by Rollin Bishop

The one-year anniversary of the Netflix release of KPop Demon Hunters is swiftly approaching, and while it's unclear whether there are any surprises in store from the streaming platform, it's still a moment worth celebrating. And one of the very first re:frame newsletters, and in fact the first one written solely by me, was a lamentation that there wasn't even a glimmer of a hint that there was going to be a KPop Demon Hunters art book released. Netflix, historically, isn't a great steward of physical media.

But a digital art book was, in fact, released online at the end of 2025, and a physical one has been sold since the turn of the year. So, in an effort to close the loop that I myself began: here the hell is my KPop Demon Hunters art book.

As a product — I've the second printing softcover from Gallery Nucleus, and you can buy your own for $29.95 — The Art of KPop Demon Hunters is pretty standard fare. Written by Tracey Miller-Zarneke, a veteran art book author at this point, it walks through the design and art of the movie start to finish with quotes from the involved creatives. Directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans are even cited in big, bold letters on the front.

If you happened across the online version shared by Netflix, which now simply forwards on to the streaming service itself, it's basically… just that, in printed form, not that I expected any different. And it's fine! It's full of gorgeous artwork, and while I'd been previously familiar with some of the KPop Demon Hunters designers prior to the movie like Ami Thompson, it is an absolute delight to get a closer look at, to name just one example, Scott Watanabe's work. The colors and the flow of Scott's lines are so emotive that I find it hard to look away from.

My one quibble is that for such an ambitious movie, which deftly mixes action and fashion and music and strong leads from an underexplored subculture, the art book is tame by comparison. Many pages have similar layouts with a small blurb above and art plastered along the rest of a two-page spread, the same style of recap-like writing with quotes, and generally feels a bit less insightful than I would have liked. The timeline also closely matches the narrative structure of the film, which means all the designs and art are largely story beat by story beat rather than anything more interesting. My preferred flavor of art book is more "making of" than "gallery exhibit," and the KPop Demon Hunters art book leans more toward the latter.

My suspicion is all of this came together quite quickly, which doesn't mean it's shoddy work by any means, but it does mean that the amount of time able to be spent wasn't on par with other efforts, which is a shame. Compared to, say, the art book for Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, KPop Demon Hunters feels a bit meager, but it's still a lovely look at a lovely film that a lot of people put a lot of heart into — and a lot of hearts resonated with upon watching. I'm still quite proud to have it on my shelf.

/out of frame

👻 Rollin: I've been enjoying scrolling through Kanopy as of late (check to see if you can access through your local library!) and have become ensorcelled by the original UK version of Ghosts after having long since loved the US adaptation. It's not quite the same, but it does scratch the same sort of itch.

💽 Toussaint: Been listening to the new Boards of Canada album on repeat. 13 years is a long time between releases, but every subsequent spin of Inferno testifies to the fact that the wait was worth it. So far, "Naraka" is far and away my favorite track, but the album as a whole is worth listening to front to back.

🐺 Kambole: That Boards of Canada album is really good. Speaking of Celtic creatives, Cartoon Saloon appears to be working on a spinoff of Wolfwalkers, with Cartoon Forum having announced that Mebh and the Wolf Pups will be part of their lineup. Otherwise, the new season of Marathon is starting today and it's free to play for the week! I wasn't particularly keen about the idea of an extraction shooter until I actually gave it a go, and with the loot reset having also just hit everyone is starting from square one, meaning fairer odds. The visual design of the game is so enthralling that it really is worth a look. Next week, I'll be mourning Destiny 2.