Customer Reviews

Apple Volume 1 (v. 1)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I currently own several miscellaneous art books, the "Japanese Comickers" series, the Robot series, and a few various issues of (ugh) Flight. I was hesitant to buy it because the price is a tad higher, but you defintely get what you pay for.

All the other series I mentioned about have great variety, but that occasionally comes at the cost of "talent". Let's face it, some of the artists just aren't very good or have very conceptually executed work.

Apple still has variety, but nearly all of the artists truely push their work to the edge. It just feels more "mature" than any other series on the market (that I'm aware of).

Apple also has alot more pages for the money compared to the other series I mentioned.

I should add that I'm coming from the standpoint of someone looking for good compilations of artists and their techniques; I don't buy these books for their storylines. That said, I will buy the second volume the moment it comes out. The other series can wait.

I would also urge you to disregard anyone you tells you not to buy this book because it has swords that look like they might be from Final Fantasy 7 in it.

Seriously.

And 11 people found that review helpful so far.

"Omg u gaiz dun't buy this book bcuz theirs an armored bear on page 112 and there were already armored barez n Goldun compaz."

And apparently, Robot is the first Anthology ever, and now that Anthologies have been done no one should ever do them again. Seriously, you guys...please stop and think before you just rate people up.

This book came to life from Korean illustrators being inspired by Robot. Apple has much better binding than the first issue of Robot did. I find that the concept artwork actually at a higher quality than Robot. Both Robot and Apple suffer from mostly the same problem of storytelling. I however find Apple's storytelling much weaker.

The book switches from glossy stock paper to matte but it really doesn't make it worse.

I'm glad that I was able to browse through the book at Anime Expo from Udon's booth. What makes it difficult to buy books these days is that often these types of books are shrink-wrapped and sealed. If you don't know what it's supposed to be about, it makes it harder to purchase.

I'm often looking at the book to see what techniques I can learn from these illustrators.

...This is a great buy, even though this may be a bit biased because I generally prefer many Korean artists' style over their Japanese counter-parts, (don't get me wrong I love them too). The comics that are in this book vary greatly in quality between each other, but the same can be said of this book's Japanese parallel, Robot.

Another pro for this book, for me at least, is there is a lot less sexualizing of little girls in the strips, so you don't have to feel so awkward when you bring this book to the cashier, and don't feel the need to hide this book from anyone ever seeing because of a few strips.

My only real beef with this book is that it costs 5 dollars more than Robot, and a good portion of the book fluctuates between glossed and unglossed paper! This maybe a choice of the artists, but as a matter of me being ocd and cheap, this set me off a little, but I won't hold it against them.

Over all, this book is superior to Robot in visuals, and there are some very very promising comics that I'll look forward to reading in the next issue, as well as some comics I'd really wish they'd omit, (it seems the poor ones take up the most space in the book). I'd recommend this to anyone who loves digital art, I'm looking forward to the next release!

It's no secret that Korea is home to very talented digital artists, and this anthology is testament to their technical skill. But, aside from a few original examples such as Hyung-Tae Kim's cover, almost all of the artwork in the book feels derivative and cliched.

There are very obvious riffs on videogames, like a female version of Silent Hill's Pyramid Head or several bunny-women who are obviously derived from the Viera race of the recent Final Fantasy games.

There are obvious riffs on anime, such as several illustrations and one comic based on Die Buster! A few of these look like they were traced from a poster or cover.

There is a blatant copy of Okama's "Food Girls".

There's an armored bear reminiscent of The Golden Compass bear designs.

There are several Buster Swords lifted directly out of Final Fantasy VII.

There is an "edgy" comic very similar to Jamie Hewlett's Gorillaz style.

The above prove two things:

1) I'm a big honking character design nerd .

2) You should only buy the book if you have a serious interest in studying the artists' techniques.

If you are looking for a groundbreaking, original anthology, look elsewhere. There is a lot to learn from the techniques, use of color, composition, lighting, etc used so masterfully in the book. But the majority of the concepts themselves are recycled. The greatest testament to the lack of originality is that the book copies Range Murata's superior ROBOT anthology (which has problems of it's own; perfection it isn't).

I think the editors should focus on quality versus quantity, and reduce the page count to a point where they focus on artists who have found their own voice and deserve the exposure.

As the other reviewers have mentioned, this book is inspired by Murata's "Robot" series. The big twist being that it features all Korean artists instead of Japanese manga artists. As the style is definitely manga-influenced, I find it interesting to see how the Koreans have their own spin on manga, just as the Americans do (see "Manga in America" among others). To my eye, the Korean style shown in the book is a little more raw and a little less polished than that in Robot. Still, it is inspiring to see and a fun read.

I ordered thinking I'm mostly gonna get art works like the one on the cover, basically fantasy pictures with nice coloring. While there are pictures like that, they're probably about 1/4 of the books. The rest are comics and other mecha type of arts. Some of the comics are in black and white or almost black and white. I prefer art works with more colors so I did not like them so much. So if you don't mind seeing comics or dominating most of the book, this book's probably a good buy.

About half of the book is comic panels that didn't really hold my interest - I was hoping for more one-sheet art prints.

This is an artbook focusing on various Korean artists, done in much the same style as "Robot," Range Murata's compilaton artbooks. The styles are pretty varied with the stories themselves being surreal, much like "Robot," although I found these stories much easier to understand. While the book mainly consist of comics, it has more pages of pieces of art than "Robot" does. Recommended for anyone looking to delve into an array of artists.

I really enjoyed this book, not as a comic book or graphic novel, but as an art book. I was much more impressed with Apple than with Robot. Robot relied only on a comic format and didn't really have that many impressive artists or illustrations in it as a whole, and the artists were all fairly similar.
In that way, I think Apple was VERY successful! They had a variety of artists with a variety of styles, ranging from very graphic to realistic. I know some people said that the change in different textured paper didn't lend anything to the book, and I have to disagree. The different textured papers really lends to the styles! A much rougher style will benefit greatly from it.

Buy it if you are interested in the art, the styles, and the talent of Korean Anime/Manga artists. It says quite clearly on the front page what the book is... If it says from Entertainment or Creative Illustration on the front page, then it's obviously not going to be a comic book.

A welcomed twist to your traditional artbook.
I wish there was more of Hyung-Tae Kim's work.
Overall, a good mix of quality talent.