Best Art Book Ever

Many months ago a friend posted something about the upcoming D&D art-book called Art & Arcana on Facebook. It looked cool, but a lot of friends post random D&D related stuff to me on Facebook so I can’t say I paid very much attention to it. The link was to its listing on Amazon, so I think I did what I do for most things on Amazon that I think look kind of cool but I know I shouldn’t buy – I added it to my wish list and forgot about it.

Well, sure enough, what should show up on my door this Christmas but the fancy special edition boxed set of Art & Arcana. My dad bought it for me, and I’m sure he gave it even less thought than I did when I first saw it. I bet he still has no idea what the heck he bought for me. Myself – I’m a-gag. This thing is way better than I ever imagined. I mean, look at this thing:

The book covers the entire span of art in D&D, from original through to the latest (5th) edition. Naturally it’s the earlier stuff that really grabs my eye, so my photos focus more on that, but there really is something for every D&D fan in here.

Even more exciting though is this reprint of the original tournament version of Tomb of Horrors. I get why they included it – to this day Tomb of Horrors stands out as having a huge amount of player hand outs featuring evocative artwork of the adventure itself, probably more than any module to come before or after. Personally though I’m really excited to compare it to the later printings to try and puzzle out what got added and why. Also, I never knew that it was based on an even earlier work by Alan Lucien, and it’s even more exciting that a reprint of that work is also included in this little book.

On the down side, the prints included are a bit on the small side, and I’m not sure exactly what their razor was for choosing the art. That said there are one or two that I’m definitely thinking of framing. For the $75 it’s now going for on Amazon, I think this one is worth snatching up.

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