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Inspired by Moebius (Jean Giraud). If you like this style, check him out.. The World of Edena is great if you want more inspiration from his works.
Note, since this is Taschen, this may be a more retrospective book than the art book included with album pre-orders.
US Amazon Link. Cheers.
I've never seen such a huge preview on Amazon before either. It seems like it's the whole book!
That all being said, as mentioned by /u/TotoroTheGreat, artbooks are actually a really good bet, and since your friend particularly enjoys the colorful art, an artbook would work very well for that, and they won't break your budget.
An example would be something like this, although obviously you should look for something for a series your friend enjoys.
If I had to suggest a completely blind gift, I would go for the Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind box set, which can be found on Amazon for relatively cheap, at least in the US. It's a classic (the movie based on the manga is fairly well-known even in the West), and the translation and physical media of this release is very high quality.
There's a book from a former Gulag camp guard, Danzig Baldaev, called Drawings from the Gulag. It's the worst thing I've ever seen. You do not want to imagine what they did there.
https://www.amazon.ca/Danzig-Baldaev-Drawings-Gulag/dp/0956356249
Try The World of Edena. It was recently republished in English in a nice hardcover, and it's hell of dope.
I have no idea which book is the most... cultured, but here is a random example book [link is semi-NSFW].
Ha! I caught the visual reference even before I saw it mentioned in the blurb. Nice to see that there are other Gorey fans out there.
The one I was looking for, which you very closely described, was in the related links of /u/Vanamond3 's link: The Expedition. So thank you both!!!!
Oh weird. Well amazon's US product page still says its out December 29th, so about 2 months from now. https://www.amazon.com/Jamie-Hewlett/dp/3836560933/ref=sr_1_1
But now I have no idea what the real date will be, like maybe Dec 12th is when they start shipping to distributors like amazon.
This reminds me of the drawings by Danzig Baldaev:
He drew scenes that he got told first hand by ex-prisoners or guards. Terrible, terrible things, from over 50 years of USSR history.
Der Mond, a mostly-Evangelion art book by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Eva's character designer. His artwork is stunning, and it's a very nice book. Second to that are my super-deformed Rei and Asuka stuffed figures, because their just so cute.
And that's actually all I have, extra-wise, though I intend to get more Evangelion stuff: OSTs, posters, and wall scrolls mainly, though I'd like to start collecting Evangelion garage kits as well.
EDIT: Accidentally copied the title, not the link. Fix'd.
I just read Xenozoic trade paperback and it was fantastic! I didn't know going into it that it is Cadillacs and Dinosaurs otherwise I would have passed on reading it because the idea of 1950s era cars tearing it up with dinosaurs around does not interest me, but it turns out that the story(s) have nothing to do with the cars and they are in fact hardly in the comic at all. Xenozoic... FANTASTIC! and not quite what I expected.
And the signature in the bottom right corner?
I believe this picture is in his book. I'm at work so I can't check right now, but I'm fairly certain.