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I've been on quite the reading kick the past few days so I thought I'd take a moment to quick-review the books I'd read.
Home Bodies, Drawn and Quartered, Es war Einmal..., Favourite Haunts, and Creature Comforts
All of these books are by Charles (Chas) Addams, cartoonist for the New Yorker, and creator of the Addams Family. They're fun gallows humour, however I learned an unfortunate lesson in purchasing these books. While there's not a great deal of difference in price between paper and hard covers in books from the sixties, sold on Amazon used books, there is a huge difference in printing. The hardcover books are 8.5x11" whereas the paperbacks are pocket fiction sized. Addams' work suffers from the smaller print but not too much. The first 3 books I listed were in the small format, and Es war Einmal is actually in german, but I was able to muddle through it with the pictures and a little help from google languages tools when I needed it. Of the five, I think Favourite Haunts is my favourite among them.
Amphigorey and Amphigorey Too
Collections of works by Edward Gorey. I'd only seen a few things from Gorey before though he's quite popular among my friends. I enjoyed both of these books quite a lot. Where Addams has sort of a robust gallows humour, Gorey is more quiet, wistful, thoughtful, and decidedly twisted. Also, his pen work is to die for. I'll be spending the next week cross-hatching everything just because it inspires me. Two things that struck me in his work that I hadn't noticed before. The first was that every drawing need not be perfect to look really good as a whole. I knew this, of course, but knowing it and seeing it are different things. The second observation, far less meaningful, is that I get the feeling that his artwork at least in part inspired Mobieus. Something about the space and the stroke seems to resonate between them.
Something At My Window Scratching
I like Roman Dirge quite a lot and this book was at the second-hand shop for only a couple of dollars, so I picked it up. Sadly, read so soon after Addams and Gorey, I can't give this book a fair review. It just doesn't measure up. Gorey and Addams both have great composition and to be fair, I don't think this was Dirge's best work. On the other hand, it was quite enjoyable to read it aloud with a friend, and the part with finding the piggies at the end did make the book more fun.
V for Vendetta (graphic novel)
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prickvixen kindly leant me this book from her library since I'd enjoyed the movie so much. The book was alright but I confess I did feel that parts of it probably felt rather dated before they were even printed in the early 1990s. It was definitely worth the read, but the art style wasn't so much to my tastes. The colour in particular tended to feel rather ad hoc. On the whole, I liked the film a lot better.
In the Shadow of No Towers
Art Speigelman, author of Maus writes about his experiences being at Ground Zero of the Sept 11th disaster. I had to think about what word to use there. 'Attack' is still true but wasn't completely appropriate, but disaster will do, even if it is a bit clumsy. A very timely read, given that it's Sept 10th, as I write this. I'd read this book before but wasn't able to afford it, so when I saw it in the second hand bookshop at a scarce fraction it's original price, I picked it up. It's still a good read.
And finally
Inside Out with Gadget
This is a terrible book. I only bought it because it was incredibly cheap and clicks to a certain mental mode with me. I only mention it for the sake of completeness. So what is it? It's a book full of stills of extremely detailed steam punk sets rendered as CGI. The lighting is good, the palettes tasteful, the machinery intricate. The human characters, stiff, unattractive, and sticking out rather badly. I got it mainly for drawing inspiration.
Home Bodies, Drawn and Quartered, Es war Einmal..., Favourite Haunts, and Creature Comforts
All of these books are by Charles (Chas) Addams, cartoonist for the New Yorker, and creator of the Addams Family. They're fun gallows humour, however I learned an unfortunate lesson in purchasing these books. While there's not a great deal of difference in price between paper and hard covers in books from the sixties, sold on Amazon used books, there is a huge difference in printing. The hardcover books are 8.5x11" whereas the paperbacks are pocket fiction sized. Addams' work suffers from the smaller print but not too much. The first 3 books I listed were in the small format, and Es war Einmal is actually in german, but I was able to muddle through it with the pictures and a little help from google languages tools when I needed it. Of the five, I think Favourite Haunts is my favourite among them.
Amphigorey and Amphigorey Too
Collections of works by Edward Gorey. I'd only seen a few things from Gorey before though he's quite popular among my friends. I enjoyed both of these books quite a lot. Where Addams has sort of a robust gallows humour, Gorey is more quiet, wistful, thoughtful, and decidedly twisted. Also, his pen work is to die for. I'll be spending the next week cross-hatching everything just because it inspires me. Two things that struck me in his work that I hadn't noticed before. The first was that every drawing need not be perfect to look really good as a whole. I knew this, of course, but knowing it and seeing it are different things. The second observation, far less meaningful, is that I get the feeling that his artwork at least in part inspired Mobieus. Something about the space and the stroke seems to resonate between them.
Something At My Window Scratching
I like Roman Dirge quite a lot and this book was at the second-hand shop for only a couple of dollars, so I picked it up. Sadly, read so soon after Addams and Gorey, I can't give this book a fair review. It just doesn't measure up. Gorey and Addams both have great composition and to be fair, I don't think this was Dirge's best work. On the other hand, it was quite enjoyable to read it aloud with a friend, and the part with finding the piggies at the end did make the book more fun.
V for Vendetta (graphic novel)
prickvixen kindly leant me this book from her library since I'd enjoyed the movie so much. The book was alright but I confess I did feel that parts of it probably felt rather dated before they were even printed in the early 1990s. It was definitely worth the read, but the art style wasn't so much to my tastes. The colour in particular tended to feel rather ad hoc. On the whole, I liked the film a lot better.In the Shadow of No Towers
Art Speigelman, author of Maus writes about his experiences being at Ground Zero of the Sept 11th disaster. I had to think about what word to use there. 'Attack' is still true but wasn't completely appropriate, but disaster will do, even if it is a bit clumsy. A very timely read, given that it's Sept 10th, as I write this. I'd read this book before but wasn't able to afford it, so when I saw it in the second hand bookshop at a scarce fraction it's original price, I picked it up. It's still a good read.
And finally
Inside Out with Gadget
This is a terrible book. I only bought it because it was incredibly cheap and clicks to a certain mental mode with me. I only mention it for the sake of completeness. So what is it? It's a book full of stills of extremely detailed steam punk sets rendered as CGI. The lighting is good, the palettes tasteful, the machinery intricate. The human characters, stiff, unattractive, and sticking out rather badly. I got it mainly for drawing inspiration.
