Smallville: The Visual Guide

Any book that features a nice big close-up of Tom Welling's face is going to find a place of prominence on my coffee table. And, being a major Smallville junkie, I find the new Visual Guide to Smallville book is a must-have filled with all kinds of info that even I never knew.

This is the latest book in the ongoing series of visual guides that DK has been publishing to tie into every major movie and TV show that comes along. Over the years DK has developed a lush visual style to use in their guides that provide a wealth of visual source material as well as well-written and informative text. There is no filler here.

The book is a nice, oversized 96-page color resource filled with hundreds of photos of every character in the series. Its piece-de-resistance is a 4 page foldout map of Smallville with circles and arrows and notes on locations of all the major happenings in town. The book was compiled by Craig Byrne who has been writing about Superman and other DC Comics characters for years and who also created the first Smallville website - so he knows his stuff.

What's most interesting for regular viewers of the series is all the background info on all secondary characters and their family backgrounds and histories. Bits and pieces of Smallville's history get discussed now and then in the series but it's fun to have it all in the book and be able to refer to the info on Brainiac and Arthur Curry and Chloe and Lana and so on. There are even cut-away diagrams of the Kent farm and the Luthor mansion that show where all the good stuff is hidden and even the location of Mr. Luthor's safe room.

Since this is a Visual Guide the text is displayed in small, easy-to-digest blocks and surrounded with large and small color photos of everyone and everything that has happened in the series - so far. And of course there are lots of photos of Tom, because let's be honest here, why on earth would anyone watch a teen soap opera about young Clarke Kent if he were not being played by one of the most gorgeous men on this or any other planet. And yes there are a couple photos of Mr. Welling with his shirt off.

So Smallville fans arise and get out to your local neighborhood bookstore to check out this invaluable book full of more stuff than you ever wanted to know about the characters and happenings in Smallville. And besides, couldn't your coffee table use a nice big photo of Tom Welling?