Rise of the Ogre

Product Information

Throughout these adventures, we are always accompanied by Jamie Hewlett’s brilliant illustrations, with their vibrant colours gracing our eyes and engraving the image of these iconic characters in our memories. The book also tells the fictional accounts of the virtual band members, their origins and how they met, their bizarre yet hilarious adventures.

I listened to the audiobook version of this for the first few chapters, before locating a PDF for the rest of it - I wish more chapters of the audiobook got recorded! I liked the voice acting! However, the visual book itself is definitely the primary way to fully experience the visuals - promotional illustrations, magazine covers, concert stills, storyboards, especially the visuals that are referenced in the text, so I guess one kind of does have to open the visual book eventually. Gorillaz took the world by storm right at the beginning of the new millenium with their "Clint Eastwood" music video. Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett started this project of a "virtual band" who will be selling records and influencing pop-culture, paving their way through the new sensation called the Internet. So on the surface it's a biography of one of the greatest bands of our generation, but ends up taking you for quite a trip. At the front of the book, there is a ‘Demon Disclaimer’ stating the information is not all true, ‘especially the stuff Murdoc says’.The original idea for the book was to be a compilation of all press interviews with Gorillaz from phases one and two. An audiobook of Rise of the Ogre was released in four parts; making it the first audiobook in the world to be released in a singles format. [ citation needed] God I love this book. It's so incredibly niche - if you don't come into it with a bit of basic knowledge about Gorillaz it reads as the most unhinged story ever - but for someone who loves the band as much as I do it's just so much fun. I'm actually surprised I hadn't read it yet, and super glad that I got my hands on it now. The front cover of the book, when flipped sideways, is a silhouette of Murdoc Niccals' pet raven 'Cortez'.

The book details the life-stories of the band-members: Murdoc Niccals, 2-D, Russel Hobbs, and Noodle. [7] It covers the band from 2000 and their first EP, Tomorrow Comes Today through their 2006 tour ending at the Apollo Theater. [2] It contains previously unknown secrets of the band, such as future plans of the movie, new and rare art by Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett, the "low down" on Kong Studios, their headquarters, and the story of the truth behind the " El Mañana" video. The book blends fact and fiction throughout, interspersing commentary from the band members with actual quotes from their creators, collaborators and critics. Brainchild of Daman Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, a virtual band that lives in their own fictional universe, couldn’t have been better executed than during the rise of digital music. A “virtual” band hadn’t really been seen before, and the distinct Gorillaz sound—a mix of electronic, alternative rap, and alternative hip hop—most certainly hadn’t been heard before. Their self-titled debut album was released in 2001, and their success landed them an entry in the Guinness Book Of World Records for Most Successful Virtual Band. Spanning 2001 to 2011, the band released four studio albums. The highlights for me were the storyboard art and the character writing. Like, seriously stellar stuff on both accounts. Getting some of the rough pencil storyboard stuff from Hewlett is lovely, and the way he used to illustrate stuff was beautiful in its weird, ugly way. The motion and the atmosphere in some of his rough sketches is stunning; the examples that come to mind are the D-day storyboard and the El Mañana storyboard.

Customer reviews