Reading – Ashley Wood’s Art of Metal Gear Solid

Published in 2011, Ashley Wood’s Art of Metal Gear Solid is a 120-page hardcover collection of Ashley Wood’s artwork taken from various Metal Gear Solid projects. It’s not at all complete — I definitely noticed the lack of some of the cooler comic covers — but there’s a lot here and it’s a gorgeous book for anyone who is a fan of Wood’s work.

Paintings and Illustrations

One thing I especially love about this book is that it wonderfully showcases’s both Wood’s Metal Gear Solid paintings and his distressed, stylized line art. I know that I’ve chatted with many art fans before who seriously hate Wood’s scratchy, zip-a-tone-covered, color-splotched line art but I’m personally a fan of the style and seeing the Metal Gear Solid characters and “gears” throughout the book kept me entertained as I slowly flipped from page to page. Truly excellent artwork.

Quality Printing and Binding

Coming from IDW, Ashley Wood’s Art of Metal Gear Solid is another example of the thought IDW puts into their art books and larger collections. There’s a real lover of books somewhere in the process, and it shows because the paper feels nice and heavy and everything about the actual physical production of the book is as fantastic as the art on each page. If there’s one thing I’ve grown to expect from IDW it is high-quality collections of art, and this one perfectly meets those expectations.

Closing Thoughts

As an art book it is difficult to say a lot about Ashley Wood’s Art of Metal Gear Solid that isn’t better said with images, so I’ve put together this small Flickr set to show off the book. Highly recommended for anyone who is a fan of Wood’s artwork.

For another opinion on the book I suggest taking a look at these two reviews, both at the parkablogs.com art book review site: first review, second review.