THE BIGFOOT TRILOGY - Graham Roumieu

Graham Roumieu is a genius.  His artwork is hilarious, articulate and weirdly touching; sometimes disturbingly macabre.  With a slightly crude style that perfectly evokes how Bigfoot must see the world, Roumiue has created three books that literally have to be seen to be believed.

But what really makes this series so special is Roumieu's vision of the private life of everyone's favorite cryptozoological woods-dweller.  He envisions Bigfoot as a contemplative soul, desperate (as are we all) to get to the bottom of who he is and what his life really means.  And if he needs to decimate a few furry creatures along the way, get wasted, throw up and generally wreak havoc.....so be it.

Bigfoot's quest for personal knowledge begins with IN ME OWN WORDS: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BIGFOOT.  It's followed by ME WRITE BOOK: BIGFOOT MEMOIR

and ends with the hilariously titled BIGFOOT: I NOT DEAD.  Who knew that Bigfoot and Abe Vigoda had a common problem?

There aren't that many books that are so funny I actually laugh until I cry.  There are even fewer that get that result every time I read them.  And I've read these books a lot.

If you've ever watched In Search Of and wished Leonard Nimoy would pipe down and just get Bigfoot on tape and let him do his own talking, these are the books for you.  Read them over and over again, give them as gifts, and tell everyone you know about them.  You won't be sorry you did.

Here's a taste of some of the hilarity that awaits you:

SUFFERING THE IDEAL - F. Holland Day (James Crump ed.)

One of the most gorgeous, eerie and haunting pieces in my every-growing collection of photography books is Suffering The Ideal.  It's a collection of photographs from F. Holland Day, an artist who boldly experimented with subject matters over one hundred years ago that might still provoke controversy in certain circles today.

This book is oversized, printed on amazingly thick uncoated paper that adds to the dream-like haziness of the photos, and sports a cover image by Aubrey Beardsley, another fantastic artist and free-thinker of the time.  If ever there was a book that could never be appreciated in electronic format, this is it.

Here's the description of the book from the publisher, Twin Palms:
"The short-lived career of nineteenth-century photographer F. Holland Day is the basis for this important historical monograph. Though he is perhaps best known for his controversial "sacred subjects" in which he posed himself as Jesus Christ, Day quickly moved to the forefront of American photography with his portraiture and his later mythological series. Day was probably the first great photographer of the male nude. A friend of Oscar Wilde and an early proponent of gay rights, women's rights, and racial equality, scandal surrounded him and caused his marginalization."

F. Holland Day sounds like the kind of guy I would have wanted to know.  Sadly, that isn't in the cards.  But I do have this book.  And I suggest you consider getting it too.

Available at www.twinpalms.com and amazon

THE GOLDEN AGE OF ADVERTISING: THE 60s - Jim Heimann (editor)

So you like Mad Men, do you?  Then this book from Taschen needs little introduction.

If you're ready to look beyond Don Draper's glamorous nervous breakdown and Peggy's resolute chin and dubious haircuts, pour yourself a martini and drink both it and this book in.

Jim Heimann's collection of ads from the 1960's show readers what those Mad Men were really up to.  Some concepts were revolutionary and changed our vision of ourselves.  Others were merely goofy and outdated before the magazines they appeared in were used to line parakeet cages.  Whatever you think of the work churned out during this era, The Golden Age Of Advertising: The 60s will teach you a thing or two about what it took to catch the American eye during one of the most rapidly changing eras of our time.

Published by Taschen and available in local bookstores, Taschen bookstores and Amazon.

The Book of Genesis - Illustrated by R. Crumb

If you've recently experienced a nagging feeling that maybe you should brush up on your old testament, or simply need another dose of R. Crumb's fabulously outrageous and bodacious illustrations, this is the book for you.

Not satisfied to take on any old subject, Crumb has focused his energies on what some believe to be the most sacrosanct material of all time.  And how wonderful that Crumb, known for his big-bottomed, heavy legged and lusciously lewd ladies made The Book of Genesis his subject of choice.  His intricate and sometimes overtly sexual treatment of his topic perfectly brings to light just exactly how melodramatic and larger that life this part of the Bible really is.  Crumb's Genesis could make a believer out of the staunchest atheist.  Or, at the very least, a believer in the power of the graphic novel to bring an old story to life in a very new light.

Along with the artwork, part of what makes Crumb's Genesis so fantastic is the level of scholarship he brought to the project.  To quote from his commentary in the book:

"In setting out to illustrate the Book of Genesis, I quickly learned that I had to read the text very carefully and closely in order to render as accurately as possible the words that were actually written there.  In the process, I discovered many subtle and surprising things.  I also did a lot of background reading, and had for many years already been interested in the early cultures of Sumer-Akkad, Babylon, and Assyria.  There are a number of parallels between the stories in Genesis and the old myths of Mesopotamia.  Inscribed in cuneiform writing on clay tablets, some of the Sumerian myths date from as far back as 2000 B.C.E., some even centuries earlier."

However you slice it, this is an amazing amalgam of scholarship, artistry, and storytelling.  If you're a Crumb fan, a graphic novel fan, or are just getting into the genre, don't miss out on this winner in its original, ink on paper format.

Published by W.W. Norton in 2009 and available at local bookstores as well as Amazon

Death In The Garden - Elizabeth Ironside

As the last few posts have been for books that are most likely out of the average person's price range, here's one that everyone can enjoy.

But first, something about the publisher (Felony and Mayhem), which is what makes this book special.  Felony and Mayhem was started by the owners of Partners & Crime, an independent bookstore in New York’s Greenwich Village.  It came into being because so many great mystery books were out of print or hard to find.  So the intrepid owners of Partners & Crime did the obvious thing: they started their own publishing company to insure they could supply their customers with the best books possible.  A little tale that flies in the face of both mega-bookstore chains and rumors of the death of the small publisher.

Anyway, Death In The Garden is a terrific tale of poisoning, stiff cocktails and obsessive love affairs.  All set in 1925 on an English country estate.  If you like your mysteries cozy, filled with badly behaved aristocrats and murder most foul, this is definitely the book for you.

And why not read it on an e-reader?  It's Labor Day weekend!  There's no use fooling around with one of those contraptions when you're guaranteed to get sand and saltwater in it.  Be safe, go paperback.  And at the end of the weekend pass it on to your other mystery-loving friends.

Available at www.felonyandmayhem.com and at amazon

Visionaire #58 - Alexander McQueen (various artists)

The geniuses of book making and design at Visionaire have done it again.  Publishers Cecilia Dean and Stephen Gan dedicated Visioniaire Issue #58, on sale as of last month, to Alexander McQueen after his untimely death earlier this year.  They have created a tribute of unexpected beauty.

While the book is a triumph of art and design on its own (images contributed by Steven Meisel, Mario Testino, David Sims and others) and features a clamshell case clad in gold brocade from the Spring/Summer 2010 show, what makes this book special is the paper.  Yet again, something with which no e-book will ever be able to compete.

Each page of the book has nestled within it a scattering of wildflower seeds.  When planted, watered and exposed to the sun, these pages will spring to life as a memorial garden to McQueen and his work.

Totally inspired, and certainly soon to be copied.  

Find out more about the book and purchase it at www.visionaireworld.com

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland - Maggie Taylor/Lewis Carroll

With the release of Tim Burton's hallucinogenic take on Lewis Carroll's classic Alice in Wonderland, Alice is back in vogue. Thank heavens for that, as it just might inspire readers and art collectors to pick up a copy of Maggie Taylor's exquisite interpretation of Carroll's most famous work.

Ms. Taylor is a photographic artist who uses 19th century tin-types, photographs, and images to create her dreamy and sometimes unnerving images. She combines her vintage materials with other images that she has photographed, acquired, or scanned. These images are then composed, combined, and colorized using Adobe Photoshop. In a typical image composed by Taylor, there can be as many as 40-60+ layers. The result is a collection of vivid and psychotropic gothic images that bring the story of Alice to life in a way unmatched since John Tenniel's original vision.

The book is available in two versions:

Limited Edition: Dust-jacket, 11x11 inches, 192 pages, 44 four-color plates. A Limited Edition of 144 copies, signed and numbered, with a 6.5 x 6.5 inch prints. The book and matted photograph are placed in a matching clamshell box.

Regular/Trade Edition: Dust-jacket, 11x11 inches, 192 pages, 45 four-color plates. Edition of 5000 copies.

Published by MB Editions, an offshoot of Modernbook Gallery in San Francisco. Maggie Taylor's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is available for sale at http://modernbook.com/store/page5.html

More images are available for viewing on the site.

Dear Mr. Fantasy, The Lyrics of Jim Capaldi - Jim Capaldi

Another stunner from Genesis Publications, the UK publisher of outstanding limited edition books.  They cover several subjects but excel with their music related titles.  Always filled with reproductions of rare ephemera, wild stories and gorgeous photographs, Genesis knows how to bring the "book as object" concept to life.

Jim Capaldi was a founding member of Traffic and brilliant songwriter and drummer as well. Originally inspired by The Beatles, Jim would eventually write for The Eagles and come to play alongside George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix amongst many others.

A legendary book about a legendary guy, this is in fact more than a book.  It's a piece of history.  And that's the beauty of holding something like this in your hands.  These "book plus" projects catapult  you into a world you never knew, or if you did you desperately want to visit again.

Available at www.genesis-publications.com

The Dud Avocado - Elaine Dundy

The LA Times and every other book review section imaginable has raved about Elaine Dundy's 1958 novel chronicalling the trials and travails of expat Sally Jay Gorce, a single American girl making her way through France.  Sally is described as a vigorously shaken cocktail of Carrie Bradshaw and Holden Caulfield; to put it mildly, Sally would have eaten Carrie for breakfast and been too bored by Caulfield to sit through his incessant navel-gazing.  Sally is the embodiment of the grit, neuroses and wild recklessness that still defines the young American woman fifty-two years after the book's original publication.  It is, simply put, required reading for anyone intent on living her life to the fullest wherever it may take her.

Although not an illustrated book, The Dud Avocado makes it onto this blog for one reason only.  It must be read as it would have been by Sally and her compatriots back in '58.  Dog-eared, stained, and constantly present in whatever purse or tote bag the reader chooses to carry. A book rife with this much insanity and passion cannot be confined to the digital display of the e-reader of the moment.

Published by NYRB, available at local bookstores and amazon.com

Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts - Lynd Ward (Author, Illustrator), Art Spiegelman (Editor)

From The Library of America:


From the eve of the Great Depression to the start of World War II, Lynd Ward (1905–1985) observed the troubled American scene through the double lens of a politically committed storyteller and a visionary graphic artist. His medium—the wordless “novel in woodcuts”—was his alone, and he quickly brought it from bold iconographic infancy to subtle and still unrivalled mastery.....

...The images reproduced in this volume are taken from prints pulled from the original woodblocks or first-generation electrotypes. The Library of America is proud to bring Ward’s masterworks to a new generation of readers, together with nine illuminating essays about his craft, including those he wrote for the long out-of-print Storyteller Without Words, a 1974 retrospective. Art Spiegelman contributes an introductory essay, “Reading Pictures,” that defines Ward’s towering achievement in that most demanding of graphic-story forms, the wordless novel in woodcuts.

So if you're into graphic novels, the history of the United States between the wars, or simply a collector of exceptional books, this one's for you.  A two volume set at 1408 pages with a paper over board slipcover that's as gorgeous as what's lurking inside this behemoth of a project, don't miss out on buying it as quickly as possible on its release date: October 14, 2010.

Available at local bookstores and Amazon.com