Koncocoo

Best Art Encyclopedias

Codex Seraphinianus
An extraordinary and surreal art book, this edition has been redesigned by the author and includes new illustrations. “…the book really does live up to its reputation: The drawings are in turn hilarious, disturbing, bizarre and, sometimes, just flat-out incomprehensible, but all of them are annotated in Serafini’s script.” - Dangerous Minds “It’s not the sort of thing that easily lends itself to classification, but probably the most accurate way to describe it would be as an encyclopedia of an invented alien civilization…the Codex is still a disorienting and provocative vision of inscrutable otherness.” - Slate.com “ Codex Seraphinianus is an art book in the most direct sense—there are big, beautiful drawings accompanied by indecipherable letterforms--and it is impossible to “read” in a literal way. " Codex Seraphinianus : History’s Most Bizarre and Beautiful Encyclopedia, Brought Back to Life...a weird and wonderful masterpiece of art and philosophical provocation on the precipice of the information age....Undoubtedly one of the most intricate and beautiful art books ever created."
Reviews
"My campus library had a copy briefly a decade ago, but foolishly left it open to general circulation."
"A weird and wonderful calendar, and the printing is outstanding."
"Beatifully done calendar based on this amazingly mysterious book."
"Drawn & painted in some alternate n ancient universe where dear reader shall be inthralled in its mystery n excellent paper of that of kings ."
"If you've gotten this far, you know what this book is, but perhaps where I can add value is in describing the Rizzoli (white cover) edition. Though i would prefer a black background over white, it has the red circle ladybug illustration (one of my favorites) on the cover instead of the alligator bestiality illustration that the 1st edition has."
"Transports to a new world."
"You can't help but admire the genius to create a whole civilization, with language, geography, religion, culture and science."
"Most incredible book ever."
Find Best Price at Amazon
DC Comics Encyclopedia All-New Edition
Formatted in an easy-to use A-to-Z layout, this guide is packed with information and thrilling comic book art and features more than 1,100 characters including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Joker, and much more.
Reviews
"My 12 year old son got this book at our local library and then kept renewing it over and over again because he liked it so much."
"Got it as a gift for a friend and he loves it, he says the illustrations are from comics and so far every character is included, he is yet to find any character missing, and the illustrations are really nice."
"So far so good."
"Awesome encyclopedia for newcomers to DC comics or fanatics like me!"
"This book is so awesome!"
"I had no idea the history and detail of the superhero world."
"My brother received a marvel encyclopedia for his bday so I gave him this for Christmas."
"I purchased this book for my son as a birthday present."
Find Best Price at Amazon
Junior Encyclopedia of Animated Characters
From Ariel to Zurg, this jacketed hardcover guide features fun facts, tricky trivia, and cool quotes about over 150 Disney heroes (and villains!).
Reviews
"I personally like the clean new style of the pages, particularly the solid band of color on the side with the character's names - it makes it very easy to flip through to the right page. They removed some of the more obscure characters that I just don't care about (does anyone even remember the names of the "Dinosaurs" characters?). The hardbound edition is nice, & the book jacket can help keep your book from getting dinged. Or better yet, if Disney had made this book with the intention of it being used for autographs and kept all of the older characters from the parks along with the new additions, I would love it."
"Took them to Disney for the characters to autograph."
"Bought for my grandson so he could use the book as an autograph book when we go in March to celebrate his 6th birthday.."
"This is the second time we've purchased this book, we bought one two years ago for my daughter to take to Disney World as an autograph book and that worked out so well that we decided to gift two to our neighbors boys when they went to Disney in December."
"Not sure what happened with reviewers that noted their books falling apart, but we had no problem there."
"Our daughter loved bringing this book around Disneyland and getting the characters' signatures."
"This book is beautiful."
"We bought this for my daughter to bring to Disneyworld as an autograph book for her favorite characters-- she loved it."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Wrestling

WWE Encyclopedia Of Sports Entertainment
The most expansive, all-encompassing chronicle unleashed on the WWE Universe, this New York Times bestseller includes over 400 full-color pages and over 1,200 Superstar and event profiles. Plus, the future of WWE collides with the past, as Finn Bálor and the exciting stars of NXT stake their claim alongside the legends of WWE's past and present.
Reviews
"I could not think of any wrestler in WWE history that was not included in book."
"This book literally has just about everything WWE & the fans can think of."
"I'd like to see a mainly insider version with their real names and greater accomplishments but understand WWE would never attempt to hinder the "suspensuon of disbelief" that except booking Roman Reigns to no-sell every finisher done to him."
"Everything was okay with one exception one of the pages wasn't completely cut all the way because one page has the part where the edges are uneven with the other pages."
"Every Single Wrestler They Have Probably Ever Had In History!"
"This is a beautifully produced volume covering a huge number of wrestlers from the last sixty years."
"Includes full lineage of championship reigns for every existing WWE belt, multiple factions/tag-teams, & illustraions for almost every single wrestler in the history of American professional wrestling."
"It has sections for each belt showing when it changed hands, ecw, divas, etc."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Arts & Photography Criticism

Mastering Manga with Mark Crilley: 30 drawing lessons from the creator of Akiko
In these action-packed pages, graphic novelist Mark Crilley shows you step-by-step how to achieve an authentic manga style—from drawing faces and figures to laying out awesome, high-drama spreads. This is the book fans have been requesting for years, packed with expert tips on everything from hairstyles and clothing to word bubbles and sound effects, delivered in the same friendly, easy-to-follow style that has made Mark Crilley one of the "25 Most Subscribed to Gurus on YouTube." Mark Crilley is the creator of several manga books, including the Akiko series, Miki Falls , the Billy Clikk novels and Brody's Ghost .
Reviews
"I've watched lots of Mark Crilley's tutorials, but there's something special about seeing the drawing printed on the page in front of me, there as a reference. The written instructions give tips about showing the gender, age and personality of the characters. There's information about inking drawings, laying out panels and adding speech bubbles and sound effects. Everything included in the book is great and it's absolutely packed with helpful information on every page, but I do think the author has even more to offer and I'd love it if this turned out to be the first part of a series. One final note: There's no nudity in this book; all figures are drawn either fully clothed or wearing simple underclothes."
"My son loves to draw and he uses this for his artwork."
"my daughter and niece draws these even before the book."
"I bought this for my son who loves to draw."
"I'm currently going to University for Art, so I already have a bit of training in drawing, but I don't think this would be very hard for absolute beginners to understand."
"I've been wanting to grab this book for ages, but the paper copy was cost-prohibitive for me at the time."
"but what i think of this book is that the art isn't very "eye-catching"."
"I saw other books with more pages, but this seems to be newer."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Children's Motorcycles Books

Draw 50 Cars, Trucks, and Motorcycles: The Step-by-Step Way to Draw Dragsters, Vintage Cars, Dune Buggies, Mini Choppers, and Many More...
Draw 50 Cars, Trucks, and Motorcycles shows artists of all levels how to draw with ease by following simple step-by-step examples. An avid worker, Ames directed his own advertising agency, illustrated for several magazines, and illustrated approximately 150 books that range from picture books to postgraduate texts.
Reviews
"Great book to teach you how to draw cars, trucks and motorcycles."
"Think I will be able to draw and teach my greandson to draw from these books."
"We bought a few for him (monsters, cars and animals) and some are a little more complicating for him but he loves it and started on them right away."
"My grandson loves this art series."
"This is a great book for kids learning to draw!"
"Bought several of this series of drawing books, All were well received as Christmas gifts."
"Much harder to understand than it says, bought for a 10 year old, and he can't figure it out."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Literary Genre History & Criticism

DC Comics Encyclopedia All-New Edition
Formatted in an easy-to use A-to-Z layout, this guide is packed with information and thrilling comic book art and features more than 1,100 characters including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Joker, and much more.
Reviews
"My 12 year old son got this book at our local library and then kept renewing it over and over again because he liked it so much."
"Got it as a gift for a friend and he loves it, he says the illustrations are from comics and so far every character is included, he is yet to find any character missing, and the illustrations are really nice."
"So far so good."
"Awesome encyclopedia for newcomers to DC comics or fanatics like me!"
"This book is so awesome!"
"I had no idea the history and detail of the superhero world."
"My brother received a marvel encyclopedia for his bday so I gave him this for Christmas."
"I purchased this book for my son as a birthday present."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Biographies & History Graphic Novels

DC Comics Encyclopedia All-New Edition
Formatted in an easy-to use A-to-Z layout, this guide is packed with information and thrilling comic book art and features more than 1,100 characters including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Joker, and much more.
Reviews
"My 12 year old son got this book at our local library and then kept renewing it over and over again because he liked it so much."
"Got it as a gift for a friend and he loves it, he says the illustrations are from comics and so far every character is included, he is yet to find any character missing, and the illustrations are really nice."
"So far so good."
"Awesome encyclopedia for newcomers to DC comics or fanatics like me!"
"This book is so awesome!"
"I had no idea the history and detail of the superhero world."
"My brother received a marvel encyclopedia for his bday so I gave him this for Christmas."
"I purchased this book for my son as a birthday present."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Comic & Graphic Novel Literary Criticism

DC Comics Encyclopedia All-New Edition
Formatted in an easy-to use A-to-Z layout, this guide is packed with information and thrilling comic book art and features more than 1,100 characters including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Joker, and much more. Matthew K. Manning has contributed to over 40 books and comic books, including DK's Batman™: A Visual History , DC Comics: A Visual History , and DC Comics: Year by Year .
Reviews
"My 12 year old son got this book at our local library and then kept renewing it over and over again because he liked it so much."
"So far so good."
"Awesome encyclopedia for newcomers to DC comics or fanatics like me!"
"This book is so awesome!"
"I had no idea the history and detail of the superhero world."
"My brother received a marvel encyclopedia for his bday so I gave him this for Christmas."
"I purchased this book for my son as a birthday present."
"This was a gift for my ex husband and he absolutely loves it."
Find Best Price at Amazon

Best Literary History & Criticism Reference

The Outlandish Companion (Revised and Updated): Companion to Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, and Drums of Autumn
In this beautifully illustrated compendium of all things Outlandish, Gabaldon covers the first four novels of the main series, including: • full synopses of Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, and Drums of Autumn • a complete listing of the characters (fictional and historical) in the first four novels in the series, as well as family trees and genealogical notes. • a comprehensive glossary and pronunciation guide to Gaelic terms and usage. • The Gabaldon Theory of Time Travel, explained. • frequently asked questions to the author and her (sometimes surprising) answers. • an annotated bibliography. • essays about medicine and magic in the eighteenth century, researching historical fiction, creating characters, and more. • professionally cast horoscopes for Jamie and Claire. • the making of the TV series: how we got there from here, and what happened next (including “My Brief Career as a TV Actor”). • behind-the-scenes photos from the Outlander TV series set. For anyone who wants to spend more time with the Outlander characters and the world they inhabit, Diana Gabaldon here opens a door through the standing stones and offers a guided tour of what lies within. For nine years, four books, and nearly 4,000 pages, Diana Gabaldon has entranced readers with her talent for historical authenticity, dramatic plot lines, and strong characters in the Outlander series.
Reviews
"Bought this as a gift, so I really did not read it, but have read most of the Outlander books by Diana Gabaldon, which I love."
"Love her books, every one, read them over and over again and still can't get enough of them."
"This book helps put all of the marvelous characters together in an easy to use edition."
"If you LOVE Diana Gabaldon's OUTLANDER books and TV series this is a MUST HAVE!!!"
"good show to Collection >> very comprehensive."
"I gave this book to my wife for an anniversary present and she squealed she was so excited."
"books of the OUTLANDER SAGA SO...if you haven't read them or even watched the 1st half of season 1 on Starz...DO NOT READ UNTIL AFTER you've done so...unless, that's what you want to do."
"review of story and how scenes were done- I am an Outlander fan - a great addition to my collection."
Find Best Price at Amazon