Sketchbooks from Gianni and Sakai

Image © Gary Gianni.

Here are two sketchbooks given to me by the artists at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. Gary’s is much larger, 9 by 12 inches, and the 64 interior pages are black and white on bone colored paper. These are sketches and layouts done for the George R.R. Martin novel, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” which I reviewed HERE.

While that book had many great illustrations, both line art and paintings, there’s much to be learned from Gary’s sketches for them, and his notes and comments. If you are a Martin fan and have the book, this is something you’d want, though I’m not sure how much it would cost, or where you can get it, unless you see Gary at a convention. You might try contacting him on his WEBSITE. You can also find him on Facebook.

Stan Sakai gave me a copy of his “Usagi Yojimbo Sketchbook” #14, which is 5.5 by 8.5 inches and 24 pages, some in color. Stan’s art is great, and in addition to many sketches, there’s a brief comic strip.

Some of the sketches, like this one, are marked as for the animated Usagi Yojimbo cartoon that appeared on the Nickelodeon show, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” recently, and perhaps there will be more of that. Hope so. Usagi is cool, and it’s always nice to see Stan and his creation expanding their horizons. You can find this sketchbook and lots of other fine stuff for sale on Stan’s WEBSITE.