Books are fun to read, but that’s not all they are. With entertainment companies today understanding the value of every scrap of information from the process of making art, books can serve as vast repositories for behind-the-scenes stories, design evolution and more. Our holiday book guide this year includes several of these, in addition to some of the year’s most acclaimed comics and some older favorites. Behold our 2022 holiday gift guide for books.

Avatar The Way of Water: The Visual Dictionary

$27.00

Can you tell a tulkun from an ilu or an akula? If you had to name all the Sully kids by appearance, could you? Even big fans of Avatar and its sequel don’t always know every detail thrown into James Cameron’s world-building. Thanks to this book, you will be able to say “I see you” to every little thing shown onscreen.

The Art of The Batman

$20.99

Gotham City hasn’t looked so specifically gothic since 1989, when Tim Burton first took a stab at it. Matt Reeves may be going for realism with his costume designs, but the world his characters inhabit is full-on grimdark fantasia that helps the viewer understand why Bruce Wayne is so constantly miserable. Go deeper and see how it came to be — what the designers pulled back from and leaned into. It’s all about the Battitude.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin $20.98

Following the death of his three brothers, one last hero in a half shell, no longer a teen, carrying all their weapons, roams a hellish futurescape controlled by the Foot Clan. The world of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles just got way darker.

Fantastic Four: Full Circle

$19.99

Alex Ross, normally known for his realistic paintings of superheroes that look almost like photographs of actual humans in spandex, takes a more traditional comic art approach in this retelling of a Stan Lee-Jack Kirby adventure from the ’60s. Writing and drawing, he takes the Fantastic Four into the Negative Zone to thwart an invasion of energy parasites.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse -The Art of the Movie

$23.99

There’s just so much to see in Into the Spider-Verse. You could buy a 4K disc and frame-by-frame it, but picking up this book is much easier. Plus it includes early art, unused art, and anecdotes the movie alone may not reveal. Get prepped before the sequel offers up thousands of new sights.

Immortal X-Men Vol. 1 Paperback

$17.99

Kieron Gillen tells a tale of the Quiet Council, rulers of the Krakoan Age. Who will succeed Magneto? What ancient prophecies might come to light? Can Krakoa stand when power struggles threaten its very existence? Experience the madness of mutant machinations.

Sabretooth: The Adversary Paperback

$15.99

And speaking of Krakoa, banishing Sabretooth to eternal captivity in the pit probably seemed a good idea at the time. But he hasn’t exactly been idle since then. In Victor LaValle and Leonard Kirk’s tale of Victor Creed, expect the unexpected and prepare for danger.

Batman/Catwoman

$35.99

Follow the dangerous romance of the Bat and the Cat through past, present, and future, in a story that includes their daughter Helena, Bruce’s lost love Andrea, a.k.a. Phantasm, and that one clown guy who’s always popping up…

Marvel Myths and Legends: The epic origins of Thor, the Eternals, Black Panther, and the Marvel Universe

$13.99

The Marvel universe is so filled with different gods and mythologies that they can be tough to keep straight. In a universe where Bast, Odin, and Hercules all coexist alongside Celestials and Eternals, what are the definitive origin stories and theologies? And which god can beat up the other gods? Here’s a book to clarify all of that, and maybe provide some context for a few upcoming movies.

Illuminations: Stories by Alan Moore

$24.99

The way the media lays bait and Alan Moore takes it, it’s easy for some to imagine he’s just some crank in a basement fuming abut DC Comics 24-7. In fact, he’s a prolific writer with a healthy sense of the absurd. This short story collection spans 40 years, and yes, does include a satirical history of the comics business. Readers may come for that one, but stay for tales of concubines, extradimensional beings, and aging.

Also check out our other Holiday Gift Guides: