It’s pretty rare to find books that explore Alan Lee and Dave McKean’s work that aren’t their actual books themselves, much less one that has both artists in it, so I was pretty stoked to scoop this one from the thrift store! Author Dick Jude brings together a slightly haphazard group of fantasy artists for this collection, which focuses on exploring the range of their skills from paintbrush to pixel and on the changes that fantasy artistry has seen over the years. Lee falls on one end of the spectrum while McKean is on the other, so it was a nice intellectual contrast for me, in particular, since I adore both artists and their highly unique styles! I vaguely recognized the rest of the artists in the collection, but by the time I got halfway through reading the book it was clear to me that if I wasn’t bought into the artist I wasn’t particularly interested in exploring them in depth. I’m sure each has their fan base (they are quite popular, to be chosen for this book), but their distinctive styles and quotes definitely set the tone for Jude’s accompanying text and if I wasn’t into it, then I just wasn’t into it! Jude does a quality job of getting into the mind of each of his subjects though, so when it came time for Lee and McKean I was rapt by his discussion of their backgrounds, inspiration, and thoughts on the changing nature of fantasy art. Considering the moment in art history that we are currently grappling with (the emergence of AI), this book is one that sits decidedly in its time period (1999), but it’s definitely still a great resource for collecting info on specific artists of note. ( )