The Gathering Book Review

Like many "gamers" of a certain age, Magic the Gathering holds a special place in our hearts and minds. In 1993, I was introduced to the game by some college friends and we proceeded to shuffle and trade and scheme around these crazy fantasy game cards with amazing art on the front. My wife and I met in 1994 and I was still playing. She suffered for many years with me going off to "play cards" and sit in rooms with many kids younger than me. Its been more than 10 years since I sold off the bulk of my Magic cards, and looking back it was the right thing to do at the time. However, that doesn't mean I don't miss my Beta Serra Angel, Mox Sapphire and the other "bombs" I had opened in those early packs. Knowing that, and being the best wife anyone could ever have, she bought me The Gathering - Reuniting Pioneering Artists of Magic the Gathering for Christmas last year.

The Gathering is a book that combines a retrospective on some of the art from the early days of Magic with short essays from the artists who brought the vision of Magic to life. It was originally a successful Kickstarter project back in 2013. Not having been involved in Kickstarter at all, I had missed any opportunity to back this project. My wife, however, is a ninja when it comes to thoughtful gifts and tracked down the folks at Full Steam Press who published the book and picked up a hardcover copy. She also convinced them with her Jedi mind powers to send along four of the promotional standard edition sketch cards that included a sketch by Doug Shuler of…the Serra Angel! Major points for the wife.

The Gathering is a little over 100 pages and gives some insight into the early days of Magic when artists were paid less than $100 per piece of art and, I am glad to have learned, were given some shares of stock in Wizards of the Coast. It's great to think of these artists who were making 5" x 7" art that went on to be printed on millions of cards all over the world were able to share in the success of Magic over the years. It is also nice to hear a little about the guidance given to the artists for the cards they illustrated and how they might have done things differently if they had known then what a success this would become. Many of the artists in the book have moved on to other genres or are focusing on different media these days, but their contributions to Magic and pop culture will remain for years to come if the past 20+ years of Magic are any indication.

You can still get a copy of the The Gathering from the Full Stream Press site here. I recommend it for any long-time fan of Magic or casual fan of art in general. Great gift for those of us who were in college  right when Magic first unleashed itself on our world. The Gathering gets 5 Mick Happies for awesomeness. If you do get the book, you even get contact info for many of the artists if you want to look into their art in more detail.