After watching the Captain America movie several weeks ago, I am interested to know what goes on behind the scenes of creating this magnificent period piece in Marvel universe. I was not disappointed for there are many beautiful concept art illustrations included in this hardcover book which comes in a slipcase of the captain's iconic shield in front. It is a very striking image that beckons me to push this book up in my to-be-read list.
This 240-page book begins with a forward by Rick Heinrichs, the production designer of this film and tells of his experience collaborating with the wonderful team headed by the director Joe Johnston. A brief history of Captain America's adventures in comic books follows and tells how he was retired after World War II before being resurrected several times into a modern superhero that we know and love today. Comic book covers are also inserted to give a sense of the 70 year history since his first inception into the American conscience. Meticulously divided into seven chapters after that, Chapter 1: Sentinels of Liberty shows numerous concept arts of Captain America's USO costumes and combat uniforms before deciding on the final designs that was depicted on the silver screen. There are many variations of the captain equip with gears and striking numerous poses in conceptual art works.
The second chapter concentrates on Captain America's nemesis, Red Skull (aka Johann Schmidt) and his Hydra organisation. He is a Nazi scientist and is even more powerful than Adolf Hitler after gaining a magical object from the Nordic gods called the Cosmic Cube (also known as Tesseract). Similar to the captain, there are lots of rendering of the villain's face to capture the right look. Besides Red Skull, the conceptual artists drew five different teams of Hydra troopers complete with firing weapons. It has some sort of futuristic feel to it which makes it look sci-fi. The location or settings of Hydra organisation are also explored in detail.
The Allied Forces chapter is much shorter compared to the previous chapter. The characters that help the good captain are briefly mentioned. This include Peggy Carter (love interest), Colonel Phillips (commanding officer), Howard Stark (a Howard Hughes-like figure and father of Tony Stark of Iron Man fame), Sgt. James 'Bucky' Barnes (best friend) and the Howling Commandos. If you don't know who the Howling Commandos are, they appear in other Marvel comics and the team is consists of Timothy 'Dum Dum' Dugan, Jacques Dernier, James Montgomery Falsworth, Jim Morita and the little known Gabe Jones. I certainly have more fun reading about Captain America's friends than those of Hydra because I am drawn to their background. Another short chapter is the battle line. It contains artists' conception of Allied buildings in New York City such as World Exposition of Tomorrow, the United States Armed Services Recruitment Center at the fair and Dr Erskine's laboratory in contrast to Hydra's headquarters in Germany.
There is a large section devoted to weaponry as seen in the movie. Besides Captain America's shield and other prototypes developed by Howard Stark, the majority of this chapter shows Red Skull's destructive artillery. Designs of uber tanks, mini tanks, Schmidt's Coupe, motorcycles, bomber planes, drone planes, submarines and trains completed by lead vehicle designer Daniel Simon are shown in great detail which I find it slightly boring. However this is not the case with the final two chapters. Seeing Action has storyboard sketches on the amazing action sequence of Heinz Kruger chase while The Art of War is packed with different variations of movie posters and comic book tie-in to the Marvel film.
Throughout the book, the thoughts and opinions of relevant important figures of the movie such as the director, actors (notably Chris Evans who plays Captain America and his alter ego Steve Rogers, and Hugo Weaving as Red Skull), conceptual artists, production designer and the co-producer are revealed. We get to see their inspiration and the improvement of their ideas through various designs and art works. Stunning production stills from the film are also displayed to compare with the initial and final concept design.
As a conclusion, fans of the film should buy this companion movie book as keepsake. Those who love art are recommended to get it because it might inspire you to create better works of art.
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