Some fans might not be aware that Berserk hasn't had a full-fledged art book since 1997. That art book, the Berserk Illustrations File, contains high-quality reproductions of volume covers (up to vol 14), unseen paintings, sketches, and an exclusive interview with Kentarou Miura that's about 4,000 words long, recently translated by Puella thanks to our member-supported Patreon.
When I start lamenting the lack of recent Berserk art books, I'm often asked: "How much material is there for another artbook?" Quite a bit, actually!
Since that book was released, there have been 23 new volume covers, 32 volume poster inserts, and an unknown number of other paintings and sketches Miura has released across the past 18 years. These include phone cards, new year's postcards, DVD/BR covers, promotional art, original art for the 2005 trading card game (TCG) and more. Many of these are only seen by hardcore collectors, leaving the rest of us to ogle them through low-resolution photos on Japanese auction sites — and those are only the ones that surface online.
Because of their obscure nature, it's likely there are many more we have never seen, or that Miura has never released. Some of these appear to be assets pulled from Miura's generous stack of unused paintings. Others were clearly created for an exclusive purpose. Some are simple character poses, while others show glimpses of scenarios with characters that we've never seen in the manga before. For fans, they're all pretty incredible and worth checking out.
So I started collecting images of them, even if the quality of the images sucks, to get a better understanding of what the potential for another Berserk artbook is. It is vast. In total, I gathered 118 pieces of art, excluding volume covers (from 15-37), and of course anything I missed. In reality, it's probably closer to 150 pieces. Which is more than enough for 3 art books, based on the size of the Illustrations File. It's not complete, and it's not really meant to be. It's meant to be a taste of what's out there, unbound, uncollected, unseen by the vast majority of fans of Berserk.
These deserve a better place to appreciate them. I can't provide that — only Miura and his publisher can. But until then... here's what I have assembled:
Rare/Uncollected Berserk Artwork: http://skullknight.net/images/uncollected/index.html
Miura's original art for Konami's Berserk TCG (2005): http://imgur.com/a/ZtfKH
Volume poster inserts: http://imgur.com/a/VvEMW
When I start lamenting the lack of recent Berserk art books, I'm often asked: "How much material is there for another artbook?" Quite a bit, actually!
Since that book was released, there have been 23 new volume covers, 32 volume poster inserts, and an unknown number of other paintings and sketches Miura has released across the past 18 years. These include phone cards, new year's postcards, DVD/BR covers, promotional art, original art for the 2005 trading card game (TCG) and more. Many of these are only seen by hardcore collectors, leaving the rest of us to ogle them through low-resolution photos on Japanese auction sites — and those are only the ones that surface online.
Because of their obscure nature, it's likely there are many more we have never seen, or that Miura has never released. Some of these appear to be assets pulled from Miura's generous stack of unused paintings. Others were clearly created for an exclusive purpose. Some are simple character poses, while others show glimpses of scenarios with characters that we've never seen in the manga before. For fans, they're all pretty incredible and worth checking out.
So I started collecting images of them, even if the quality of the images sucks, to get a better understanding of what the potential for another Berserk artbook is. It is vast. In total, I gathered 118 pieces of art, excluding volume covers (from 15-37), and of course anything I missed. In reality, it's probably closer to 150 pieces. Which is more than enough for 3 art books, based on the size of the Illustrations File. It's not complete, and it's not really meant to be. It's meant to be a taste of what's out there, unbound, uncollected, unseen by the vast majority of fans of Berserk.
These deserve a better place to appreciate them. I can't provide that — only Miura and his publisher can. But until then... here's what I have assembled:
Rare/Uncollected Berserk Artwork: http://skullknight.net/images/uncollected/index.html
Miura's original art for Konami's Berserk TCG (2005): http://imgur.com/a/ZtfKH
Volume poster inserts: http://imgur.com/a/VvEMW
