About A Book Wednesday

End of the World stories are one of my favorite genres, and this charmer is from 1956. Once again it’s edited by Donald Wollheim and this time it has the Philip K Dick short story, Imposter. I’m pretty sure you can track that down elsewhere, but its a memorable story.

Nice cover art, but no credit given in the book. My favorite part is actually on the back where the copy reads: ‘Robert A. Heinlein says the end can be predicted – and it may be soon!’

Here it is 2012, but I agree. It could be soon! It could be TOMORROW! It could be, in ONE BILLION years.

As long as it’s after a good dinner and before I pay the credit card bill for the month.

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A real Graphic Novel – By Gil Kane

About a Book Wednesday stops in the groovy 1970′s this week. Another bit of ephemera from my dad’s studio. This is a graphic novel from 1971. And oddly enough, it’s in traditional paperback size. It’s by Gil Kane, who has quite a history in comics.

Blackmark is a great example of 1970′s sci-fi, fantasy. How can it be anything else when the cover tells you, ” First in a series of daring adventures featuring Blackmark in the primitive world of the future.” And judging by the cover imagery they mean sometime in the 1980′s. That’s when swords were big. Anyway, I don’t believe there were any more published in this format. And it’s easy to see why.

The artwork is vital and competent, but the book is sunk because of the typesetting and design. As you can see from the spread below, the drawings are not so elegantly placed in-between large blocks of truly ugly typesetting leaving unnerving white space throughout the narrative.

Typesetting in the 1970′s wasn’t the image wrapping fun of using InDesign in 2012. I’m not 100% sure if this was issued first in a magazine format from Marvel or not, but some of the images are split so oddly by the spine that I can’t believe they are actually planned double page spreads. I’m sure there is a comic book expert that knows more about this book. But it’s definitely another step in the world of ‘graphic novels’. On the title page they refer to it as “A new fusion of images and words in an action book – the next step forward in pictorial fiction.”

In my experience, at least in the U.S., Will Eisner is often credited with being the artist/writer who created or at least popularized the term ‘graphic novel’. His A Contract with God came out in 1978. And Eisner himself credits Lynd Ward for inspiration. I’ve discussed on this blog before a wonderful original printing of Lynd Ward’s Vertigo that I have.

But in paperback format this particular combination of words and pictures leaves a lot to be desired. It neither celebrates the excellent artwork or makes the story easy to digest. Reading it feels a bit too much like homework. And this posting is feeling too much like a research paper, so I’m out of here!

You can pick yourself up a copy for yourself on ebay if you wish.

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Pocket Book of Science-Fiction

My dad is cleaning out his studio bookshelves and I’m receiving boxes of books. I found this one in the last shipment. It’s from 1943, edited by Donald Wollheim, one of the founders of modern American sci-fi as a writer, editor and fan.

The cover still looks great and has flying cars. Flying cars are always off in the future aren’t they?

The book has a few stories I hadn’t come across before (see below).

Sadly the book is in its last stages. It can still be used, but it’s close to its last read. There is no price on it, though on the back it says “Ship this book to a boy in the armed forces anywhere for-only 3¢”

It’s a Pocket Book Inc. release and doing a bit of research it turns out that Pocket Books produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America. Starting in 1939. Its now a division of Simon and Schuster. I have 25 or 30 old paperbacks I am making my way through. They are next to worthless I suppose but I enjoy them for a lot of reasons. The old paperback smell reminds me of the libraries and of my dad’s studio too. Also the excitement of seeing what was at the time a brand new Big Idea. Paperbacks. Cheap books to bring great literature (or not so great) to everyone. They have a unique energy and display some odd design choices because it was all so new. And science fiction was slowly making its way into the minds of millions of readers. I troll these books looking for early stories by Philip K. Dick and other sci-fi writers that enamored me when I was young.

And how can you beat ‘Fantastic Tales of Super-Science’ across the top.

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About a Book Wednesday – Neal Layton

This week a favorite from the shelf. It’s never far from where I am working.

The Story of Everything, by Neal Layton. It’s a pop-up book that starts with the Big Bang. Really!

To me it represents the very best of picture books. It’s crazy-funny and the energy in the book is infectious. But infectious in a good way. Neal has drawn a lot of books. Of course Mammoth Academy is next on my Must Buy list. (You know Mammoths are my favorites critters)

Visit Neal Layton’s website.

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About a Book Wednesday

Another one of my favorite illustrators is Michael Paraskevas. You might be familiar with his Ferocious Beast books written by Betty Paraskevas. They were also turned into an animated show.

Another one of my favorite books he illustrated was The Kids From Room 402. I saw some of the original art from this book at a gallery in Los Angeles years ago. It really inspired me. The book is beautifully painted and a funny read, but it’s not so easy to find a copy. If you see one, grab it.

He has illustrated a new book written by Sarah Maizes. It’s due out in May. It’s called On My Way to the Bath. Looks like plenty of silly bath-time fun.

Sarah’s Maizes website.

And check out the The web home of Mr. Parasekevas. Comics, paintings, illustrations, sculpture, green monkeys and more!

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About a Book Wednesday.

Last week I introduced Book Review Wednesday. But I realized after posting it, I don’t want to do book reviews. There are already a billion people doing book reviews from every conceivable point of view. What I want to do is share some books that I find intriguing for various reasons. But I will not give ‘thumbs-up’ or assign stars or grade them. Sometimes they will be picture books, sometimes not. So I renamed it, About a Book Wednesday.

This weeks book is a favorite of mine, but my daughter has shown little interest in it. Up and Down is by Oliver Jeffers. Personally one of my favorite writer/illustrators. I usually buy his books as soon as they are released, but they have not been successful bedtime books with my daughter.

I think she may be a bit too young for them. She is distracted by how they look and the rather unique way that his plots are constructed. As I mentioned last week, if the book requires too many questions, she loses interest in it. I remember as a kid I was usually attracted to the more ‘readable’ illustrations myself. My daughter spent a entire evening asking why the noses were the way they were. I tried to explain that it’s just ‘how he draws noses’. But that didn’t seem to help.

I keep trying to sneak one in at bedtime, so at some point I hope she enjoys them as much as I do. But for right now, these are pictures books for daddy.

Oliver Jeffers Website

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