The Legend of Zelda Art Book Releases This Month
By Jason Gallagher 13 February 2017
Dark Horse Books announces a new Legend of Zelda art book will release on February 21, complete with more than 400 pages of illustrations direct from Nintendo.
We’re 19 days away from the release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, not that anyone’s counting, and it’s pretty clear that Nintendo’s hype machine is going into overdrive as March 3 gets closer and closer. Last week saw the reveal of some new dungeon details and the release of a new trailer that shows off the game’s various environments. Now, Dark Horse Books is getting in on the fun with the reveal of a Legend of Zelda art book that’s officially licensed by Nintendo.
The Legend of Zelda: Art & Artifacts is a 424-page tome featuring official illustrations direct from the Big N, some of which have never been released to the public before. The book spans the entire 30-year history of the Zelda franchise and includes artwork from Breath of the Wild. A trailer produced to show off the art book also promises “rare promotional pieces, official character illustrations and artist interviews.” The hardcover book releases worldwide on February 21 and is currently available for preorder on Amazon, at a cost of $39.99 with a digital format also available.
The trailer makes this book look pretty impressive indeed, with plenty of pages being devoted to the franchise’s various baddies and numerous items in addition to all of the sketches of Link and Zelda. The book also appears to include art from the instruction booklets that shipped with the earliest games in the series.
Dark Horse is also publishing a Limited Edition of the artbook that features an exclusive Master Sword cover and acetate slipcase, but that edition already sold out last month with only 10,000 copies being made available. Given the amount of hype currently surrounding the Zelda franchise during the run up to Breath of the Wild, it’s likely that the standard edition’s first run won’t last for long either, so fans looking to get a copy on the 21st should probably get moving.
This isn’t the first time Dark Horse has partnered with Nintendo to put out an art book, as the company is also responsible for the publication of Hyrule Historia, a popular 274-page book that was put out to help celebrate The Legend of Zelda‘s 25th anniversary. That’s the book that officially confirmed the timeline of all of the games in franchise history. Hyrule Historia is one of 10 items Game Rant listed in our Must-Have Zelda Gifts Guide last month.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild releases March 3, 2017, on Nintendo Switch and Wii U. The Legend of Zelda: Art & Artifacts art book releases on February 21, 2017.
