Paper Tiger's Bob Eggleton collections
   Alien Horizons - The Fantastic Art Of Bob Eggleton
   Dragonhenge
                                             (1995/2002 - Paper Tiger)

Alien Horizons - The Fantastic Art Of Bob Eggleton (1995) (by Nigel Suckling) Many people sing the praises of Bob Eggleton, how he can use paint to transport the viewer to some 'Alien Horizon', populated by the aliens themselves as likely as not. I'm liking the art, but I'm thinking this is a less than optimal exhibition of it. It could be said that 116 pages of this 128-page volume are indeed colorful art pages with 107 of those featuring single pieces of art, but that wouldn't capture how many of them are smaller than you would wish (perhaps sharing the page with the text) or, alternatively, are 30 times part of a larger image allowed to expand over the central gutter (eight of them flunking-out due to the distortion). One needs to hear that many of the finished paintings are displayed across from images of their preliminaries, color studies and sketches. All that said, do know that many of the works were for science-fiction book covers, with all the conflict, drama & otherworldliness that entails. Captions provide for each the title, creation-year, medium, size (also in metric), the purpose it was put to (with author & publisher if a book cover) and almost always there's some pithy commentary as part of it.

Dragonhenge (2002) (text by John Grant) This book's two creators tout that the final product was more of a melding of their talents rather than a straight story/illustration exercise. Apparently they each started with wherever their stream-of-consciousness took them and then used those materials to inspire the other for more and then 'rinse & repeat until done'. The new mythology and spiritual theme left me cold, so only the art remained . . . to disappoint too. If I knew what I was talking about, I could better articulate that Eggleton seemed to have explored working in a more New-Agey abstract-ish style. Frequently the art was a sketchy dragon silhouette against a field of color suggesting a stormy sky or a mountain. With that said, I'd say there were about 26 images of note among the 84 pages that were primarily 'art' (of the book's 128). There are 22 double-page-spreads, most of which, are acceptable presentations. The dragons are the main thrust, with their own mythology exclusive of the doings of man, or his creations. This volume scores well below ALIEN HORIZONS, but as you might imagine, there are no repeats from that book in this one.