Mythology. The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross
(2003 - Pantheon Books)

(by Chip Kidd) I'm not as enamored with this book as most seem to be. It's just seems too crowded. I'm not talking about the 51 beautiful full-bleed pages, but most of the rest, even the other 118 that feature large reproductions of art pieces, are crowded by other things like pictures, original sources, alternate versions, panel layouts, character sheets or sketchwork, not to mention the captions and other accompany blurbs of text, all seeming to form a jumble that is very very 'busy'. For instance, there's a two page section displaying a number of various art pieces from his mother, Lynette, and seven pages of many illustrations showing his process in creating one cover piece. Eight pages comprise an included complete story (along with another two pages displaying stages of its making . . .). Both sets of endpapers are double-page spreads of two different pieces. A two page checklist of his DC work is printed over another art piece. The indicia & credit information is placed over a rendition of the Flash with letters s-p-a---c----e-----d out, as if they were speed lines - Can you say 'Over-Designed' ? It's possible that Kidd took his cue from Ross's works themselves, many being chockfull of a staggering number of individual figures. While I don't care for books that embrace an extreme sterile & isolated gallery-like display, this one swings the pendulum too far in the other direction. I'll mention here that in the Captain Marvel section, C.C. Beck gets one of his related artworks featured. The List here would recommend the collection THE DYNAMITE ART OF ALEX ROSS before this volume, but know that there are no repeats between the two, so get both if you admire the man's work. Note that there are several editions of this collection, with the later ones having something like 32 more pages of material. This book is also included on a page of DC artbooks on this website, but since it focuses on a single artist, it gets its own separate entry here.