[REVIEW] The Art of Guardians of the Galaxy

Marvel really knows how to make an art book! Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Art of the Movie is a colossal art book full of beautiful concept art from the film.

This book has some of the smartest formatting I’ve seen. Taking advantage of the dark color palette of the film, the publishers overlayed a bunch of white text over the illustrations so that hardly any page space is wasted on text boxes. The result is a lot of full-page or nearly-full-page art. The book is mainly full of concept art, but you’ll also find some fun surprises like a storyboard for the Kyln escape sequence, a gallery of all the easter eggs in the Collector’s museum, and a poster gallery.

All of the characters, environments, props, and vehicles from Guardians of the Galaxy are showcased in the book, and the art and design goes down to the smallest detail. Such great depth of content is perfect for a film with so much in it.

There is also a forward by director James Gunn and a section about the history of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. It’s worth a read because it tells you about the lore, characters, etc. of Guardians of the Galaxy from the comics’ perspective. Always good to learn your source material.

I really enjoyed all of the concept art, and it was interesting to see all the scrapped designs that didn’t make it into the final cut. I laughed out loud when I saw some of Rocket Raccoon’s initial character designs!

I would have appreciated more contrast in the book’s illustrations; some images, especially the section on Michael Rooker’s character Yondu, were very dark and it was kind of a letdown. That was really my only complaint about this book.