Jim Lee is an artist whose work I enjoy in small doses. His characters tend to be a little too posed and grim for sustained reading. Interestingly here he admits to the “grim face” issue, and that it was something he didn’t realize until it was pointed out to him.

Given my take it or leave it approach to his work I wasn’t sure if this lavishly illustrated coffee-table book of his work would be for me - but I enjoyed it way more than I expected too. As with all comics artists I find the behind the scenes process stuff fascinating. In particular I was impressed by the details in Lee’s background pencil work in some of the large studies presented here.

I picked this up in the Bargains section of Barnes & Noble for $10 (cover price $40) and at that price it was a good buy. ( )