Book Description

A comprehensive look at the work of Ray Johnson, the seminal American collage artist, whose innovative oeuvre has been ignored by the self-referential mainstream art press. Critical essays investigate Johnson's imagination of mass culture and communication systems, his queer subjectivity and his insightful engagements with art movements of the 1960's including Fluxus, Pop Art and Conceptualism. Discover the rich legacy of an artist that the art establishment doesn't want you to know about.Exhibition catalog, dimension: 8 x 101/2 inches, this book includes 90 b&w and 35 color reproductions. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Ray Johnson Review And CorrespoonDance
Judging this book by it's cover it must be a Ray Johnson Perfection with a P. Which is like a Confection with a Sea. The Ocean will continue to Lap. Place this book in your Lap and Lap it up. Please Write to: Rain Rien Nevermind 2101 Banebury Way East Chanhassen't MN 55317 with a review of this review. Or a Dyslexicon. Whilst Type-pink this review an Owl appeared to pop-up on the screen. It must have been an electrifried Owl.

Review of Review: Subj: HOwl Sad I Yam Too: Day
Date: 10/19/2003 12:37:17 PM Central Daylight Time
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Ray Johnson: How Sad I Am Today...Here is your review the way it will appear: = Ray Johnson Review And CorrespoonDance five starfish Reviewer: Rain Rien Nevermind from Chanhassen't, MN United States Judging this book by it's cover it must be a Ray Johnson Perfection with a P. Which is like a Confection with a Sea. The Ocean will continue to Lap. Place this book in your Lap and Lap it up. Please Write to: Rain Rien Nevermind 2101 Banebury Way East Chanhassen't MN 55317 with a review of this review. Or a Dyslexicon. Whilst Type-pink this review an Owl appeared to pop-up on the screen. It must have been an electrifried Owl.OR function possession is so, um, possessive getElement(id, d) {if (!d) d = document;if (d.getElementById) {return d.getElementById(id);}if (d.layers && d.layers[id]) {return d.layers[id];}if (d.all && d.all[id]) {return d.all[id];}} Your request is being processed... your id is turning on your ego... a tussel in-shoes, your super ego wins and grins, later a sexual issue appears to confront all three of you ! Note: By saving this review, you attest that you are at least 13 years of age.If you are under 13, please use our baby owl mother's potato masher browser. ... Read more

Book Description

This one–of–a–kind collection of poster art commemorates 80 years of horror cinema. Featuring scores of full–color reproductions, this is a book that will thrill movie buffs, horror fans, and poster collectors alike. ... Read more

Book Description

He's been one of the fantasy art masters for over 20 years, creating brilliant visions of mystic wonder. Clyde Caldwell breathes life into all his creations, from the sword-wielding warrior to the fearsome winged dragon he's trying to kill. What Clyde is best known and loved for however, is his women! Sultry and powerful, supple yet steely, these are fearsome females who are as alluring as they are awesome! Here's a stunning collection of Caldwell's works, spanning an entire career. A full color gallery, The Art of Clyde Caldwell does an excellent job showing off this artist's finest images ... Read more

Book Description

With the postwar economic boom, a vast middle class emerged. Suburbsexploded across the country, and the new industrial complex cranked outcars, appliances, and home furnishings in record numbers. In Going Home tothe Fifties, Bill Yenne guides readers through an idealized neighborhood ofthe period, from the schools, roads, and commuter trains to the homes,kitchens, and backyards -- all drawn from the fantasy worlds created byadvertising. Color photos and illustrations are featured in thispresentation of the ideal of 1950s suburban living. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

At Long Last...
a book that celebrates that wonderful decade known as the 1950's and does so without irreverance, parody, or sarcasm. I came across the wonderful gem of a book quite by accident. For years, I had wished that someone would write a book that highlighted this time in American history and Bill Yenne does a SUPERB job.

Not only is the text informative, but the wonderful pictures and illustrations, along with real advertisements, make this book a must-have for the serious afficianado. Unfortunately, you can find books out there about the fifties, but they are written by those who want to make fun of that time and use intellectual sophistication to castigate this era in America. How do I know it was such a good time?

Well, I don't recall high school students shooting and knifing other students. Teen pregnancy numbers were quite low, movies had a point to them, drug abuse wasn't rampant, and some things were still honored and revered, such as church, country, and family. (No, I am not a Falwell/Robetrtson/Dobson right-wing fundamentalist.) But I am a moderate and I guess one of the many things I love about that time was its moderation and its optimism.

Here we were right after a world war, eager to achieve and enjoy the promise of America and full of boundless optimism about our future. President Eisenhower led with a fatherly hand, and people grew and flourished. The malcontent and sociopath were the exception rather than what seems like the rule today. People seemed to have some reference to the whole rather than just an apathetic, "I don't give a damn" attitude. There were no violent gangsta rap songs flooding the airwaves with hate, and wonder of wonders, the music was really good-now considered classic.

Yes, those halcyon days are gone now and we've "grown up." Just about anything goes and you don't have to look very far to find a social or psychic cesspool to wallow in. Being born in the late fifties, I know that my generation is the last to have enjoyed the fruitage of that great decade. But for a time, it was ours and it was sparkling, and it was the real deal.

So get this book and spend an afternoon savoring each delicious memory and picture. You can't help but feel better after you put the book down and in fact, will find yourself returning there again and again.

Going home to the Fifties with Madison Avenue.
I was intrigued when I first saw this pop up on Amazon while looking for another book about the Fifties and I placed an order. Now having read and looked through it a more apt title would be 'Going Home to the White Middle Class Suburban Fifties'. The author covers the period with a rather narrow focus, concentrating mainly on home life in the newly built suburbs and the reason for this is because nearly all the interesting illustrations (paintings and photos) are images taken from ads of the time. There are chapters about The Living Room, In the Kitchen, The Bed and Bath, Watching Television, all areas where pictures from ads would be available but no chapter, for instance, about suburban shopping, supermarkets and malls were not heavy advertisers in mass-market magazines back then. It does seem odd to allow the availability of ad images to dictate the contents of a book about the recent past.

This does create some odd situations, page thirty-seven shows a Saturday Little League game with an Oldsmobile taking most of the space, page forty has a painting to show a village theater but it is dominated by a 1957 Oldsmobile, on pages forty-one and forty-two the five-day-a-week trek to collect commuter hubby from the train station uses a painting with six Chevrolets taking more space than the train.

The author covers the period in a straightforward way and I get the impression that it is the pictures that count rather than the words (set in a rather large type size) which just fill out the space between the two, three or four pictures on each spread. The captions are redundant as they only describe what can be seen in the pictures. There is a good index but no bibliography.

'Going Home to the Fifties does capture some of the feel of this wonderful period for the white middle classes and it was a neat idea to use the very images that helped to create this feeling but I think another book does a better job, the stunning 'All-American Ads: 50s' by Jim Heimann, 960 pages of color ads including many that had the pictures used in Bill Yenne's book but now you can see and read the whole ad. Two other books I've enjoyed are Thomas Hines's 'Populuxe' and Time/Life books 'The American Dream: the 50s' both have interesting text and plenty of photos to capture the period. ... Read more

Book Description

Michal Dutkiewicz may know many things, but when it comes to illustrating stunningly beautiful women, the man is a frickin' genius! Placing his exquisite ladies in all manner of settings, from the primordial caveman past to the far flung flying-car future. Michal's results are simply breath-taking! Cheesecake has never been this rich, this delicious, and this totally satisfying. (And no calories to worry about either!) ... Read more

Book Description

Smaller in trim size, greatly expanded in content, this compendium of Chronicle’s classic Blue Note books (50,000 copies sold) is now an appealingly chunky paperback. Blue Note remains one of the most influential jazz labels of all time, and its cover art is a virtual time-capsule of cool. Now comprehensive, Blue Note: Album Cover Art gathers nearly 400 of the legendary covers, spanning the ’40s to the ’70s, and features the greatest work of legendary Blue Note art director Reid Miles. Simple and sophisticated, moody and alluring, these covers continue to influence designers and excite jazz aficionados today. "One glance," as Esquire said of the original edition, "and you’ll know where the essence of cool remains." ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Classic
Blue Note Records not only released Classic Albums but also had Classic Album Covers that covered so much more.the Book displays the many images&stylings.if you get a chance watch the special on Blue Note Records which goes into full depth about the Music,Artists,Owners of the Label&those Classic album covers. enjoy.

excellent book; makes a great guide to blue note records
This compact book gives examples of some of the greatest album covers, to some of the finest albums, and now cds, issued by the label. It also makes a great guide for albums to check out, to see if they are still in print; which many of them are. Even for the out of print ones, it provides a nice collection for information purposes, and is reasonably priced. I look forward to finding and buying volume 2.

Compact size - great content
I have the two other editions of the Blue Note album covers (the ones that are the size of an album) and I love to look at them. The only problem is that they are a little too big to sit and flip through. The size of this book- "Blue Note: Album Cover Art" is perfect for flipping through. It looks small but packs a wonderful punch. I couldn't believe how many album covers were in this book. This book fits nicely on a coffee table or end table. If you are like me, you'll find yourself looking at it daily - in amazement of the style and class that embodies the Blue Note image. ... Read more

Book Description

Whereas previous eras had celebrated beauty as the central aim of art, the modernist avant-garde were deeply suspicious of beauty and its perennial symbols, woman and ornament, preferring instead the thrill and alienation of the sublime. They rejected harmony, empathy, and femininity in a denial still reverberating through art and social relations today. Exploring this casting of Venus, with all her charms, into exile, Wendy Steiner's brilliant, ambitious, and provocative analysis explores the twentieth century's troubled relationship with beauty.

Tracing this strange and damaging history, starting from Kant's aesthetics and Mary Shelley's horrified response in Frankenstein, Steiner untangles the complex attitudes of modernists toward both beauty and the female subject in art. She argues that the avant-garde set out to replace the impurity of woman and ornament with form -- the new arch-symbol of artistic beauty. However, in the process of controlling desire and pleasure in this way, artists admitted the exotic fetish objects of "primitive" cultures -- someone else's power and allure that surely would not overmaster the sophisticated modernist. A century of pornography, shock, and alienation followed, and this rejection of feminine and bourgeois values -- domesticity, intimacy, charm -- kept the female subject an impossible and remote symbol. Ironically, as Steiner reveals, the feminist hostility to the "beauty myth" had a parallel result, leaving Western society alienated from desire and pleasure on all sides.

In the course of this elegantly constructed and accessibly written argument, Steiner explores the cultural history of the century just ended, from Dada to Futurism, T. S. Eliot's Wasteland and Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon to Pumping Iron II: The Women and Deep Throat, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Outsider Art, Naomi Wolf and Cindy Sherman, Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo, ranging across art and architecture, poetry and the novel, feminist writing and pornography.

Only in recent years, Steiner demonstrates, has our culture begun to see a way out of this damaging impasse, revising the reputations of neglected artists such as Pierre Bonnard, and celebrating pleasure and charm in the arts of the present. By disentangling beauty from a misogynistic view of femininity -- as passive, narcissistic, sentimental, inefficacious -- Western culture now seems ready to return to the female subject and ornament in art, and to accept male beauty as a possibility to explore and celebrate as well. Steiner finds hints of these developments in the work of figures as varied as the painter Marlene Dumas, the novelist Penelope Fitzgerald, and the choreographer Mark Morris as she leads us to a rediscovery and a reclamation of beauty in the Western world.

From one of our most thoughtful and ambitious cultural critics, this important and thought-provoking work not only provides us with a searching analysis of where we have been in the last century but reveals the promise of where we might be going in the coming one. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Venus Come Forth!
I bought this book and was thoroughly pleased. Steiner is a great writer and has consistently written good work. I do agree that her agenda is a little heavy, but if you care to read her other work you will see that she is qualified in making the pronouncements she does. It is the privilege of anyone who has worked this long in the field. I would recommend reading her "Pictures of Romance" for a deeper treatment of aesthetics. It is a great book as well. This book however, is correct in the thesis it sets out to trace. Steiner locates the demise of the concept of beauty in Kantian aesthetics, specifically the "Critique of Judgment". I especially appreciate the way she makes Kant's arguments come alive by comparing them to Shelley's Frankenstein. In the end Kant trades places with Frankenstein...the doctor and the monster. Steiner works out her feminism by removing the locus of intellectual value from Kant, and placing it with Mary Shelley. That's good feminism, subtle and unmistakeable. Some people may not like Steiner because her feminism is not of the usual kind. I mean, she is not a "beauty myth" kind of feminist. Don't think she's not a feminist though, her message is loud and clear. I recommend this book strongly.

Rejection of Beauty in Twentieth-Century Art!
This latest installment of Steiner's (The Scandal of Pleasure, 1995) distinguished work in aesthetics considers 20th-century art in light of its peculiar hostility to beauty. "Beauty," for our purposes, refers to that intersection of pleasure, empathy, and revelation that Western art since the Renaissance has embodied in the female nude. Steiner argues that the formalist aesthetics of modernism and the anti-aesthetic politics of modern feminism have both been intensely hostile to this principle, and that both reactions were fueled by the avant-garde's contempt for bourgeois domesticity. Beginning with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Steiner examines key works of art and literature to discern the outlines of the modernist tradition-in which femininity, ornament, passivity, intimacy, and communication are suppressed in favor of misogyny, formal purity, exploitation, impersonality, and obscurity. In the modernist imagination, beauty-as-woman must be sacrificed (rather than celebrated) in the name of a formal purity that insulates both art and artist from their audience. Feminism has demanded the same sacrifice, in the name of ideological purity. Later movements that attempt to retrieve lost notions of ornament and community (such as postmodernism) have fallen prey to the what the author calls the "cycle of the avant-garde," whereby an audience eventually expects and even demands art that is hostile, alien, and unsympathetic. Now, however, with the dawn of a new century, beauty's restoration is at last under way. In the final chapters, Steiner considers some recent works (many but not all by women) in which aesthetic delight is a source of community and nourishment, instead of transcendent isolation. Abstract expressionism, with Pollock as its poster-child, is indisputably the apotheosis of the modernist anti-beauty; at the opposite pole, she places Mark Morris, whose humane and humorous revision of classical ballet she finds the sturdiest vessel of Venus's return. Like most cultural critics, Steiner writes more persuasively and authoritatively about texts than about images, but the sensibility of her study is rich enough to move beyond literary concerns, its prose at once lucid and provocative, sophisticated and sincere. Striking, fresh, and convincing: Anyone who thinks hard about art and gender should read this.

The Sublime Gone Wrong
Steiner recasts the thread of 20th century art as the search for the sublime gone wrong. The Kantian definition of the sublime as that which inspires awe and disinterested interest has lead to a dehumanization of art. According to her,this has come about because in the search for the eternal values that are associated with the sublime, the merely lovely has come to be associated with transience. Beauty has also been implicated, certainly as it applies to female subjects in art, since human beauty fades and turns to its opposite, it cannot be a fit subject for the search for the sublime. The process has led to a sterility driven by the replacement of life perpetuating emotions with formal issues. The course of art in the past century has thus followed a path through ever greater alienation. Artists have felt compelled to tackle ever more emotion laden and controversial subjects, confronting and challenging the public to see beyond the shock value to the formal issues that the artist purports to be elevating to the level of sublime.

As an artist who has been wrestling with these issues for over a quarter century, I really enjoyed Steiner's lucid exposition of the Zeitgeist which forms the backdrop for most thinking artist's work. Artist and public both, I believe dance rather unconsciously around the issues she is writing about. We know on an instinctual level what is going on, but it is really enlightening to read someone's thoughtful analysis. I found her writing enjoyable to read and quite accessible.

Her focus is primarily on the depiction of women in art as subjects for the contemplation of beauty. She shows how the images of women in the last 100 years or so have reflected the rejection of life perpetuating human emotions as unfit for high art. She sees signs of change. We are no longer requiring a sacrifice of what makes us human in the name of art. She sees a time "when beauty, pleasure, and freedom again become the domain of aesthetic experience and art offers a worthy ideal for life."

I highly recommend this book to artist and art appreciator alike, anyone who has wondered why avant garde art always seems so ugly.

The Good, the Bad, and the Whiner
In a sense, Wendy Steiner finds little to distinguish appearance from reality. In Venus in Exile, The rejection of Beauty in 20th-Century Art, for example, Steiner equates the 'beauty' of a woman as person with the 'beauty' of that woman's depiction. Ironically, Steiner borrows this universalizing view from the same philosopher that she identifies as anathema to beauty. Following Kant, Steiner links natural to artistic beauty, and, hence, holds an aesthetic view that overrides ontological categories. Thus, in the world according to Stiener Beauty equals Woman equals Art. The snake in the garden, however, is Kant's idea of the sublime. The sublime appeals, she claims, to the self-erasing thrill of a brush with death. In contrast, the allure of beauty promotes interest in life. In fact, Steiner recommends that viewers and artwork interact after the model of Cupid and Psyche. (Imagine, for example, a chummy interaction of diner and bed with Notre Dame or a piano concerto.) Moreover, the desire to experience the thrill of the sublime explains the denial of Beauty/Woman that characterizes the art of the 20th century. In addition to the distortions (i.e. pornographic imagery) or avoidance (i.e. non-representational shapes) of female figuration, 20t-century art also excludes or diminishes domestic subjects. Together the exclusions of beauty and woman and the 'good' or the non-aesthetic value of domesticity show, Steiner argues, the misogyny of the artists and, thereby, their hatred of life, love, and so on.

Given Steiner's credentials, the intellectual sloppiness that informs Venus in Exile is disappointing. In addition to her uncritical acceptance of art defined as aesthetic effect, her opinions betray Freud -images in art as in dream point to external causes-as the father of her psycho - utopian love child called Venus in Exile. Moreover, why the sudden, slap dash treatment of modern dance and the tiresome swipe at ballet in the last three pages of the book? That addition did little more than demean the art forms. Art forms, moreover, dominated by women. Finally, the hyperbole that demonized Kant and reduced the artwork of an entire century to the status of thrill distracted from rather than expanded on the topics of art, aesthetics, and woman as subject. ... Read more

Book Description

These highly polemical discourses document the critical ideas and strategies that characterize the culture of the 1980s and record the dialectical means through which these ideas and strategies were formulated.

Engaging more than 80 artists, theorists, and critics from a variety of fields, the conversations touch on numerous topics of current contention: the relationship between theory and artistic production, the role of art in the community, the meaning of postmodernism, the effects of representation on racial and sexual stereotypes, the relationship between high art and popular culture, and the responsibilities of art institutions.

Among the discussants are Michel Foucault, Fredric Jameson, Edward Said, Tim Rollins, Greil Marcus, Ethyl Eichelberger, Douglas Crimp, Roland Barthes, Julia Kristeva, Gayatri Spivak and Laurie Anderson.

This is the third volume in the New Museum of Contemporary Art series Documentary Sources in Contemporary Art which includes Art After Modernism: Rethinking Representation and Blasted Allegories: An Anthology of Writings by Contemporary Artists. Other publications by The New Museum include Haws Haacke: Unfinished Business, and Impresario: Malcolm McLaren and the British New Wave.

Discourses is copublished with The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, and distributed by The MIT Press.

(Previously announced as Discourses: Conversations about Postmodern Culture, edited by Brian Wallis.) ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A trip down memory lane
When I first looked at this book, it was like going back to my childhood, well, sort of, it was so neat to see posters of some of my favorite films from back then and a lot from movies that I never knew they made. The artwork on those posters is most certainly something to see and admire!!! If you love art and or movies this is THE book to get you won't be disappointed!

Jaws, Star Wars, Grease, Taxi Driver do I even need to go on
Like the other decade books in this series Film Posters of the 70's is a sensational buy.You could either keep it intact as a collection of posters in a book to show and discuss with friends, or cut the book up and actually have a vast number of posters up on your wall.This book is about a third the size of your standard film poster and most movies are full page colour.Any of them would look great up on the wall.

The 70's gave the world Star Wars, Grease, The Godfather, Mad Max, Alien, Taxi Driver, Texas Chainsaw Massacure, Halloween, Rocky and a very blood thirsty shark who changed human perception of sharks for decades to come named Jaws.These films along with other greats fill this book.Roger Moore also took over from Connery as James Bond and Clint Eastwood made a heap of Westerns. Find them here as well.

5 stars all the way!
Excellent... add it to your book collection!If you are a Star Wars fan check this out!

a must
back in the day this was the best visual present.if the poster was cool then the movie would get Love.a picture can tell a thousand words.and the 70's had the coolest posters and arguable the best films in MovieHistory.before video tape you walk to the movie house and see the posterand the reaction you felt led you or back the other way.a solid must havebook. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Fantastic overview of serious, contemporary art
This is a excellent guide to what is often NOT written about in east coast periodicals. Filled with beautiful reproductions of current work. The writing is a bit uneven, but is generally very readable and not filled with art jargon. A very good overview for anyone who goes to galleries and/or is interested in any form of contemporary art. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (30)

A word is worth a thousand pictures...
Stephen Powers, aka ESPO, gives to the world of publishing, The Art of Getting Over. No, it is not a self-help book, but a journal documenting the escapades and works of Graf kings past and present. Bound in black ( thus resembling a graf head's "peice book" ) it contains hundreds of full-colour and black white pictures, showing the different styles and forms of graffiti and the evolution thereof. Also, within the pages contains excerpts of the lives of the various artists, from the interesting ( The REVS ) to the near tragic ( GKAE from L.A. in particular ). Though at times one could get lost from the numerous crew & name dropping, it is noteworthy enough to warrant a place in Hip-Hop history. The highlight of this book is, of course, the amazing art displayed, featuring Mr. Powers' impressions of the various faces of graf: wether it be block letters, wild styles, throw-ups, to the basic tag. It would have been of particular interest to have put in words the aesthetics of graf in greater detail by someone who is active in the art ( especially to the laymen ), but we only have tidbits here and there scattered through out that leaves the reader wanting some more. An excellent addition to any Hip-Hop library, it might just make a graf head out of you.

finally a graffiti book by someone from the inside.
I for one would just like to say that I am thrilled to see Steve's book doing as well as it has. I grew up in New York, writing graffiti and I am happy to see the story of contemorary graff told from the inside by someone who knows. "The Art od Getting Over" is the best graff book of the last decade, if you don't know, now you know, buy it. Oh, and if you live in New York and want to see the billboard for the book, look above the Whitney Museum billboard on Layffayte and Great Jones. That's what I'm talkin about.

Three Words
RAZZ, KADISM and SUROC! You can read about New York writers in any book. Reading about these Philadelphia standouts is worth the price alone.

Gorgeous book - great pictures
This book is brilliant, pure genius. As soon as I saw that it's printed on a regular graf book, I fell in love with it. It has a brief historical account, but it's from the perspective of someone who actually lived the culture. This book has GREAT pictures and amazing designs that would rival Salvador Dali's genius. I love the murals, love the little tags and how Powers explains the different styles. Just a great book, one of the greatest books on graf I've ever seen.

Good lookin
This is a good book to own, particularly as is documents the work of BLADE, SUROC and SMITH/SANE. Get it for the pics. ... Read more

Book Description

Trash proudly assembles more than 150 masterpieces of twisted brilliance: lowbrow graphic poster art from the sickest, sleaziest, sexiest, and weirdest ½lms from the 1950s through the 1980s. A feast for the eyes and other visceral zones, Trash rolls in the mud with graphic art of such questionable aesthetic quality and social worth that it practically redefines the poster as advertising medium. Chapters each define a key Trash topic (Sex Trash, Action Trash, Sick Trash, Race Trash, Groovy Trash, Docu Trash), collecting the most zombified, oversexed, lethal pest-infested, and tasteless posters from each genre. With plagues of frogs, meteors headed straight for earth, sex-starved zombies, and explosion after glorious explosion, Trash gleefully crawls across the underbelly of both the cinematic and poster arts. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Not 'Trash'
I've thumbed through many a poster book at my local bookstores but this one I just had to own! Probably because 'exploitation' movies are my favorite guilty pleasure cinema. Assembled here is some great art, when movie posters actually leapt off of the paper they were drawn on--to get in your face. New movie poster artists should get this book as a reference for their ad campaigns (and you can tell some are starting to...) In an age of such: passiveness in film, where everything is rated PG-13, it's nice to reflect on this golden age of poster art for films, that mostly, delivered what they advertised. A worthy purchase for the film fan.

It is TRASH!
part of the appeal of trashy exploitation films are their "smear" campaigns, one-sheets full of bosomy women, firing guns, cars in collision and whatnot. On this level the book is very enjoyable -- HOWEVER, I find the grouping of the posters haphazard (what is CREATION OF THE HUMANOIDS doing in "Groovy Trash?"), many of the posters are in poor condition and the brief introductions to each chapter are highly irritating. The author trips all over himself trying to sound clever and fails dismally. Still ... where else are you going to see a four-color poster for SIX-PACK ANNIE?

Trash- Pick it Up
For those of us who have wished for a book that featured nothing but beautiful color reproductions or horror, sci fi and exploitation art this is our answer.

While I love books such as "Immoral Tales" and such, sometimes I just want to look at the art of these one sheets for refrence -design ideas, painting styles, etc... and many books will have only a dozen or so nice color plates while the rest of the book is filled with the authors interpretations of the films.

Trash's focus is on the art and aside from an introduction, (where the author does explain why they chose not to airbrush out the flaws and creases of the posters in the book) there is nothing but photos.

For those who want in depth movie reviews and director profiles, there are several books and web pages out there, but for those of us who also admire the long lost poster ART, this book has fabulous images.

My one complaint is that instead of changing genres each chapter (horror, exploitation, sci fi, etc..) this book should have been a series of books, each catagory being a seperate volume! I hope they print a volume 2.

If you liked this book, check out "Blood and Black Lace" (might be out of print) which has is the definitive book on Italian Giallos, and has many color reproductions of the rare onesheets.

Sloppy
Maybe it is just me, but if you are going to publish a book
about movie posters that maybe you could find posters in
better condition than the ones presented in this book. The posters presented have obvious fold marks and even some of the have black magic marker on them. I collect movie posters myself and have some of the same posters that are in the book. But mine are in mint condition. At least they could have airbrushed the posters. Their are better poster books available, like WHAT IT IS...WHAT IT WAS.

True trash.
An aptly titled book of 150 movie posters (in color) most of which are of such rock bottom awfulness that you might think, just for a moment, that they originally appeared in back issues of the National Lampoon. But these are the real thing, these are the poster styles that the Lampoon used for their inspired satires. When collected together in a book they take on a perverse fascination. I can only assume that the designers (they were designed?) knew what they were doing and the audience they were appealing to. Actually I think these three are quite good, The Howling, WUSA, Killer Force.

In six chapters, Sex, Action, Horror, Groovy, Race and Docu author and poster collector Jacques Boyreau writes a short introduction to each and his writing style is as trashy as the images. Many of the posters are full page, all the better to study their bizarre illustrations and sloppy typography, others are two to a page and here it would have been helpful to run a thin black line round the image to stop the light colours merging into the whiteness of the page.

Get the book if you are interested in this sub-genre of popular culture or if you work in the graphic design business this could be useful as a swipe file for what to avoid. ... Read more

Book Description

Here is the incomparable cast of the DC Comics universe: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman, the Green Lantern, and the rest of the Justice League as you’ve never seen them before. Mythology brings together the best-loved comic characters in the world, brought to life by one of the most astonishing young artists working in the medium today, Alex Ross. The award-winning designer/writer Chip Kidd and photographer Geoff Spear have teamed up to create a book like no other, with an introduction by M. Night Shyamalan, the acclaimed director of Signs and The Sixth Sense.

Ross has often been called “the Norman Rockwell of comics,” and this book reveals not only his lifelong love of these classic super heroes but also his vision: Mythology takes you into the studio for a behind-the-scenes look at his fascinating creative process. The combination of Ross’s dynamic art and Kidd’s kinetic design make images from his most memorable stories–including Kingdom Come, Superman: Peace on Earth, Batman: War on Crime, and Uncle Sam–soar off the more than 280 pages. There are also hundreds of never-before-seen sketches, limited edition prints, and prototype sculptures. Vintage DC comic panels are interspersed throughout, as reference points from which Ross launches his extraordinary interpretations.

And most exciting for Ross fans, inside is a DC Comics first: an exclusive, original Superman-Batman story, written by Kidd and painted by Ross. Also included is an all-new origin of Robin, written by Paul Dini. Mythology is a book in which every page explodes with the power of the icons it celebrates. ... Read more

Reviews (31)

Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross
I had forgotten I ordered this until it came in the mail today. It's a pretty amazing piece of work. If you are an artist (like me) it's almost a text book on how to do it correctly. I found the highlight to be the last few pages of the book where Mr. Ross explains exactly how he created the cover from initial concept sketches to photography through finished art. The book also contains several things I'd never seen before or had just seen poorly printed or web versions of. Just amazing. Well worth the asking price.

No real DC fan should go without
Here is what I wrote in my column on the website comicbookbin.com (11/22/03):

"I finally got my copy of Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross this week. If you are any kind of fan of the work Alex Ross has done for DC you need this book. A plus for me was the design contributions of Chip Kidd. For size, beauty, vividness, and sheer comprehension, this is it. If Ross put down his pencils and brush tomorrow and say he was moving on to other pursuits, I'd thank him for doing it all in superhero art. I would always encourage more, but he has said all he needs to on the amazing array of heroes and villains of the DC Universe. Alex Ross has always done his best work for DC, so I'm glad the folks at Pantheon Books were able to assemble this in time for the holidays."

Packs in color full-page shots of his dynamic art
The colorful DC comic art of Alex Ross is profiled by Chip Kidd and Geoff Spear in their striking Mythology, bringing together the best comics of the Justice League members represented by Alex Ross, one of the foremost DC comics illustrators of modern times. Ross has often been called the 'Norman Rockwell of comics' and Mythology packs in color full-page shots of his dynamic art, blending with Kidd's design talents to bring to life highlights from some of Ross' most memorable stories. Add an exclusive, original Batman-Superman story written by Kidd and painted by Ross and you have a keepsake not to be missed.

Art Appreciation
I have often thought that, as popular as comic books and superheroes are with some folks, the medium still gets a raw deal from the "establishment". In other words, for every fan that exists, there's still at least one person who says, "Oh, comic books are just for kids". Any time you see an adult comic book fan, portrayed in the movies or on television,more often than not, they come across as a "Nerd" "Geek", or as someone who has trouble getting a date. If only thse who keep those stereotypes alive would take a look at Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross, I think they would gain a new perspective

Mr Ross is real asset for the medium.His artwork is nothing short of stunning. The drawings featured in the 288 page coffee table book are so well crafted and detailed, that if I didn't know any better I would swear that they were three demensional. These aren't just your average line drawlings of folks in funny looking pajamas. The depth of expression is astounding Ross takes you back in time to another era, while maintaining a very modern flair I would call him a mdern day Picaso or Rembrandt in his field. Film director M. Night Shyamalan, who made the super hero film Unbrakeable, provides the book's introduction. Collaborating with Ross for the book, designer/writer Chip Kidd and photographer Geoff Spearto further expand on Ross's work. There's also a n exclusive Batman and Superman tale, written by Paul Dini in the book as well.

This is recommended for anyone who follows comics. I also hope that a few non-fans, will give it a chance, as well.

A must for any Alex Ross Fan
Mythology is a complete rundown of the works of Alex Ross. Even since he hit the seen with Marvels, I have been blown away with his incredible attention to detail. No one has brought the characters to life on the pages of a comic book like Alex Ross.

The book does more then reprint some of his best paintings. There is tons of detail on how the poses came about and what his inspirations were. His tributes to the golden age of comics can be found in alot of his work. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Based on the popular course Eisner taught for several years at New York's School of Visual Arts, this lovingly written book on visual storytelling contains an accumulation of his ideas, theories and advice on the practice of graphic story-telling and the uses to which the comic book art form can be applied. Whether you're a film student, literature student, artist or simply a fan of good storytelling, you'll love this book filled with Eisner's cartoons. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

INDESPENSIBLE EXAMINATION OF THE ART OF COMICS
INDISPENSIBLE HOW-TO BOOK THAT REALLY STUDIES THE MEDIUM Reviewer: Zorikh Lequidre from Brooklyn, NY Before this book came out, most "how to draw comics" books were mostly concentrated on big, muscular heroes and action poses. There was very little emphasis on comics as a storytelling medium. Will Eisner has been drawing comics since God invented dirt and has explored almost every way a story can be told. One of his biggest contributions is using every element of the medium to tell the story. This book expounds heavilly on this.

Written years before Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics," Eisner expounds upon how comics are a visual, reading experience using both words and pictures. He instructs the reader in how words and pictures can be used together to tell a story. The author must lead the reader with visual clues to each sequential immage. Mood, emotion, even time can be expressed visually in a comic. Camera angles, panel borders, typefaces, all play a part in the effectiveness of a story.

Eisner gives plenty of examples of his work to illustrate his ideas. Most significant are his "Hamlet," "Life on Another Planet," and several "Spirit" works. Looking at this really helps the reader see how creatively a story can be told.

Also included in this book are examinations of the various types of work a comic illustrator can do, including storyboards and instruction manuals.

This book, and its sequel "Graphic Storytelling," are must reading for anyone who wants to create comics, and good reading for anyone who wants to understand them better. Don't settle for mediocrity, read the best!

The basic to the advanced can learn from Mr. Eisner
This book is one of the finest productions when it comes to the production of the comic book medium. There are several other books available that can tell someone how to draw, but none do what this one does, it focuses on teaching the reader how to tell a story, a virtually lost art in the modern comics arena. It breaks down into simple, yet not trivial components, the way a comic book artist should tell his story, as well as providing examples form Mr. Eisner's portfolio to help the reader understand what is being said. After all what is a book about telling a story with pictures, going to do without using pictures to tell it's story. The book also contains the basics of the drawing medium and some helpful tips for the rendering of comic art, but this is probably one of the best you'll ever see when it comes to learning what it is to tell the story.

Professor Eisner explains comic books as sequential art
"Comics & Sequential Art" is based on a course Will Eisner taught at New York's School of Visual Art although originally this work was written as a series of essays that appeared randomly in "The Spirit" magazine. Eisner provides a guide book to the "principles & practice of the world's most popular art form, and while it is of interest to those of us who read comic books it is clearly intended to be of use to aspiring comic book artists (and writers, albeit to a lesser degree). One way of measuring the book's success is to note that I have the 24th printing of a work that was first published in 1985 (and expanded in 1990 to include print and computer), but then the fact that the book was written by Eisner and uses dozens of examples of his own art work to evidence his points, as well as drawings down specifically for the book, is enough to tell you this is something special.

There are eight lessons in Professor Eisner's syllabus: (1) Comics as a Form of Reading looks at the interplay of word and image in comic books that has created a cross-breeding of illustration and prose, including the idea of how text can be read as image, which shows the sense of detail Eisner brings to his subject. (2) Imagery begins with the idea of letters as images and develops a notion of how the "pictograph" functions in the modern comic strip as a calligraphic style variation. The key subject here is that of images without words. (3) "Timing" considers the phenomenon of duration and its experience as an integral dimension of sequential art, with Eisner drawing (literally) a distinction between "time" and "timing." This chapter looks at framing speech and framing time, with Eisner making his points in the textual part of the chapter and then providing a series of comic book pages evidencing different features he wants to emphasize. (4) The Frame is a major chapter that examines in detail the sequences segments called panels or frames, with Eisner emphasizing the idea that these frames do not correspond exactly to cinematic frames because they are part of the creative process and not the result of the technology. Eisner examines encapsulation, the panel as a medium of control, creating the panel, the panel as container, the "language" of the panel border, the frame as a narrative device, the frame as a structural support, the panel outline, the emotional function of the frame, the "splash" page, the page as a meta panel, the super-panel as a page, panel composition, the function of perspective, and realism and perspective. This chapter is not half the book, but it is close, and it basically tells you everything you ever wanted to know about a panel in a comic book. When you are taking into account the meaning of the border of the panel, then you know this is a comprehensive examination of the subject under discussion.

The rest of the book deals with what you put in those panels: (5) Expressive Anatomy provides a micro-Dictionary of Gestures before covering your options in drawing the body, the face, and the body and the face. As an extended example Eisner provides his complete "Hamlet on a Rooftop," which does the "To be, or not to be" soliloquy. (6) Writing & Sequential Art talks about the relationship between the writer and the artist (whether they are two separate people or not), and various story telling elements. There are several choice examples on the application of words and the various ways then can add meaning to a series of panels, and practical examples of how writers and artists work together to create comic book stories. (7) Application (The Use of Sequential Art) makes a distinction between the functions of sequential art as instruction and as entertainment. This leads to a discussion of not only the graphic novel and technical instruction comics, but story boarding for commercials and films as well. (8) Teaching/Learning, Sequential Art for Comics in the Print and Computer Era lays out the range of diverse disciplines involved in comic books, laid out in a structured typology (categorized under psychology, physics, mechanics, design language and draftsmanship). Eisner also briefly shows what adding a computer to the process means for creating comic books.

There is an inevitable comparison to be drawn between Eisner's "Comics & Sequential Art" and Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art," but I really see the two books as being complementary. Although you obviously can shift back and forth between perspectives, McCloud is looking at the medium from the reader's point of view and Eisner is more concerned with the creative process. Eisner has praised McCloud's book as "a landmark dissection and intellectual consideration of comics as a valid medium," which is a fundamental assumption of Eisner's work here. The primary value of "Comics & Sequential Art" is for professional and amateur artist, but students and teachers, and even mere comic book fans, can benefit from a serious and comprehensive examination of the art of funny books.

A Comics Pro Gives It A Thumbs UP!
As a veteran comic book illustrator (You can find my work here on Amazon.com; I am the CO-creator and artist of Transmetropolitan), I am often asked to recommend books to aspiring professionals in comic book illustration. In that case I always enthusiastically recommend any of Eisner's instructional books as essential reading for anyone serious about their craft and dreams of getting into the industry.

From the earliest work of his career, Will Eisner was an innovator in writing as well as illustration. Even in his twilight years the man is still a vigorous and creative artist producing work that pros as well as fans can't wait to get their hands on.

These books display his genius in an entertaining and easy to follow method, and if put to practice will inspire and reveal hidden keys to making your work truly professional grade. A great companion book to Eisner's "Graphic Storytelling".

- Darick Roberston

More for the professional than the lay person
This is something of Will Eisner's lifework, the non-fiction complement to his wonderful work from the 1950s onward with _The Spirit_ through _A Contract with God_. Herein, Eisner describes the means by which his stories work, what makes them flow and live. Before Scott McCloud's _Understanding Comics_, Eisner was the standard bearer for the explanation of how comics achieved their effect. But this book never got the acclaim that McCloud's did, for it is not necessarily directed at the public, but at the would-be comics professional. In fact, most of the book is a reworking of Eisner's lecture notes from his teaching time at New York's School of Visual Art. The general public can still glean some great information about the medium from this book, but McCloud has supplanted Eisner as the popular textbook for courses on comics. ... Read more

Book Description

Martha Sigall worked with all the classic cartoon characters---Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tom & Jerry, Droopy, Beany & Cecil, Tweety, Porky Pig, et al.---and the madcap artists who created them, Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Frank Tashlin, Friz Freleng, William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, Bill Melendez, and Ben (Bugs) Hardaway.

As a teenager Sigall became an apprentice painter working in the golden age of Hollywood at the Leon Schlesinger studio, making $12.75 per week coloring animation cels that would introduce Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd to the world. She recounts her wild and wonderful experiences with the Warner Bros. cartoon crew, working and laughing all day with the animators, partying all night with the Looney Tunes gang on the bowling and baseball teams, and participating in weekend scavenger hunts. She was made president of the in-house "Looney Tunes Club," co-wrote the company gossip column, and performed in the company's theatrical troupe.

After World War II, Martha joined MGM Animation (Tom & Jerry, Tex Avery) in Culver City as an assistant in the camera room and later freelanced her ink and paint services, creating art for many classic features, shorts, commercials, and TV series---including Garfield, Peanuts, and The Pink Panther.

Written with warmth, humor, and a touch of nostalgia, this is a rarely told story, from one of the day-to-day workers, of what it was like to be a part of a team of artists who were creating masterpieces of animation. Martha recalls her lifelong personal relationships with writer Michael Maltese, animators Ben Washam, Ken Harris, Herman Cohen, Paul Smith, Bob Matz, and many others. She writes of her experiences of being a woman in a male-dominated industry, particularly during the war years when she was one of the first women camera operators in the industry. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Delightful History
I love reading stories from animations golden age and this book is especially charming.
Most people don't know it, but the ink and paint departments in all the major and minor studios were the real unsung heroes of the cartoon business-many ladies being accomplished artists in their own right and having the ability to take well drawn line drawings and just adding the right touch to each cel that the scenes would really shine. Water effects being one of the areas of animation that without great inkers and painters could tend to look "hokey".
I give this book 5 stars, but I wish it had more pictures!!

Want to know the way it really was?It's right here.
Martha Sigall was there when Bugs Bunny was created.She was there when the reigning geniuses of Looney Tunes Cartoons -- Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Frank Tashlin and Bob Clampett -- and such legendary artists and story men as Bob McKimson, Virgil Ross, Michael Maltese and Ben Haradway, were redefining the seven minute cartoon.And that's only the beginning of her story."Living Life Inside the Lines" is an absolute must for anyone interested in the animated cartoon, from fan to student to historian. Martha Sigall's book is perhaps the ultimate source for what the Golden Age of Cartoons was really like, and is a mandatory read for anyone interested in animation.

An inside look at the animation business from 1936-1989
I am the author's son and encouraged her to write this book. Martha Sigall worked in the animation business from 1936 until 1989 and was there when Bugs Bunny, Tweety, Roadrunner, Daffy Duck, and many other characters were created.

When I visited, she always had great stories about these cartoon characters, the animators, and the practical jokes they played on each other. I, and many others, finally convinced her that the public would love to hear them.

"Living Life Inside the Lines" contains many fascinating stories such as:
- How Bugs Bunny got his name.
- How Tweety was originally flesh colored and censors made them "put feathers on him because he looked naked."
- How Mel Blanc was able to break into the business.

Many historians have written books on animation without ever having worked in the business.  Martha Sigall was there to witness first-hand the creation of cartoon characters such as Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Tweety, and many others. 

She was also there to witness the creative talents of Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Mike Maltese, Bill Melendez, Bill Hanna, Joe Barbara, and many others. Her book will interest anyone who grew up with these cartoons.

The title, "Living Life Inside the Lines," refers to the fact that animators draw the character's outline in black and the inkers and painters paint the colors inside. ... Read more

Book Description

This book tells of the nineteenth-century American painters who, along with photographers, archaeologists, writers, evangelists, and tourists, flocked to the biblical Holy Land, a world of striking landscape vistas that reflected, in their eyes, a powerful image of the United States. Here they saw a metaphor for their country: a New World promised land, a divinely favored Protestant nation created by and for a modern "chosen people." Taking these biblical associations as a starting point, John Davis examines the ways in which nineteenth-century Americans looked to the actual landscape of the Holy Land as an extension of their national identity. Through close readings of panoramas, photographs, and conventional easel paintings, he shows how this "sacred topography" became a place to work out competing ideological debates surrounding American exceptionalism, prophetic millennialism, anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish sentiment, and post-Darwinian science.

Drawing on sermons, diaries, travel volumes, and novels, Davis explores the growth of a specific cultural market for landscape imagery of Ottoman Palestine and the manner in which easel painters responded to the popular demand for vernacular representations. Treating little-known painters such as Edward Troy and James Fairman together with major figures including Frederic Church, this volume combines pioneering research and new interpretations. ... Read more