What is INOUE TAKEHIKO ILLUSTRATIONS, the 1997 art book?

INOUE TAKEHIKO ILLUSTRATIONS was published on June 4, 1997, the first collection of Inoue's color work and for more than twenty years the only one. It gathers the Slam Dunk color illustrations of the serialization era: the Jump Comics covers, magazine color pages and promotional art of 1990 to 1996, printed at book quality rather than on newsprint or tankobon stock.

As with all 1990s Japanese art books, the object rewards inspection: printings can be told apart by their obi strips and ads, and the book's large format shows how much of Inoue's color work was watercolor and marker craft from the pre-digital years of the manga industry.

Its 2020 successor, PLUS / SLAM DUNK ILLUSTRATIONS 2, was explicitly framed as the second volume after this one, and the pair together hold the complete official record of Inoue's Slam Dunk color art.