5 comments about Tintin: The Complete Companion.

1. I read some orginal Tintin books when I was a child, but they were in French, which I could not understand. Nevertheless, we "read" them until the bindings came apart.
   
   This "companion" has some excellent history on Herge and Tintin and the roots of the series, and it unabashedly addresses some of the controversies, including right-wing ideology and racism, as evident in the first two books, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, and Tintin in the Congo.
   
   What is fascinating is that Herge himeself "censored" the stories from the time they were first printed in Black and White in the Belgian Catholic (right-wing) newspaper and when they appeared as color books on their own. He even later tweaked the color books further, when they appeared even too much for the political sensiblites of the 1950's.
   
   The author documents all of these changes on a frame-by-frame basis, and also shows the source photos Herge used for many of his backgrounds and items (cars, ships, buildings, etc.). Perhaps one reason these "comics" were so compelling was that Herge took these details seriously, and knew that even young readers would recognize fanciful details as made-up and thus detracting from the "realism" of the story.
   
   The book also documents and makes a good case for the Tintin books being the precurser of today's "Graphic Novels" (of which I have no personal interst in).
   
   The only major fault I can find in this book is that the author perhaps is too much of an unnecessary apolgist for Herge, particularly with regard to "Land of the Soviets". Today we know that Herge was basically right about the Soviet Union at the time. Commmunism was a fraud, and Stalin killed millions of his own people. Herge has nothing to apologize for with regard to "Land of the Soviets."
   
   If you plan on revisting the Tintin series, this book can be a good place to start. It is a bit too much of a read, as each chapter summarizes the plotline of a different book ad nauseum. But the photos and commentary on the details of the making of each book make it worthwhile.



2. To be precise, this is a perfectly fascinating book. I've been a Tintin affionado for decades, along with my children and now my grandchildren, and had no real understanding of how Herge's work intersected with 20th century history. Learning this in detail, and getting a notion of how the stories and their portrayal evolved, have greatly increased my already great appreciation for Herge's genius.



3. If you are a Tin Tin fan then you will love this book. I have to confess that I have not read the whole thing but what I have read is insightful and interesting. It gives excellent information about each Tin Tin story as well as a unique insight into Hergés life. I high recommend this book for any serious Tin Tin devote.



4. A strange book! The information and illustrations in it is great, but there are curious qualities to it. The writer is a native speaker of English, but from errors in sentence structure and some obvious mistakes in word usage, this publication was translated from French. There are curious recurring preoccupations and repetitions, almost suggesting that each chapter appeared separately, possibly in a magazine. For example, the comparison of Herge's work and that of his studio with that of Raphael and his assistant Giulio Romano occurs at least three times! The reproduction of pictorial archival material from Herge's collections and elsewhere alongside panels from the books is fascinating. But Farr often dedicates a lot of space to discussion of the source of a particular image or set of images -- and then there's no illustration. At other times there are illustrations that are scarcely mentioned in the text.
   
   Still, we have to be grateful for all the data given here. I remember an old Tibetan lama looking at "Tintin in Tibet" with my children, and pointing out corners he knew in the panoramic picture of Katmandu, being puzzled by the Abominable Snowman, and laughing at the pictures showing levitation. In the '60's I camped all through through Yugoslavia; my young kids were reading "King Ottakar's Scepter" and constantly pointed out details in the landscape that matched the book. Herge did his homework, and it's great to have the sources laid out.
   
   Despite its flaws, this book is a keeper.



5. This book has used the extensive archive of Herge, to which the author was granted unlimited access. The book is certainly enlightening and offers great insight into Herge's mind. The author rightly presents each Tintin adventure in its proper historical context, and exposes fascinating parallels of the adventures with Herge's own life. Most of the illustrations are juxtapositions of Tintin frames and concepts against the source material from Herge's archive of newspaper clips and books. Some comparisons are very convincing. Some comparisons are stretched, for example, the alleged inspiration for the carnival costumes of Les Joyeux Turlurons in Tintin and the Picaros. Groucho Marx amongst the crowd ogling at a blonde? I don't know about that... Please note that some of these comparisons are extracted by the author, who tried to read into Herge's mind. We will never know for sure what inspired Herge.
   
   The criticism of the stories occasionally is uneven. The author knocks Flight 714 for stretching reality with its extraterrestrials and flying saucers. How about the Shooting Star, where a meteorite the size of an island drops out of the sky? Giant popping mushrooms and mutant arthropods, I don't know about that...
   
   The text sometimes is dry, and sometimes too esoteric and only relevant to readers of the English editions of Tintin. I have read all Tintin books in French, so I could not care less about the subtleties of the English translations of French names. For other readers, this trivia may be interesting. Finally, the book ends abruptly, without as much as one paragraph of an epilogue, a reflection on the total Herge oeuvre.
   
   Why the small print? The print is so tiny you almost need a magnifying glass. This is not a physics paper, it is a book about comics, and in comics readability is paramount.
   
   Overall, this book undoubtedly was well researched. It definitely was worth the money. I came out with a renewed appreciation of Tintin and Herge. I wish the author was a more compelling writer.

5 comments about Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt.

1. Interesting and inspiring! I loved the stories of the quilters - real people who were extraordinary and humble.



2. If you liked the Gee's Bend Quilt exhibit, then you have to have this book as well as the one before it The Quilts of Gee's Bend: Masterpieces from a Lost Place and the one after it, Mary Lee Bendolph, Gee's Bend Quilts, and Beyond, which focuses upon the work of Mary Lee Bendolph, perhaps the greatest living Gee's Bend Quilter. There are others, too. These women are worth supporting in any way you can. They are truly great artists. Other gems to seek out are The Quilts Of Gee's Bend the video on them made by Vanessa Vadim and and Tim Arnett and the CD collection of Gee's Bend music made both in the 30s, when the FSA became aware of the artistry of Gee's Bend, and at the time of the recent exhibition of Gee's Bend's Quilts which is still touring the world.



3. The stories of the women of Gee's Bend, as told by themselves, touch ones heart and should remind us of a time when one used what you had and met the challenge of creating such things of beauty as their quilts. They definitely thought "outside the box" and broke all the rules of quilting to produce some splendid pieces of art. Primative? yes, but their artistic eye as shown in their work, places their work on a level with the great artists of the world. Great photos of the ladies and wonderful color pictures of the quilts. I would recommend the book for artists as well as quilters.



4. This book is great, and the pictures are wonderful. I'm studying for an upcoming exhibition and I am very satisfied.



5. I am really enjoying reading and looking at the pictures of the quilts in this book. I have met several of the ladies and decendants of the Gee' Bend Quilters and find their stories so interesting. The quilts definitely do define the quilters, their strengths and weaknesses, their ups and downs. I recomend this book to anyone who holds quilts near and dear to their hearts.

5 comments about The Book of Kells: An Illustrated Introduction to the Manuscript in Trinity College Dublin.

1. There is no lack of great vivid pictures to enjoy and the book is of high quality paper. The text is brief and has a nice flow. There really isn't much more I can say that other reviewers haven't already stated other than this is one of my favorite picture books :p
   
   If you enjoy celtic art or illuminated manuscripts this makes a fun addition to your library!



2. The Book of Kells is one of the most beautiful manuscripts in existence. This booklet enables those of us who are unlikely to ever see the real manuscript to feast our eyes on many of the illustrations as well as to learn a little of its history and preparation. Most of the illustrations are in colour and their vibrancy is still apparent across 12 centuries.
   
   I consider that this booklet is worth acquiring for the illustrations alone. It also contains a lot of useful information for those interested in the physical preparation of such manuscripts as well as the underlying historical significance of this particular manuscript.
   
   Highly recommended.
   
   Jennifer Cameron-Smith



3. The book was just what I was expecting. Shipping was quick.



4. I was glad I had this book along with me when I went to see the real Book of Kells at the Trinity College Library in Dublin. The lines of tourists waiting to view this famous eighth century manuscript were about a quarter of a mile long, and the museum proctors were really hustling us through the area where a small sampling of pages were actually on view.
   
   (If you take the tour, be sure to check out the main chamber of the Old Library with its first editions of Newton and Darwin, plus the harp that is (alas, falsely) attributed to Brian Boru, high king of Ireland).
   
   The first facsimile of the Book of Kells was published in 1974, and although this book only advertises itself as 'an illustrated introduction to the manuscript...' it contains good color plates of many of the most famous pages, e.g. the symbols of the four evangelists and the beginning of the 'Breves causae' of Matthew, among others.
   
   Author, Bernard Meehan, the current Keeper of Manuscripts at Trinity College states that "the sacred text itself was copied in the Book of Kells with a remarkable degree of inaccuracy." It consists of the Latin text of the Gospels, illuminated in the very ornate Hiberno-Saxon style ('Hiberno' refers to the Irish, or Hibernians).
   
   Legend has it that the Book of Kells was produced by St. Colum Cille on the island of Iona off western Scotland. Although it was probably begun in the Irish monastery on Iona, it was taken to the monastery of Kells in County Meath, after a series of Viking raids. The monastery on Iona was pillaged in 795, and again in 802. According to the author, "In 806, sixty-eight of the community were killed in another raid. The following year, the survivors migrated to Ireland and began to erect conventual buildings at Kells..." where the illumination of the manuscript was probably completed.
   
   If you are interested in the historical background of the Book of Kells, the author devotes a whole Appendix to it.
   
   Alas, according to this book's second Appendix, "Losses, Additions and Marginalia," the Book of Kells has not remained intact down through the centuries. "At present there are 340 folios, but around thirty folios, including some major decorated pages have been lost." The monks also used blank spaces in the manuscript to record details of property transactions in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries.
   
   Meehan's book is definitely worth viewing and reading. It also contains a wealth of the smaller decorative illustrations that do not always relate to the sacred text, e.g. hares, dogs, horses, and at least one moth. The color and minute details of these decorations are a source of endless fascination, and the scholarly text, although a trifle dry, is also very interesting.



5. I like how the author gives various images of the book of kells, but gets really confusing and goes all over the place while writing about it. I think a lot could be learned from this book, but the author crams so many examples into the work that it starts to get annoying. Ever line seems to have parenthesis around something and folio this or that. For that alone i give the book two stars, multiple examples are good, just not when you plague every line with one. It hardly gives the reader a chance to understand the first few.

5 comments about Wall and Piece.

1. I have this book on my desk. Every loves it and I think its very creative and it approaches graffiti as an art rather and in a different point of view. Banksy must be a very smart or weird guy.



2. You have to check out this book if you can appreciate the art that is graffiti. Banksy also inspires you with his political satire.



3. there isn't much to read. the art speaks for itself.
   6 sections to this book:
   monkeys, cops, rats, cows, art, and street furniture.
   there are a few pages that contain several paragraphs of writing. banksy provides captions for maybe.. approximately half or less than half of his art. towards the back there's one page with "advice on painting with stencils". if you were looking for graffiti instruction, look elsewhere... unless you really want to look at that one page haha. some of his famous quotes are in there.
   what a funny guy. funny book. it was worth the money :)



4. Couldn't put it down. Images are mezmerizing. Everyone I show it to wants to buy it to. No profanity or sexually oriented photos make it a hip gift choice for young people.



5. Banksy is a great artist. This book is 240 pages of both his graffiti and his "gallery" or more "Piece" art. I think he is an innovator and inspiration to all artists. We could all learn something from Banksy. If you like this book you might also like some Shepard Fairey work. Also check out Banksy's website at http://www.Banksy.co.uk its really great.

3 comments about Spectrum 4: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art.

1. I vividly remember the first time I saw this book at the local comic book store. Wow~ Just amazing, it blew my brains out. There is no other book like Spectrum series books. Book features full color drawing, paintings and sculptures by fantastic artist from all over the world. You will see so many styles and techniques that you never seen before. This is a must for Artist, Illustrators, and Art Directors.



2. Almost any one of the pieces in this collection is worth the price of the book. There are no monkey swathes of paint against white canvas here, my friends. No, here are works that will quicken your breath, accelerate your heartbeat, and ignite the synapses in your mind. And as my fellow reviewer commented, this book is a wellspring of inspiration. Just flip the pages and see for your self. Works like "Number 16" and "Prudence II" present this point more eloquently than I ever could. I have only one pique. There was no art from any of the Galerie Morpheus artists like Giger, Yerka, and De Es. Despite this, I urge all fans of SF and Fantasy art to buy this book. You won't be dissappointed.



3. Spectrum 4 is one of those books that artists turn to when ideas are at a premium. The artwork is so voluminous and diverse in character. Every possible stylization of fantasy art is represented. Some works are intense and mysterious, dark and brooding. While others follow a campy, comic book hero genre. My favorite works are more of an illustrative fairy tale approach. However, I find this book to be a wonderful resource for those times when the well is running dry.

5 comments about The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece (P.S.).

1. This is an interesting story about art theft, in general, and specifically the theft of Edvard Munch's The Scream. I found the interworkings of undercover police work fascinating. However, it is not as the story of the recovery is not as fascinating.



2. The subject was very interesting and it will probably be made into a good crime movie, but the writing was average and the plotline jumbled....



3. Starting out with a detailed recounting of the 1994 theft of Edvard Munch's iconic painting entitled "Scream," the book ends with its recovery. Sandwiched in the middle is a lumbering tale about Dolnick's hero, a Scotland Yard cop of American British lineage, who specializes in art recovery. Dolnick is a fine writer; his dialogue flows and his descriptions are colorful and paint a good scene. His research and grasp of the art theft world and its motley crew is complete. He enthuses so much over his hero that it weighs down the story to the point where the structure of the book compares to a canoe; sharp at the ends and bulging out in the middle.



4. The Rescue artist is a swift and exciting book that revolves around Charlie Hill, an unforgettable (and quite real) detective on the hunt for missing masterpieces, in this case Edvard Munch's classic "Scream" stolen from a museum in Oslo, Norway. Dolnick writes crisp, well-turned sentences that pull the reader along. I felt like I was reading a good, long magazine article, like in the New Yorker. At times the story jumps and shifts around too much, and I had to backtrack a couple times to pick up what was going on, but this is really good stuff, entertaining as can be. Highly recommend.



5. If the reader is interested in a fast pace and action, then this book will not satisfy. The basic story is not a lengthy one. The digressions into background matters provide useful peeks into assorted issues, such as thievery, forgery and the art world, but go on for too long and should have been condensed. I found myself impatient for the story to move forward. The sheer number of delays and digressions bordered on comical.

1 comments about Louise Bourgeois.

1. this is the best work on this artist that I have found. great photos great text. organized in an encyclopedic type way. great buy.

5 comments about Dead Children Playing: A Picture Book (Radiohead).

1. If you are into Radiohead, this book is a must have in your collection.
   
   You will find in the text an insight into the inspiration sources and creative methods of Stanley Donwood and Dr. Tchock. The quality of the print is good, and the hard cover gives it a nice durable feel.



2. It's worth the comments alone from the less artistic guests that happen by. Nice little compilation of Radiohead inspired or inspired by art.



3. There really isn't a bad recipe in this book. I was a little turned off by some of the "progressive" stuff at first, but my wife insisted and I loved it. Really gives you some great new ideas about food.



4. This book is great, cheap, and you can go back and look at it again and again. Stanley Donwood is a genious. Buy it!



5. I don't imagine that you're looking at this book if you're not already a big Radiohead fan, so you're lucky that this book's target market is definitely you. There is a lot of good artwork, sketches, and lyric pages from Stanley Donwood and Dr. Tchock (Thom Yorke) from the OK Computer era through to the recent artwork for Yorke's The Eraser solo album. One of the things that I found most interesting was that the Hail to the Thief word collage/maps were identified as the cities on which they're based. Of course, NYC was easy, but you probably had to be a real geography whiz to know the rest.
   
   Anyhow, for this price, it's a good book to flip through, although your friends might give you some funny looks when they see the title.

1 comments about Catherine Opie: American Photographer.

1. The book is absolutely wonderful and I wish I could go to NY to see the show. The book contains photos, however, that are not in the show and so that makes it special. Catherine Opie is a wonderful photographer with a unique eye. This thorough retrospective covers her career up to date, nearly. Within her ongoing themes, such as community, there is much diversity of subject matter, so the variety keeps the viewer intrigued. Essays by the curator and writer Dorothy Allison and Interviews are included. My favorites are those interviews by Russel Ferguson. He seems quite perceptive and knowledgeable, as well as a warm interviewer, thus eliciting a satisfying set of interviews. I also appreciate the bibliography.
   
   There was a problem with packaging the book for delivery, and it got bruised somewhat. The box was trashed. There was inadequate packing underneath the book (inflated plastic is also not environmentally friendly, either) and none above. The empty space of course got completely squashed. There was also only minimal tape used, definitely not according to the rules of the USPS! Of course, as anybody knows, boxes get stacked and thrown around and Amazon needs to prepare for that. I suggest stiff balled-up paper and/or excelsior, and the box filled with packing matls. This is not a cheap novel we are dealing with here, but something people will want to look nice for many years.

3 comments about Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury.

1. This book is beautiful, and would look great on any book shelf or coffee table. It really gives a good feel for the time. But it seems like all of the contributors have read the same sources, and have nothing to add of their own. This makes the reading (rather than the perusing of the great photos) tedious as the writing is very repetitive. A book about the modern movement in art, design, and culture should include more ideas and discussion.



2. A brave and fascinating attempt to pull together the various strands of, mostly, commercial creativity in southern California in the middle of the last century. Case Study Houses and other modern architecture, the output of Pacific Jazz and Contemporary records, abstract art by John McLaughlin, Frederick Hammersley, furniture design by Charles and Ray Eames are some of the exciting design ideas that blossomed during the affluent tailfin fifties in the sunshine of the Golden State.
   
   The book concentrates on architecture, abstract art, movies, furniture and graphic design. Missing (and I would have thought a good contributor to 'cool') is beat writing but as the book is a catalog to a visual exhibition it's hardly surprising that it only gets a passing mention. Of the nine essay contributors I though those by Elizabeth Smith and Thomas Hine the most interesting. Smith is the author of the most thorough book on Southern California architecture (Blueprints For Modern Living) and her essay `Domestic Cool' puts architecture exactly in context. Hine's contribution: Cold War Cool really belongs in the front of the book as a succinct overview of the subject.
   
   The visual importance of 'cool' in the book is revealed by a chapter that looks at the photographic work of William Claxton. He probably took a photo of every West Coast cool jazzman which were used extensively on the LP covers of Pacific Jazz and Contemporary Records, he designed many of them, too.
   
   As the book is a permanent reminder of the exhibition it covers I thought it was a pity that the editorial has several flaws. There is a thirty page chapter devoted to the year 1959. The editors considered this a pivotal time and wanted to put the book's essays in context. These pages just contain large news photos and related graphics and as such assume much more importance than they are worth. The idea is a good one but a spread devoted to a text timeline would have worked as well freeing up pages for more images in the rest of the book.
   
   The page design seems very arbitrary to me. Many pages have a deep eau de nil band running horizontally across the middle but on some spreads it is missing. The inclusion of this band seems pure designer whimsy and if it wasn't included readers would not be aware of something missing. They unfortunately would be aware of the many missing page numbers though. Frequently captions refer to images on a particular page by their number, also the forty-three pages of historical printed material have no numbers at all but items in this section are often referred to in the index. All of this is really inexcusable for a quality publication though I understand it is not untypical of exhibition catalogs.
   
   The book celebrates the up-market aspects of cool in a particular place and time. To read about down-market cool have a look at 'The Catalog of Cool' by Gene Sculatti. He surveys popular culture at the other extreme in mid-century California and America.
   
   ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.



3. This is a wonderful book, beautiful looking and a delight to read. The credits above omit several of the contributors who make it so good. These include Thomas Hine, Bruce Jenkins, and Elizabeth A.T. Smith, who wrote essays, and Lorraine Wild, who wrote an essay and was one of the book's designers.