Artbook Related Websites

Links & Resources for Artbook Fans

The following are good artbook resource websites for reviews, shopping & information.

INFORMATION

Parka Blogs – heavy on movie and animation concept art, illustration, anime and science fiction, but also has some Japanese artbooks reviewed too.  The reviews are detailed and well researched, and he is even nice enough to supply video flip throughs of the books.

Bane’s Artbook Reviews! – this is a gorgeous website that has detailed reviews on many of CLAMP’s artbooks, most of the Saiyuki books and heaps more. Highly recommended for the Shoujo & Yaoi fans out there ;)

Hunting the Elusive – Icie’s site is all about finding out information on the “hard to find and elusive” things out of Japan, and his artbook reviews are exceptional, especially when it comes to the more obscure. He often buys and reviews artbooks that I personally wouldn’t get, so if you cannot find a review on my site, check his out!

Esthetic – this is an artbook review site run by a group of friends. Clean/neat design and great navigation. They are still fairly new so don’t have many reviews up, but look extremely promising so keep checking back!

H’Gurl’s Doujinshi & Manga Guide – by far the most definitive guide to doujinshis I have found online, as well as some awesome artbook reviews! The best thing about this site (and the reason I highly recommend you visit it) is that the webmistress gives some very good and useful advice re: bootlegs, and how to figure out what a bootleg is and what isn’t. A must for anyone who takes their manga, artbooks & doujinshi’s seriously.

Sadomina’s Yaoi Artbook Reviews – a site that is in both German and English. The site owner reviews predominantly artbooks related to boys’ love (yaoi) and includes a good deal of information about the book contents, ratings and scans of the front and back covers. Definitely worth checking out if you’re specifically interested in artbooks that celebrate the male/male relationship.

SHOPPING

JPQueen.com – by far my most favourite place to hunt down and purchase artbooks. Most are second hand but still are in excellent condition; many are rare and hard to find. These people not only provide a friendly & reliable service (I’ve never had a single problem with them!) they have a huge selection of artbooks, manga, doujinshis etc. to indulge yourself with :)

Amazon Japan- get the artbook Japanese retail and brand new? And why not! You can easily order recently artbooks through Amazon Japan. I’ve never had a problem, and have had some pretty big items shipped.

Mandarake – great website for sourcing artbooks, doujinshis and those hard to finds. They have a huge profile on eBay as well and can quite often be found auctioning rare artbooks that are not in their online stores.

Graphic Novel Cafe – better known as GNC to their regulars. If you happen to live in New Zealand, these guys are your first point of call re: Japanese artbooks (they are based in Auckland, but they do mail order as well.) They source their books directly from Japan, so you’re more than likely to get those books you want at a cheaper price, than buying online (but not much cheaper.)

Other websites you may want to check out are:

RESOURCES

Celga.com – can’t find what you want? Use Celga to search and bid on artbooks that are being sold through Yahoo! Japan auctions. The fees are a bit hefty, but for some it’s worth paying, if it allows them to get their hands on those rare artbooks.

AACA_ML – this mailing list is for fans of artbooks be it Japanese anime/manga, comics or Disney. A great place to meet other fans and get those yummy deals only members will provide eachother. If you’re after information or advice on artbooks, this is the place to go for it!

Zero-Type Forums- many knowledgeable people on this forum, most who collect artbooks. A good resource if you have questions, and want to meet other fans of artbooks and all things anime/manga.

If you know of a link that should be here, please email me the details!



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