unique, dreamlike quality to them. Fans will enjoy pouring over Russell’s lush, intricately detailed illustrations in a nice, large format. Readers are treated to samples of artwork from such varied sources as sketchbook pages, album covers/compact disc inserts and independent published work.

3.) Telling Stories: The Comic Art of Frank Frazetta

Not quite an art book, but worthy of mentioning among them. Legions of fans and artistic-followers will tell you Fritz was THE TRUTH! There truly was nothing this man could not do when it came to illustration. This handsome, slip cased volume contains a wide sampling of work realized during the lone decade he spent drafting comics. Anyone who possesses the gift of sight will delight in being gifted such a wonderful book!

4.) Centifolia – Sketchbook Illustrations of Stuart Immonen

When is an art book not an art book? When its a published sketchbook! Stuart gives fans an intimate look at one of the most important pieces of artistic exercise equipment – the sketchbook. Remarkably, he only recently began keeping one of his own. This compact volume is a neat way to see what a mainstream superhero illustrator works on for fun.

5.) The Art of Hellboy – Mike Mignola

How can so much black ink on a page look so incredibly interesting and so full of depth? It’s not always what is seen that is so scary but what is sensed. Mignola is a master creature creator with a delightfully twisted sense of humor. Its not an easy task to repulse and entrance a viewer within the same image. See how he does it on every page of this nice, over sized volume.