Frank Cho: Women: Selected Drawings & Illustrations Volume 2 Paperback – August 27, 2013

It's a book of pinup art. Could it sit comfortably next to Moran, Elvgrin, Vargas, Mozert, De Berardinis?Almost half of the book are color plates and that is a big improvement over the first book. Most of the color is digital by Nikos Koutsis, Nei Ruffino, Brandon Peterson, etc. The digital color is, for the most part, pretty average; not great, but not too bad either. One exception is "The Queen's Bath" with Brandon Peterson as the colorist. This is excellent and shows more attention to detail rather than simply using flood fills and gradients. But, truthfully, the best colorist is Frank Cho who has a few near the back of the book including a clean version of the cover which looks like it may have taken some inspiration from Gustav Klimt. All of the color plates have either the final pen & ink version or a preliminary sketch. The sketches are all good choices.Yes, this book is two-thirds the size of it's predecessor and if you prefer quantity over quality then this may be a factor for you. It wasn't a factor for me.There is no paper book cover on the hard bound edition which is a minor complaint and not worth knocking a star off.There is a forward by Geof Darrow (Shaolin Cowboy) which is amusing and gives the book a little more character.So I asked the question on how Cho's color pinups hold up next to other pinup artists... sadly, the digital coloring, with a few exceptions don't fare so well. Cho's own paintings, though, are just as good as any of the artists I've mentioned (although Olivia De Berardinis has a much broader vocabulary) and it was really nice to see some of that in this book.

Frank Cho: Women- Selected Drawings Book Two gathers some of Frank Cho's finest drawings; some high lighting the models upon which he based the drawings, featuring details about the models, followed by renderings in black and white followed by what represents an attempt to show how the transition is made into color, as well as sketches made in pencil and those rendered in ink, by someone considered to be a rising star in graphic illustrations and constitutes a fine study of the female figure by an award winning artist; the finest black and white drawing with great detail which constitutes an excellent study in lighting, high lights and shadows being Seduction and the finest in ink being 50 Girls 50.Highly recommended.

Frank Cho is the man who loves his cheesecake but he also loves to draw and knows when to put a line down and when to leave it out. His technique is almost flawless and he improves by degrees. He's in a tenuous place where his popularity could lead to stagnation, and, in some ways that is starting to show. I'm sure many would be fine with that.Not me.He has a lot of promise and I hope he continues to push himself.The content is fairly standard but even there he shows a love for rendering. The title leaves nothing the imagination as to its content. He has a singularly nice take on female form but he does need to consider mixing it up. To see him do a variety of attractive women should be his next goal but he is in comics so it's hard to imagine much pressure on his part to expand, and that's a shame. Catering to the fans who want a type, and define artists by that type is the dead end for innovation as an artist. Even a best selling popular one needs to look beyond the comfort zone and the, often, shallow demands of the fans to find the better artist residing in the recesses of a once creative drive.Frank is very talented and he needs to show it by taking some risks.That said, this is fine for what it, is but not for what it could be. That he does it so well is still very satisfying, as long as the viewer doesn't ponder those possibilities and opportunities being missed.

Frank Cho is a master with a pen. He is also vertically challenged and this apparently makes him strive to draw more and more classy smut for his fans (or Pervs as he calls us). I love the inclusions of the pencils before he inks them. Most of his pencils get inked over so this is one of the few places you get to see his pencils. The only problems I had with the book was not the length but the lack of a dust jacket and some of the digital coloring. The first WOMEN book was 110 pages and Volume 2 is 80 pages. The lack of a Dust Jacket was a big bummer for me as the book doesn't match all the other Frank Cho Liberty Meadows Hardcovers I have, or the First Volume of WOMEN on my bookshelf. It's a nice glossy cover but it will get beat up over time without a dust jacket. I really like the colors by Brandon Peterson and some of the others but don't like what Nei Ruffino does with Brandy's face. The toning takes away from the power of the simple weighted line. Geof Darrow's introduction is also very funny. And remember, if you meet Frank in person and want a picture, bring some sort of box for him to stand on.

Lovely book . It is what it says , Frank Cho's illustrations . I was looking for more instruction ,so that is why I gave the book 3 stars instead of 5. It all depends on what you are looking for .

Excellent portrayal of Frank Cho's artistic talent. This is definitely a collectable item. Nice hard backed finish.

I've been collecting Frank Cho's art since the old Liberty Meadows days, and he has only gotten better with time. This book includes some fabulous work, including both early sketches and final pieces. Some of it is cover work, some is revisiting our favorite Brandy, and he also includes some semi-nudes of other work.My only complaint is that the book is too short. In total, there are are less that 40 finished pieces. I don't know if the publisher was just trying to keep the page count down or if Mr. Cho has simply not been as prolific as I wish he was.But hands down, Frank Cho draws the most fantastic women of his generation of artists. I haven't seen more stunning female art since the early days of Boris Vallejo. I just want MORE!

I was all set to get the book till I read the description and he had to get a political dig in.