The Masters of Pixel Art volume One Book Review.

When a book author decides to cover a subject that is best seen and appreciated on a computer monitor to get maximum affect, then be able to translate it into a fully fledged publication is something I would suggest is a crazy under taking and fantastic vision to execute.

Masters of Pixel Art is the brain child of Klas Benjaminsson, a pixel artist himself and no stranger to the pixel art scene and the Demoscene world, with many pixel art entries into the Demoscene party DataStorm over the years, he has a passion and energy to take his art and many other amazing pixel wizards into book form via a Kickstarter fundraiser to realise his vision. Not needing to be asked twice, I jumped at the chance to review this book and wow it hosts an impressive collection of pixel art from over 48 talented computer pixel artists, covering the 16-Bit era of systems like the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST and PC platforms.

The book showcases incredible art work, logo art for scene cracking groups, demos and graphic competitions in on Volume.  Each artist gets their own section with a bio to introduce  you into the mind set of the artist along with their scene title and real name and where the artist comes from. Some of the artists give very detailed account about their previous pixel artwork from back in the day and the book even covers pixel art work never previously seen.

There are many amazing images in this Volume One of The Masters of Pixel Art even if you are not familiar with the artist inside and for those who are,  both will simply see this book as a joy to both read and look through.  As I’m a massive fan of the Demo scene from the Atari 8-Bit, C64 and Atari ST days, this was a fantastic opportunity for me to grab a book of this type. This book gives the reader an in-depth look into the world of a pixel artist, even if you’ve never seen a demo or viewed pixel art.  This is very much an under appreciated form of art and its books like these that need to be produced in order to showcase what computer pixel’s are capable off.

The only issue I had with the book was the indexing and layout, none of the artists are categorised in any real logical manner, the way each pixel artist feature leads to the next artist didn’t sit right in terms of continuity of the book either, maybe it’s a European thing?  But this is a very small issue for what you get in the first volume of The Masters of Pixel Art, boasting a great 200 pages of fantastic content.

Volume One can be purchased HERE

Roll on the sequel …..aptly named “The Masters of Pixel Art : Volume Two”

Greyfox

Creator of forth coming Coin-Op:Arcade Guide and creator of the Atari Gamer Magazine and the Atari ST Gamer Magazines. Retro gaming expert & fact finder.