FANTASY WORLD-BUILDING A Guide to Developing Mythic Worlds and Legendary Creatures Signed

One of the most creative comics artists in fantasy puts together a superlative collection of art--and instruction. When artists and designers explore or create a fictional setting, the milieu must be completely fleshed out, explained, and designed. In this book, comic and gaming art veteran Mark A. Nelson explores and demonstrates his methods for fashioning visually stunning, believable environments for fantasy creatures and characters. Scores of images and step-by-step examples illustrate how variation and experimentation lead to fresh, original designs for otherworldly beings, their environments, and their stories.

Nelson discusses how to find ideas and borrow from history to add the strength of realism to a fantasy world. In describing the best ways to establish a habitat, he offers specifics about climate, terrain, flora, and wildlife. He shares insights into founding societies in terms of their means of survival, manner of warfare, spiritual practices, style of dress, and levels of technology.

All visual creators who work with imaginative material — illustrators, comic artists, and writers — will take a lively interest in this source of inspiration and practical knowledge.

And any fan of fantasy art will find this stunningly illustrated. Mark does detailed, imaginative creatures and settings, like no other artist. If you are not familiar with his work, I'll force a comparison with Bill Stout, Geof Darrow, even Mike Mignola but with more detail. But Mark here shows how incredibly versatile he is, as he explores every possible aspect of illustration: ruins, fantasy worlds, alien life, science fiction and futuristic design, monsters, humorous creatures, beautiful women, heroic characters. And from pencil to pen and ink to lush painted works, it's all here and more.

Mark is kindly giving us a special bookplate to go along with this new book. We've been working together for too many years to mention, back to his early fanzine days and my early catalog days. It's very cool to see a new work from him that shows how far he has come as a professional creator.