Book Review: The Art of Rick and Morty

Should you get an art book priced almost for the same price as a brand-new video game?

As good as the show’s writing has been for Rick and Morty, as good as the voice acting has been for the series, by far and away this show has established setting and monster character design as some of the show’s most notable assets when it comes to judging this franchise against others. Arguably, the “Interdimensional Cable” episodes showcase these traits in the most feverish manner, but a good majority of the episodes showcase best Justin Roiland’s fingerprint as a modern-day Van Gogh.

The Art of Rick and Morty features a fabulous and well-organized look at all of the show’s most notable and infamous side characters that have helped elevate the franchise for Adult Swim into another stratosphere. Remember the Meeseeks? OR Squanchy? How about all the giants or goblins. Perhaps the most interesting features of the show were reading all of the stories that had to do with the development of each of the characters and all of the different transformations they’ve gone through. The numerous alterations of Ricks, and Jerrys, and Mortys, and Beths are cool, but you’ll have fun learning about how the designers got Rick’s eyebrow JUST right or how we got “Tiny Rick”. At the end, a nice little kudos to the writers, the storyboardists, hell, we even get some early looks at the Doc and Mharti short that lead to the development of Rick and Morty in the first place.

Unfortunately, there are a few drawbacks. At $40, The Art of Rick and Morty is $10 more than what the original release price was for The Art of Archer book, and the latter offered behind the scenes of a few more seasons of television than what this release offers. You DO get the glow-in-the-dark cover with The Art of Rick and Morty, and that might be enough to justify the price(unless if you are like me and you like to look at pictures and read with the lights on).

In any case, the Rick and Morty enthusiasts are going to love this. If you’re the guy who bought the Szechuan sauce for thousands of dollars, or if you have a tattoo of any of the characters, or if you’re Dan Guterman, you’re gonna love this release. Fans of art have something to sink their teeth into, people who want to make TV may learn something, and the cosplay aficionados will have a fantastic resource in which to get ideas from.