by 
Artist Philip Summers has been creating his Hand-Drawn Game Guides for a while now, and, in this age of GenAI gobbling up all human art to spit out slop, they're become a refreshing antidote.
The only issue was the lack of an official license, which caused some problems. A while back, Summers took to Kickstarter to support his work, raising more than $320,000 from almost 5,000 backers – only for the campaign to be cancelled just as it was about to end.
The good news is that this story doesn't end there – Summers managed to secure a licence from Capcom to produce a guide to the first Mega Man outing, and that's exactly what landed in the Time Extension office this week.
This lavish hardback guide details every possible aspect of Mega Man's NES debut, including characters, bosses, maps, items and – of course – the many tips, tricks and tactics required for success.
Summers' art is instantly recognisable and filled with distinct, undeniably human-made magic – and that's because he has eschewed digital tools and works on paper with real art supplies.
The end result is a book which truly feels alive; each illustration leaps off the page with the kind of energy we rarely see in this era of polished digital artwork.
That might sound like an insult, but it's absolutely not intended to be – there's a raw passion to Summers' illustrations which takes me way back to the glory days of the '80s and '90s, when games magazines felt more like fanzines created by friends, for friends.
You can pick up your own copy here, with prices starting at $19 for the digital version.
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