I have included a comparison between the US and British versions of this coloring book below. The video and photos on this review are only from the US version while those on my other review are only from the British version.
Rather than discuss how this is like or different from the books and/or the various movies, I will discuss only how I feel about it as an adult coloring book.
The illustrations and the designs show that a number of artists have been involved with the coloring book (according to the book, there are six artists.) There are a variety of styles and it is easy to see which designs are by the same artist. I mention illustrations because a number of the drawings appear to be almost finished ink and pen studies rather than designs that a colorist can easily finish and interpret in their own unique way. I had this same issue with the recent Game of Thrones coloring book and I ended up using Tombow water-based markers (brush end only) to put larger swathes of color on many areas. It worked okay but it was not ideal. Something I really like about the book is that at the bottom of each page, there is a notation which tells which book the design is from and who the character is or which location is being shown.
There are still many designs which I feel that I can, as a moderately experienced colorist and artist, be able to color and enjoy. Some have intricate details but others have are mostly outline drawings that I will give me opportunities to try various blending techniques.
Physically, the book is put together better than some but missed the mark in a couple of ways. The designs are printed on both sides of the page with many of the images spanning across two pages. The non-perforated pages are white and medium weight. Unlike the British version of the book, the cover on the US version is attached. The binding is sewn rather than glued, so removing pages will require a few snips of thread throughout the book but you will be removing more than one page at a time Many of the designs merge into the binding and in my copy, most do not line up well. That gives me pause on removing pages because it will be very difficult deal with misaligned pages outside of the book.
None of my gel pens bled through to the back of the page. My colored pencils all worked well on the surface of the paper especially my soft lead ones (Prismacolor and Derwent.) My water-based markers (Tombows dual end, Stabilo 88, Staedler triplus fineliners and Pentel) did not leak through (though my Stabilo 88 left the slightest of shadows on the backside of the page.) My ultra-fine Sharpies and Copics bled through immediately. I would suggest checking your specific gel pens and markers as I don’t have every type to try. For me, I will probably use various water-based markers, gel pens, and colored pencils for this book and let my alcohol-based markers sit this one out.
My review is of the US release of the coloring book which is published by Thunder Bay Press. I also ordered and reviewed the UK version which is published by a branch of Hatchette UK Company. I have done a comparison of the two and will include that both here and also in the first comment of my review of the British version (because a glitch in the Amazon system is not allowing me to edit my reviews once a video or photo is attached but I can leave comments.) It is also possible that the reviews for both books will be merged into one listing after both are published (as happened with Lost Ocean and Animorphia.) If that happens, one or both of my reviews may show up in the same listing.
The comparison is unusually simple as generally the difference between country printings are quite striking. In this case, not really much is different besides a few items. The books are the same size, they weight the same (when I remove the British dust cover), and the paper is of similar quality (though the British one may be the very slightest of brighter white.) They have similar bindings and the same images. The differences: the cover art and material is very different; the British version has a removable dust cover, and the US version has a few more misaligned pages and they are more noticeably misaligned on two-page spread designs. The last item may be more specific to my two books, but I thought it important enough to mention. Essentially, the books seem very much the same to me. I would not go out of my way for the dust cover. The books weight one pound each and the cover is flimsy and weights slightly over one half of an ounce.
In summary, an interesting coloring book with some very colorist unfriendly but beautiful illustrations. Between these drawings, the two-page spans, and misaligned pages, I detracted a star from my rating. I like the book itself but the publishing could have been improved in a variety of ways.
