Babylon 5 20th Anniversary: Visual Celebration Book!
- Thread starter Admiral_Young
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A bagel? There is not a bagel in the whole quadrant you could get not a bagel!
OK, how sad is it that while watching the ad on youtube, I actually managed to detect a few mistakes/omissions at a glance? This is why I stopped editing the wiki. I swear having too much trivial crap on the brain starts to push out actual useful knowledge after a while! 
OK, how sad is it that while watching the ad on youtube, I actually managed to detect a few mistakes/omissions at a glance? This is why I stopped editing the wiki. I swear having too much trivial crap on the brain starts to push out actual useful knowledge after a while!
Tell me about it.
In case anyone is interested...the first printing of the book is sold out already. I unfortunately forgot to order and missed out. You can still pre-order the second printing at the reduced $88 dollar price, according to the website they'll be shipping sometime next month. Has anyone got a copy yet?
I'd be curious to know if the book contains Peter Ledger's original concept art used by JMS to sell the series.
Last I heard, they're not due to start shipping until near the end of this month for the first print run, and late July for the second. There were some distributed at the Phoenix Comicon but I passed on the chance to get it there due to the size and weight.
Not that I know of. Much (most?) of the art from Peter Ledger was published in the B5 script books. Color items were on the back covers and B&W inside.
Jan
Google will find you quite a lot of examples of the B5 concept art.
Yes, but that doesn't beat having it printed on high-quality paper in a nicely bound book.
The book is a high quality behind the scenes look at the actual show during production I believe. Not any kind of conceptual work that was done prior. As Jan mentioned, those were included in the script books. It would be awesome if was included in this...but I'm just happy we're finally getting something like this. This has been a long time coming IMO.
Going by the text of the advertisement and what text on the book I’ve read, it’s really a visual (presumably very high quality visual, for the most part) history of the show. A collection of mostly previously unreleased photographs. To be brutally frank though – and this is only based on what little I’ve read – text wise it leaves a lot to be desired. I’m not seeing a lot of information.
The descriptions surrounding the concept artwork for the Lorien ship for example. Whoever wrote that clearly never spoke to the designer (Luc Mayrand). It's just the personal opinions of the author. The notion it was based on a fish is so incredibly wrong, and the text beneath each sketch is cringe worthy. So from the point of view of letting the reader know about the thought processes behind the design, it’s worse than useless. But then, do folks buy books like this for the information value, or the range and quality of the photographs!?
The descriptions surrounding the concept artwork for the Lorien ship for example. Whoever wrote that clearly never spoke to the designer (Luc Mayrand). It's just the personal opinions of the author. The notion it was based on a fish is so incredibly wrong, and the text beneath each sketch is cringe worthy. So from the point of view of letting the reader know about the thought processes behind the design, it’s worse than useless. But then, do folks buy books like this for the information value, or the range and quality of the photographs!?
Publishing 180, in the past, has printed artwork from the likes of Luc Mayrand in things such the Crusade books – including putting examples on the cover. When I was chatting to him about it (basically congratulating him that some of the work was finally being published), he hadn’t even heard of the Crusade books!
As best as he can figure the artwork probably came from a small booklet he printed out years ago as a gift to jms – and those rummaging around in jms’s old locker or whatever it was came across it. Ironically, Luc's only concern was the quality of the scans and wished they’d contacted him so he could have provided better quality copies.
Haven’t spoke to him about this book, but going by the descriptions under the sketches of Lorien's ship it’s pretty obvious whoever wrote that has never spoken to Luc, or if they have, they weren’t paying attention.
Here’s a link to the Lorien ship screen over on B5Scrolls, where Luc describes what was going on with the design – Pontiac feathers, playing around with sacred and ancient cultural iconography - to reflect the ancient and mystic characteristics of Lorien in the design of the vessel.
http://www.themadgoner.com/B5/B5Scrolls/B5Scrolls.htm#Screen2_10_18
Here’s a link showing what’s in the book. Where the author is banging on about fish, crustaceans and organic elements. You don’t need to be logged into facebook to read it.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...52040934.94201.178490865572648&type=1&theater
It’s like reading something from B5Tech, very authoritative sounding but at the end of the day it’s just the authors personal opinions! I guess it all depends how important you feel that sort of thing is in a book like this. Though I’ve only looked at one set of concept sketches, maybe the rest of the book doesn’t suffer from the same issue.
It’s very much a just a personal opinion that’s likely not to go down too well with some.
But considering all the hoopla jms has made over the years about being screwed by Warner, the legal and moral ownership of an artists work, credits, protection, suitable payments etc. it's unfortunate that for years books written by jms or otherwise sold under the banner of “Babylon 5 Books From Creator Straczynski” have quietly included work from artists that don’t even know their sketches are being used. . . .
http://www.cafepress.com/b5books/7817738
As best as he can figure the artwork probably came from a small booklet he printed out years ago as a gift to jms – and those rummaging around in jms’s old locker or whatever it was came across it. Ironically, Luc's only concern was the quality of the scans and wished they’d contacted him so he could have provided better quality copies.
Haven’t spoke to him about this book, but going by the descriptions under the sketches of Lorien's ship it’s pretty obvious whoever wrote that has never spoken to Luc, or if they have, they weren’t paying attention.
Here’s a link to the Lorien ship screen over on B5Scrolls, where Luc describes what was going on with the design – Pontiac feathers, playing around with sacred and ancient cultural iconography - to reflect the ancient and mystic characteristics of Lorien in the design of the vessel.
http://www.themadgoner.com/B5/B5Scrolls/B5Scrolls.htm#Screen2_10_18
Here’s a link showing what’s in the book. Where the author is banging on about fish, crustaceans and organic elements. You don’t need to be logged into facebook to read it.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...52040934.94201.178490865572648&type=1&theater
It’s like reading something from B5Tech, very authoritative sounding but at the end of the day it’s just the authors personal opinions! I guess it all depends how important you feel that sort of thing is in a book like this. Though I’ve only looked at one set of concept sketches, maybe the rest of the book doesn’t suffer from the same issue.
It’s very much a just a personal opinion that’s likely not to go down too well with some.
But considering all the hoopla jms has made over the years about being screwed by Warner, the legal and moral ownership of an artists work, credits, protection, suitable payments etc. it's unfortunate that for years books written by jms or otherwise sold under the banner of “Babylon 5 Books From Creator Straczynski” have quietly included work from artists that don’t even know their sketches are being used. . . .
http://www.cafepress.com/b5books/7817738
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Hmm yeah I'm not seeing much "fish" influence to the design. If someone says fish-influence to me regarding B5, I instantly think Sharlin, not Lorien's transport!
I'm wondering what this refers to. I don't recall him saying he was "screwed by Warner."
He didn't. He does comment from time to time that the contract that he got, since it was his first TV series, wasn't as good as it might have been. But he's never indicated that WB has been anything but honorable toward him.
BTW, for those interested, a newsletter came out today with the news that the 'debut discount' period for B5-20 has been extended all the way to July 31. In addition, there were a couple of fun things added - a 'stump the fans' and a 'name that image'. 'Even' I didn't know what the image was...but I do now!
Jan
What!? Hardly. Quickly picking one at random - there’s the “emotional blackmail” jms refers to for instance. Which isn’t really related to the point I was making about publishing 180 using the sketches from artists without telling/paying them, then adding nonsense beneath them as a description. Even though part of the advertising blurb makes a point of stating “We made sure that the captions layer facts upon facts.” .
Part of a jms comment.
http://jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-17407
The phrase “the only person who's not getting paid is the guy who made it”, is more relevant to the point I was making, or at least one of them.
Pretty cool they’ve extended the discount period, and the new 'Stump The Author' stuff sounds, lovely. Based on what little I’ve read though, the 'Name That Image' thing sounds more like a call for help. ; )
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