Roger Dean: Views
(1975 - Paper Tiger / Dragon's Dream)

At the time of publication, Roger Dean was most well-known for the fantasy, psychedelic-colored & dramatic record-album covers he was producing for several musical groups, so this 12-by-12-inch tome was the ideal way to collect and present them in all of their full-bleed glory, (if a bit unwieldy at this weight). Since many of his works were spread over the front & back album covers, they could be reproduced as double-page-spreads here. In fact, there are 26 such collected, only two of which completely fail because of the center gutter distortion. 87 pages in all are dedicated to large reproductions of the art and another 19 carry multiple smaller images. The book is 155 pages, so you will find a number of pages with sketches, pictures & plans of his logo, set and furniture designs which he was also passionate about. Nothing is captioned directly, but most pieces are discussed in the on-going narrative. In particular, one of the final pages takes the 35 "principal pictures" and supplies for each their title, size and medium. Among the art, you will find many examples of other illustration work that he created as well. I guess its original outré groovy-ness is now considered quaint, but the style still seems vibrant and attractive today. I could hope for a book with a better presentation of the works, but I'm sure that won't be for quite a while, seeing how this book has gotten a new 40-ish anniversary edition. (That edition has a few extra pages which must include the new foreword by Richard Branson).