Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: Book Review

Ahoy me mateys Captain Cats here! Today I’m going to review a new history book from a visual point of view about D&D, and that book is Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: a Visual History.

Written by Michael Witwer, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, Sam Witwer, Joe Manganiello, this is a love letter to all things D&D. Ten Speed Press publishes the book with collaboration from Wizards of the Coast, the current owners of D&D. This book takes a look at all of D&D history from its simple beginning to all the way to its current form, and all of the spin-off series that came out from the main D&D line. The book main art cover looked beautiful and was done by Larry Elmore, and it reminds me of the “Red Box” series.

Another thing that this book has going for it is a lot of the artwork hasn’t seen the day of light until now, and you’ll know the history of the game from it’s simple beginning to what happen in the 80’s, the release of the 4th edition till now. The book also goes in-depth with the history of each edition, the history behind some of D&D famous monsters, champaigns spin-off series such as how Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Planescape and Ravenloft came to be. The parts that I loved the most was the fantastic artwork throughout the years, the history of how the miniature figures came to be and a fascinating and funny history lesson on the creation of the “Owlbear.”

Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: a Visual History is a must-have for anyone who is a huge fan of D&D, tabletop, unique and glorious artwork. I would also recommend this to anyone who wants to know what makes D&D so unique to so many people around the world. There are two versions of the book available, the standard version and the Special Edition that comes with a beautiful box, posters and reprint copy of the unpublished original version of ‘Tomb of Horrors.’

So what you think of this book, are you going to get this? Let us know in the comments below.