Book Review: The Art of Hammer

Looking for a great gift idea for that Hammer fan friend or family member?  Well for a few months I've been looking forward to the release of The Art of Hammer by Marcus Hearn, an author whose written two Hammer books in the past that no fan should be without, Hammer Glamour and The Hammer Story.  Unfortunately I can't bring myself to really sing the praises of this newest release.

The Art of Hammer chronicles a large selection of Hammer posters spanning from all around the world during the 1950's, 60's and 70's, from Hammer's well known and classic horror to their thrillers, adventures and comedies.  Presentation wise it's a nice book and would make an excellent coffee table / conversational piece.  Hammer posters are essentially a work of art, usually hand drawn and stunningly detailed, unlike today's posters which are seemingly thrown together on the computer.  Unfortunately aside from presentation there's not much else this book really offers.  Only a handful of the posters have any information pertaining to them, and a majority are posters that can be easily viewed and attained through a quick Google search.  Even odder is that the book appears to be missing some pretty good ones such as the one above (maybe they're planning another book?)

Personally I was expecting a little more in-depth look into Hammer's catalog of film posters in terms of some informative history, interesting facts, even some of Hammers posters of films that never made it off the ground would have been a treat!  At least something equal to the nice balance of information and visuals that Hearn's previous books provided.  If all you're looking for is a nice conversation piece or a well assembled book of posters, then $19 for this is a steal for this nice hardcover glossy book, if you're looking from something that's also informative you might be a little disappointed.  It's certainly a nice compilation of a dieing (if not already dead) art, maybe it's just my fault for expecting more.

7/10