You guys remember how those old Penguin books used to look? Artist Sharm Murugiah does, as he used that style to merge Quentin Tarantino films into those books, with these super clean mock-book covers. Love the idea.
Check it: More Quentin Tarantino on Albotas
Buy it: Tarantino XX Film Collection
Huge pun on the word “matchbook,” here. So believe it or not, some of us on this blog like to read books. Fahrenheit 451 is one of those pieces of literature that is appreciated in this “book” category, so this concept design by artist Elizabeth Perez really screams out to us.
For those who don’t know, Fahrenheit 451 is a novel about a dystopian future in which books are outlawed and firemen must set fire to books and the houses that hide them. This concept design has a match in the “451,” of the title and matchbook striking paper on the book’s binding, so the book itself could be burned. Really awesome concept.
Check it: More books on Albotas
Buy it: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Museum of the Moving Image in NYC has a pretty awesome gift shop with a hefty selection of books on all sorts of stuff the typical Albotian would be in to: movies, art, and of course, video games.
I had a pretty tough time deciding on which book to get, but I wound up going with Nintendo Magic mainly because I like the face Satoru Iwata is making in the picture up top. I kind of regret the decision because it’s only $7.98 on Amazon (only 2 left in stock as I write this!), but whatevs.
Any readers out there have any of the other books pictured? If so, let us know how they are in the comments.
![A LOOK INSIDE HYRULE HISTORIA [VIDEO]
Our copy of Hyrule Historia finally arrived at Albotas HQ and I can personally attest that it is, in fact, freaking awesome. It collects 25 years worth of Zelda history, trivia, and unseen concept art within 250 pages bound in a gorgeous hardcover.
Pick up a copy from Amazon. No Zelda fan should miss out on this.
Oh, and the chiptune track in the video can be downloaded from Chipmusic.org for free.
Check it: More AlbotasTVBuy: Hyrule Historia](http://24.media.tumblr.com/6e2fe7a001deff16fda74e35a08e65f2/tumblr_mhfdtcCdxs1qbg80vo1_500.gif)
Our copy of Hyrule Historia finally arrived at Albotas HQ and I can personally attest that it is, in fact, freaking awesome. It collects 25 years worth of Zelda history, trivia, and unseen concept art within 250 pages bound in a gorgeous hardcover.
Pick up a copy from Amazon. No Zelda fan should miss out on this.
Oh, and the chiptune track in the video can be downloaded from Chipmusic.org for free.
Check it: More AlbotasTV
Buy: Hyrule Historia
Designed by the clever peeps at Mustard. Bookends: just one more reason real books are a gazillion times more rad than eBooks.
(Source: hiconsumption.com)
Just in time for Xmas comes two books that combine the badassery of Street Fighter with the adorableness of Sanrio.
Street Fighter x Sanrio: World View features Sanrio playing the parts of Street Fighter characters sharing the wisdom they’ve learned from countless battles across the world. The Street Fighter x Sanrio Sticker Book contains a mix of colorful bumper stickers, paper dolls, and more.
Now they just need to make a Street Fighter x Sanrio game so I can play as a shoto-ized Badtz Maru and chuck fireballs at Hello Kitty’s mouthless little head.
I’ve never played a Monster Hunter game in my life. Always wanted to, but they just seem too huge and daunting. After checking out a sample of the 60-page Monster Hunter Beginner’s Guide from Culty, I’m 100% prepared to begin ignoring my loved ones and adult responsibilities to dive into the epic world of Monster Hunter.
The guide is available in a few different ways:
The Monster Hunter Beginner’s Guide was written by Roy Blakely from Kotowari.org and is chock full of adorable art by Sarah O’Donnell, creator of Rumbirds. Together they host the podcast My Fair Hunter. Check them out because they do pretty rad things.
U.K. designer Adam Benton made this beautiful Nintendo book with an embossed cover for a screen-printing and book-making brief. It features a timeline of Nintendo console releases in the U.K., people of note like Game Boy creator Gunpei Yokoi, and an overall history of the company. To keep in line with Nintendo’s rich Japanese history, the book is Japanese stab bound and printed on rice paper. There’s even an accompanying embossed folder with additional prints.
Note: The page with N64 controllers is from a separate book which features Benton’s personal work and sketches, but we figured it looked nice in this gallery, so yeah.
Buy: iam8bit: Art Inspired by Classic Videogames of the '80s
Check it: 7 Fun Facts About Pokemon Creator Satoshi Tajiri
I was expecting some light reading. But when my review copy of Service Games: The Rise and Fall of SEGA showed up on my doorstep, I found a text book. The nearly 400 page book details every step of Sega’s foray into the console industry, both in America and abroad. The amount of information in this book is staggering. And even though you know how Sega’s fate unfolds, you’re still rooting for them the entire time.
Hit the link for our full review of Service Games: The Rise and Fall of SEGA.
Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! was the second NES game I ever owned (Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt being the first, obviously) and it gave 6-year-old me the hardest freaking time ever. Seriously, I could never get past Bald Bull for some reason.
If the Punch-Out!! series holds a special place in your heart as it does mine, you might want to check out the unofficial Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! Encyclopedia. It contains a history of the game including old magazine ads, hacked ROMs, and fan art.
There’s still 25 days left to fund the project and so far they’ve made $13,753 of their $25,000 goal. If they meet the goal, they’ll make a limited run of 200 books. Donate $10 for a digital copy, and $125 or more for a hardcover that will rock your coffee table’s socks off.
(Source: joesdaily.com)
This is the RGB Colorspace Atlas by Tauba Auerbach. The 8”x8” hardcover tome is pretty much an encyclopedia of every color in the RGB index. It’s huge, it’s gorgeous, and I want one.
(Source: designboom.com)
Thatgamecompany’s Journey is one of the greatest, most original, and stylish games of the year. It seems like they’re putting the same amount of passion and attention to detail that they put into the game into the art book which is set to be released this September. The book will include unseen concept art, a section of fan art, and some cool augmented reality stuff that lets you check out designs in full 3D by using your smartphone or tablet.
Check out the video below for a look at the making of the book.
![A Little Bit on the Sketchy Side: Brian Joseph Davis has had the ingenious idea of having police composite sketching software draft up literary characters. Check out a sketch of Hiro Protagonist from Neil Stephenson’s Snow Crash.
I like being able to see if a character’s composite sketch looks anything like I imagined. It’s also cool to see how closely movie adaptations came to recreating a character. Davis takes requests, so send him a passage describing your favorite character if you want to see him or her drawn out like a person of interest.
[The Composites via io9]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1bl7cEJUC1qbg80vo1_500.jpg)
A Little Bit on the Sketchy Side: Brian Joseph Davis has had the ingenious idea of having police composite sketching software draft up literary characters. Check out a sketch of Hiro Protagonist from Neil Stephenson’s Snow Crash.
I like being able to see if a character’s composite sketch looks anything like I imagined. It’s also cool to see how closely movie adaptations came to recreating a character. Davis takes requests, so send him a passage describing your favorite character if you want to see him or her drawn out like a person of interest.
[The Composites via io9]
I guess “infinity” includes the anus. This photo of a Buzz Lightyear toy lodged in someone’s poop chute is just one hilarious and disturbing excerpt from the new book, Stuck Up!: 100 Objects Inserted and Ingested in Places They Shouldn’t Be. I think the title is descriptive enough that I don’t have to explain what the book is about.
The graffiti artist ABOVE travels the globe, leaving a wake of beautiful street stencils, clever wordplay paintings, and iconic wooden “up” arrows in his path that spans over 90 cities in 60 countries. Now, he has a book in a limited oversized edition that highlights pieces from his travels, along with quotes from artists across the globe and introductory statements by Shepard Fairey, FAILE, Wooster Collective - Marc and Sara Schiller and Tristan Manco.
Limited to an edition of just 200, each one of these 156 page, 12.25 x 12.25” hardcover books come signed and numbered, and are enclosed in a 20.5 x 16.5 x 2.25” vinyl clamshell case, and come with a signed & numbered 11 x 16” Giclee print.
So awesome, but I wouldn’t even know where to put a book that huge. You think IKEA makes anything that it would fit in?
