#magic realms

I love art books. I’ve got a ton of them. Been enjoying them ever since I was a lad, so, uh, several decades. Keep that in mind when I say I am not sure I have ever experienced an art book go so hard as Magic Realms: The Art of Fighting Fantasy (2024).

In terms of scope, there aren’t many books that are comparable. Art & Arcana, I guess, as a collection of art for a game that’s been around for several decades. A&A is so concerned with being on message (about D&D’s place in history, culture, the market place) though, that the art part of the book often feels secondary to the propaganda. Magic Realms isn’t worried about any of that. It wants to show you all the awesome art. And it does. For 350 pages. It’s unrelenting and, while it does not contain all the Fighting Fantasy artwork in existence, the density of artwork on display makes it seem like it must be damn close. Part of this is the remarkable consistency the gamebooks have had over the years. Even modern iterations with wildly different styles find ways to conform to a greater whole; every piece in this thing is recognizably FF in some way.

And yet, the focus is not on Fighting Fantasy as a brand or lifestyle or whatever. It’s squarely on the artists. 28 get in-depth treatment in alphabetical order, frankly an insane pool of talent including Ian Miller, Russ Nicholson, Iain McCaig, Martin McKenna, Chris Achilleos, Les Edwards and so many more, all at the top of their game, most displaying four illustrations up on a page (John Blanche has so many iconic pieces that his eventually go twelve-up to save space!). All of these are accompanied by a short essay explaining their place in Fighting Fantasy’s legacy (including, in the case of McKenna, Achilleos and Nicholson, brief mentions honoring their passings). The last hundred pages is split between surveys of more minor artists, artists for overseas editions, many collections of variant covers and some derivative products.