In this edition of Spotlight, I thought it would be nice to talk about one of the things that I really like to collect. That’s anime and manga art books and series guides.
This will begin the start of a new series of posts where over the following months, we shall take a look at some of my art books and series guides together. Hopefully you will get a feel of which ones are worth buying and are worth your hard earned money.
(*NOTE* This is a repost from our old defunct site MatureManga.net.)
The Things We Collect
When it comes to anime and manga, most people will simply buy the books or the DVDs and Blu-Rays. But at the end of the day, there’s so much more new stuff to watch and to read. That means that most of the time we will just use them a few times over the years. Many people also really enjoy collecting figurines of their favourite anime and manga characters.
Why Art Books and Series Guides?
Like I say, as for me I love collecting art books. Personally I have acquired a decent collection from my favourite series, artists and mangakas. In a spare moment it is always nice to open one of them up, and take a look at some of the fantastic artwork that goes into making some of our best loved series.
Probably I started my collection about 10 years ago or so now. I am in fact British, and I think I started when I went to the London MCM Expo one year. Previously I had seen art books on sale before of course. There used to be a small comic book shop in my hometown, however this only lasted a couple of years when I was a teenager with little money to spend.
Also I do have some original animations cells too, but these can be very expensive. I only buy them whenever I see a bargain.
Where to Find Them
So it was at conventions that I really got started. In the UK at least these are the best places to be able to find them out in the wild. Of course when attending these you’ll probably be paying a little more. Comic book shops do occasionally have them but in my opinion are pretty uncommon to find. I was lucky to find some good ones in some Japanese book stores in London. Especially in New York where I had even more fortune.
Of course I have probably bought most of my anime and manga art books online. Some art books can still be a little tricky to track down. Fortunately most are available to buy especially if you purchase from Japan.
What art books and series guides do you have? Leave your comments down below.
