1,000 Ideas by 100 Manga Artists

1,000 Ideas by 100 Manga Artists is an interesting and well curated collection of visual ideas edited by Cristian Campos as part of the 1000 ideas series. Originally published in 2011, this reformat and re-release from15th March by Quarto on their Chartwell imprint is 320 pages and is available in flexibound format. 

This is an interesting concept book - the editors chose 100 manga artists and sent the same 20 questions to each of them.including practical artistic tips as well as larger life philosophy type things with the codicil that each artist had to choose 10 questions to answer. The responses are varied and interesting as well as enlightening. Roughly half the respondents are Japanese, the rest include European artists and some from the Americas. The artists provided the answers along with 10 illustrations which represented their answers.

Like all collections, there are some which are purely illustrative, some which tell a story, and some which honestly missed me altogether. As a whole, however, I found paging through the collection interesting and rewarding. 

This is the sort of book to page through during an idle day. The artists included represent a vast array of different styles and media. It would be a superlative selection for public library acquisition, maker's spaces/art collectives, and the artist's home library. There's ample inspiration here for drawing and technique. The volume also includes a short bio of the artists and many have included links to their internet sites.

Four stars. Lots of worthwhile reading to be found here and art for inspiration. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.