Having purchased the first Art of Hellboy, I can say that this book is similarly put together like the first one by Dark Horse and the filmmakers, notably Guillermo Del Toro and Mike Mignola. Which means it's great. You can see the details of the rough concepts from Guillermo himself, who's always generous enough to spill the beans on what went on in his creative mind during the preconception period of the movie up until the realization.

Lots of sketches and excerpts from Del Toro's diary that resembles ancient hyeroglyphic carvings. Basically, both Hellboy moviemaking art books are scriptbooks that are spiced up with conceptual designs, rough sketches, stills, and journal excerpts. To complement, I'm looking forward to more creature designs from this movie in the upcoming book The Monsters of Hellboy II.

If you're a monster fanatic, this book is a must for you.

This book wasn't hard covered and had 224 pages. The paper stock belonged more to the magazine type, but much thicker.

The artbook features plenty of concept art throughout the pages with relating movie scripts. A considerable amount of artwork was draw using pencil. I haven't seen as much pencil coverage on other books. There are lots of painted stuff too. All felt very raw and simulated pages that had just come off the artists' drawing board.

The drawings, storyboards, character designs were captioned by original Hellboy artist Mike Mignola, and other concept artists, providing plenty of insights into the designs.

3D computer graphics write up was missing from the book. Computer graphics fans looking to read about how the characters are modeled and the technology behind the movie, be prepared to be disappointed. This artbook is all about concept.

More monster art will be featured in the other artbook called Monsters of Hellboy II.

I've some pictures from the book on my blog. Just do an Internet search on "parka blogs hellboy ii"

Anyone who purchased the first Art of HELLBOY will not be disappointed by this "sequel". Mike Mignola & Wayne Barlowe are now joined by the talents of Francisco Ruiz Valasco & Stephen Scott. Guillermo Del Toro again includes his notebook sketches for some evolutionary insight between his imagining to finished character. The complete & final script is once again included. As impressive as this book is I must admit I am even more eager about the forthcoming Monsters of Hellboy II. But this book does stand alone quite easily for anyone, Either for fans of the series or anyone interested in design.