The CoolMiniOrNot Annual 2009 is out now and I got my copy today. Like its predecessor, the 2008 annual, this is a beautiful hard-cover book featuring the most stunning works from the CMON website of the respective year. Since I did not get the 2008 one before I took the chance to buy both annuals as a bundle.
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As the icing on the cake a piece painted by yours truly somehow found its way into the book.
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These books are pretty cool sources of eye candy and I definately recommend them to any miniatures enthusiast. However, I was disappointed with some of the layout and composition decisions. There a near identical photos of some miniatures, which are just unnecessarily taking up space, along with a few photos which are too dark to make good sense of them, and then there are some mind-blowing pieces I saw on CMON before, which are squeezed in there as very small pictures when they really deserved to fill entire pages. I know that filling the pages comes with a lot of tough decisions regarding what to include and which photos, what size, etc. etc. And then there's also personal preference. But I do wish that some works were represented better than they are. Still, these are very fine tomes so let's see what 2010 will bring.![]()
As the icing on the cake a piece painted by yours truly somehow found its way into the book.
Top right: The Blue Wolf Inn in the scenery section of the 2009 Annual
These books are pretty cool sources of eye candy and I definately recommend them to any miniatures enthusiast. However, I was disappointed with some of the layout and composition decisions. There a near identical photos of some miniatures, which are just unnecessarily taking up space, along with a few photos which are too dark to make good sense of them, and then there are some mind-blowing pieces I saw on CMON before, which are squeezed in there as very small pictures when they really deserved to fill entire pages. I know that filling the pages comes with a lot of tough decisions regarding what to include and which photos, what size, etc. etc. And then there's also personal preference. But I do wish that some works were represented better than they are. Still, these are very fine tomes so let's see what 2010 will bring.
