I love reading "the art of ____" books because they show you how much work goes into our favorite things. It was a true team effort that made Avatar: The Last Airbender such a masterpiece. ( )

It's not only a beautiful art book for the ATLA fans, but also a peek inside a creative process of making TV animated series from the scratch. Both, visuals and BTS stories, are amazing and make me appreciate the whole francise even more.

This book is a celebration of art and people - artists creating something they are trully passionate about and fans who respond to it with love. As far as art goes, it contains everything one could ask for and more. Selection makes sense, quality is superb, only size sometimes could be bigger - some illustration deserve full page treatment they don't get. However, people and process part make it absolutely incredible. Getting to know how the series was developed and produced, what was the contribution of different artists joining the crew, and what was the inspiration for stories told in ATLA was the most enjoyable thing for me.

It is a heartwarming book, I'll be surely coming back to it when blocked on my creative endeavors. It shows pains of making something original, the camraderie of artists figthing against the clock to make as little compromises as possible and have fun along the way, and finally viewers with whom the final product resonated and turned them into fans almost immediately. ( )

Avatar: The Last Airbender had a unique visual ethos, and that was definitely one of its appealing qualities; the design work was like nothing else I could really remember from Western animation. This book reproduces concept sketches and background paintings and all sorts of stuff from literally every episode of the series, and it's worth poring over just for that.

This is more than just an artbook, though, as the creator commentary throughout the book also serves as a sort of making-of for the series, taking us from its earliest days as doodles for a science-fiction premise all the way to the planning of the finale, with co-creators Bryan and Michael filling in the reasoning behind many of their decisions. My only regret is that it's not longer! Sequel series The Legend of Korra got one art book per season, though I suppose that was made possible by this book proving that a market existed.

This book is a fantastic addition to the 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' universe. Hardbound and sitting at around 185 pages, it is packed with commentary on the series beginning to end, sketches of the characters as they evolved into what we see in the animation, and best of all, lots of original artwork by the creators.

Creators Bryan and Michael let us in on lots of little factoids sure to please Avatar fans. (Unfortunately, they left out the part about where Zuko's mother is, but I guess that was to be expected. :p)

As before mentioned, the book goes through entire timeline of the series and beyond. You'll see art from the pilot, all three books, and the extra art from SDCC, DVD covers, etc!

If you are an Avatar fan or just a fan of the artwork, I highly recommend you pick up this book.

'Avatar The Last Airbender- The Art of the Animated Series' is available now online and in stores. ( )