Might want to hold off on ordering the Coraline art book

Cartoon Brew posted a review of Coraline: A Visual Companion. Here's the first few lines:

I’d been forewarned that the art of book for Coraline was not very good, but that didn’t prepare me for the publishing disaster that is Coraline: A Visual Companion. After looking at it in the bookstore recently, I can say with some confidence that this is the single worst ‘art of’ book I’ve ever seen published in conjunction with a major animated release.

Click through to see why the reviewer found the book to be so disappointing.

*Buy Coraline keys at eBay.

The concept artist for Coraline interviewed (and more)

Animation World News interviewed Tadahiro Uesugi, a Japanese illustrator who spent over a year creating concept images for Coraline. AWN also posted quite a few of Uesugi's images. Above, you can see his depiction of Coraline, her Other Father, and the self-playing piano (which is very different from the version in the film). Most interesting comment:

I haven't had a chance to meet Neil Gaiman himself, but I drew the designing process upon the story of the Coraline book released in Japan. (By the way, illustrations of the Japanese version of Coraline book are done by a Japanese illustrator.)

I believe this is the Japanese version of Coraline:



I couldn't find a copy at America's Amazon or eBay sites. And I also couldn't find any more information on the artist for the Japanese version. According to Google's translation of the Amazon Japan page, the book is written by author "Neal Gay Man." The title of the book is translated as "Witch of the button and KORARAIN."

Anyway, at least when I looked at the AWN site, it was graced with the only banner ad I've ever enjoyed - - featuring real world and Other Bobinksy. It'll be a darn shame if there's never a real world Bobinsky toy made.

If you like Uesugi's art, you should also check out the slide show at Metropolis I previously mentioned. It featured at least one painting not posted at AWN.

Finally, in other Coraline news, here's another pair of Nike Dunks. Apparently a small percentage will feature large buttons. Seems like a bad idea to make a small percentage extra unique - - the people who win the "mundane" pairs will be left with a bitter feeling.

*Buy books featuring Tadahiro Uesugi's art at Amazon.

Read Coraline right here

As I understand it, clicking on this widget will let you read all of Coraline (the novel) online, complete with Dave McKean's illustrations:



It's a great book, and not very long.

*Buy the Coraline Graphic Novel at Amazon.