Magnetic Storm

by Roger Dean

Collects the Dean brothers' paintings and their designs for posters, record album covers, books, stage sets, buildings, video games, and films

Genres: Art, Music, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Design, Fiction

154 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

An English artist, designer, architect, and publisher. He is best known for his work on posters and album covers for musicians, which he began painting in the late 1960s. The covers often feature exotic, fantasy landscapes. His work has sold more than sixty million copies world-wide, and his fantasy landscapes seem to have inspired those used in the film Avatar.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now I will admit that I have read a version of this book before - however I would say that this is the original edition and which I have been searching for some time (the other version is a modern day re-print, the text and some of the images have been revised) so even though Goodreads treats them as one and the same I do feel they are different books.

So what do I think - well apart from the artwork being incredibly iconic - so much so you cannot help but feel you have recognised it in so many other places (and to be honest I keep finding references and re-issues its almost a game trying to make the connections).

But there is more - Roger Dean (along with other equally talented people I hasten to add) was one of the founding members and driving force behind the creation of ues you guessed it Paper Tiger and as such there is a special kind of respect for the man.

But not only that - he helped shape imagery in film and music as well as high art to book covers and he is still very active today - though sadly the heady days of Paper Tiger are sadly now behind us.

[Tobin Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basically a gorgeous accounting of what Martyn and Roger Dean had been up to between 1975 and 1985. It was a lot.

There's showcases for book and album covers, architectural and stage designs...a little bit of everything. However, the standouts...and one I'd have loved to have seen an entire book devoted to, was the artwork for Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds album (and proposed companion book).

Beautiful.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok I have no idea if it is bed etiquette to be smug about getting my hands finally on this book. Roger Dean along with his brother set up the publishing house Paper tiger (along with Dragons Dream) to showcase and publish amazing works of art. This book along with Views it's predecessor a very long (read too long) ago - and I have been looking for a copy ever since. yes it is still in print but ridiculously expensive and with so many books out there my money was not going far enough. Well that ended when I managed to locate a shop with a copy in it that I could afford - and they kept it for me.
Ok smugness is now subsiding - the work in this book is fascinating not only because of the artwork and what it represents but also the other projects that the Dean brothers have been involved with - some I knew and a lot I didn't.
The work is fantastic and to me so worth the wait. Now the only problem is how to get my hands on the other two.

On a side note there is an interesting introduction about the development of Paper Tiger and some of the early titles - I had forgotten about them, so with this book I now have widened my search to include so many more.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool paintings! Cool album covers!

[Daniel A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several years ago, I had the distinct privilege of having met Roger Dean when he was Guest of Honor at the science fiction convention I attend every year; among the events I went to there were Dean's offering a tour of his fantasy and sci-fi artwork at the convention's Art Show. One of his pieces that I vividly recall was a wall-sized print of his artwork for the Yes album Tales Of Topographic Oceans, which was very lovely, very expensive, and did in fact get sold. Ever since then, I've been a fan of Dean's artwork (he even signed my copies of Asia and Yessongs!), and so I began to look for the collections thereof. The first one I came across was this one, Magnetic Storm; I ended up quite delighted to see that Dean's (and his brother and creative partner Martyn's) works were not remotely limited to art for album covers and concert tours.

While Magnetic Storm does perhaps delve a bit . . . thoroughly into the how and why of the Deans' endeavors for my tastes (and Colin Greenland and David Lucas' extensive text is nothing if not thorough), such attention to detail seems par for the course for Roger and Martyn Dean; even if not 100% my cup of tea, the accompanying text was interesting, and offered a glimpse into the Deans' creative processes, not just a collection of their art. I suppose such an approach suits Magnetic Storm well, insofar as the impression I got was that the Deans' entire output encompasses so much more than just artwork on paper or prints; given that Roger and Martyn Dean have produced entire architectural pavilions and works of industrial design, I don't believe I should be surprised by the level of detail in the book. And where Magnetic Storm does delve into "traditional" portfolios of art—their paintings for, say, Asia's first two albums, Yes' logos, and other such projects—the inclusion of preliminary sketches and similar idea seeds were especially welcome. While Magnetic Storm may get a bit too technical for the casual art enthusiast, ultimately it ends up both enlightening and pretty to look at.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

...more beautiful...