Among the onslaught of gift cards and cash this Christmas I received an unexpected surprise.  I guess the constant nagging to play Vampire Chronicle with me on my Dreamcast overtime led one of my close friends to gift me the new Darkstalkers Tribute art book.  As someone who is not into manga and comics I am actually surprised how much I am enjoying the art book.  Which I guess only makes sense since video games have so much to do with visual presentation.  The book is thick, having over 300 pages, displaying various artists renditions of characters from the Darkstalkers franchise.  Whats really interesting about the book is the creative style of each piece.  You have art ranging from cute, and fun  

to downright gritty and dark.  

Each piece is printed in outstanding color on high quality matte paper which internet images do no justice to.  The other cool thing is that each piece is accompanied by the artist's name and website, opening up new creative avenues for you to venture, if you so chose. 

As someone who has loved the Darkstalkers series since I first saw it in arcades at around eleven, it is a real treat to see the series through the eyes of so many amazing artists.  But even if your not into Darkstalkers at all, I still highly recommend the book based solely on the art inside it.  If you like monsters, sexy temptresses cool character designs and looking at amazing visuals with your eyeballs then check out the Darkstalkers Tribute book, it won't disappoint