Hardcover. Taschen, reprint, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards, 396 pages. It was an age of mighty heroes, misunderstood monsters, and complex villains. With the publication, in November 1961, of Fantastic Four No. 1, comics giant Marvel inaugurated a transformative era in pop culture. Through the next two decades, the iconic Hulk, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the X-Men leapt, darted, and towered through its pages. Captain America was resurrected from his 1940s deep-freeze and the Avengers became the World's Greatest Super Heroes. Daredevil, Doctor Strange, and dozens more were added to the pantheon, each with their own rogues' gallery of malevolent counterparts. Over 50 years later, these thrilling characters from the '60s and '70s are more popular than ever, fighting the good fight in comics, toy aisles, and blockbuster movies around the world.In The Marvel Age of Comics 1961-1978, legendary writer and editor Roy Thomas takes you to the heart of this seminal segment in comic history-an age of triumphant character and narrative innovation that reinvented the super hero genre. With hundreds of images and insider insights, the book traces the birth of champions who were at once epic in their powers and adversaries and grounded in a world that readers recognized as close to their own; relatable heroes with the same problems, struggles, and shortcomings as everyone else. By the '70s, we see how the House of Ideas also elevated horror, sword and sorcery, and martial arts in its stable of titanic demigods, introducing iconic characters like Man-Thing, Conan, and Shang-Chi and proving that their brand of storytelling could succeed and flourish outside of the capes and tights. Clean, like new copy.
Softcover. NY, Crowell/Alskog, 1st, 1975, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 96 pages. This is one of a series of eight books on various aspects of photography. They were published in the mid Seventies and have a great deal of good information and diagram some of the shots featured in the book. This book is one of the best of the eight and that is saying something as they are all good. Sadly Art Kane committed suicide five or six years after this book came out, so it is now a retrospective of most of his work. This is an overview of some of Kane's most defining work at the height of the 60's culture wars, some pieces have gone on to define a generation. Fully illustrated in b/w & color with full page descriptions of techniques involved.
Softcover. NY, Berkeley Boulevard Books, 1st thus, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 325 pages, b&w illustrations. Brimming with concert information, the histories of their songs, profiles of band members, tour highlights, Phish-filled anecdotes, articles by fans and editors, and more, this book is the ultimate guide to this popular band. Clean, bright copy. Like new.
Softcover. NY, Owl/Henry Holt, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 160 pages, color illustrations. The magical qualities of three-dimensional and moving books have universal appeal. The Pop-Up Book offers a clear and practical guide to the pop-up papercrafts for all levels of artist, from home hobbyists to professional graphic designers and architects. Illustrated with specially commissioned photography, it includes specific projects with easy-to-follow steps, general techniques for greater personal experimentation and creativity, and a gallery of designs created by some of today's best pop-up artists for an inspirational finish. Clean copy.
Hardcover. Bedford MA, Applewood Books, reprint, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, glossy pictorial boards. 22 pages, pictorial boards. 3 pop-up pictures help illustrated the story of "Strange Adventures in the Spider Ship". Reprint of the 1935 edition with artwork by Dick Calkins who did the original comic strip. Clean, like new.
Hardcover. NY, BlueBridge, 1st US, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 246 pages. This narrative history masterfully weaves together the sweeping events surrounding what has become known as the "Babylonian captivity" of the popes into the broader story of 14th-Century Europe?one of the most turbulent times in the continent's history. It was a time of fear, ferocity, and religious agony, which saw the suppression of the Knights Templar and the Cathars, the first onslaught of the plague, and the beginning of the Hundred Years' War. The century also produced some of the greatest writers and artists in the western tradition, including Giotto, Boccaccio, Petrarch, and Chaucer. Central to this period was the movement of the papal seat from Rome to Avignon in the south of France, where seven successive popes held power from 1309 to 1377. The drama, intrigue, and tumult associated with the papacy in exile forms the perfect lens through which to clearly see a Europe making the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Pantheon Books, 1st, 1966, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 12th volume of the A.W. Mellon lectures in the fine arts. The Bollingen Series XXXV. Profusely illustrated with b/w plates. Arntzen calls this book `a good critical treatment of the development of the Renaissance portrait.' Light edgewear to dust jacket.
Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 1965, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn and chipped dust jacket, 391 pages. "The two aims of this vast work are to present for the first time a catalogue raisonne of the Pope portraits and to tell the story of his life as a valued friend, constant associate, and willing subject of the artists of his day." More than 200 illustrations, over 45 published here for the first time. Clean copy.
Hardcover. Hermes Press, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 192 pages. Music inspired, science fiction and fantasy combined in a way that revolutionized poster art of the Psychedelic 1960's-era. Famous for his rock posters, The Psychedelic Rock Art of Carl Lundgren, a Detroit, Michigan based artist, showcases his posters which were as important to the Detroit Music and Art history as were the music legends themselves; The Who, Jefferson Airplane and Pink Floyd to name a few. The book's forward is written by Mitch Ryder, who was lead vocalist of a Detroit 1960's rock group The Detroit Wheels. The introduction is by Russ Gibb, a former radio personality and rock promoter from Dearborn, Michigan, who played a major role in the late sixties/early seventiesMotor City music scene.
Softcover. NY, DC Comics, 1st thus, 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, One of the most popular and critically acclaimed graphic novels of all time and illustrated by an exemplary selection of the medium's most gifted artists, Sandman weaves a spellbinding tapestry that fuses modern myth with the timeless narratives of history and folklore. Here, in the domain of the Endless, epic stories unfold stories that transcend the boundaries of life and death. With stunning visuals crafted by a handpicked cadre of the industry's most talented artists, including Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones III, and Kelley Jones, with spectacular guest art by Chris Bachalo, Colleen Doran, Charles Vess, and Michael Zulli. Volume 1 spans 'The Sandman' issues #1-20 and collects the pivotal story arcs 'Preludes and Nocturnes,' 'The Doll's House,' and 'Dream Country.' It also includes the historic 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' the first comic book ever to receive the prestigious World Fantasy Award. Clean, bright copy.
Softcover. Overlook Books, reprint, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 144 pages. The adorable squash-shaped character was so popular it immediately spawned the largest merchandising craze in the nation's history. In the words of Life magazine, the nation was "Shmoo-struck." The Short Life and Happy Times of the Shmoo collects, for the first time in one volume, Capp's essential comic strips about the Shmoo. This is Al Capp and his incisive social criticism at its best.
Softcover. NY, Oxford University Press, repriny, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 290 pages. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s original, groundbreaking study explores the relationship between the African and African-American vernacular traditions and black literature, elaborating a new critical approach located within this tradition that allows the black voice to speak for itself.Examining the ancient poetry and myths found in African, Latin American, and Caribbean culture, and particularly the Yoruba trickster figure of Esu-Elegbara and the Signifying Monkey whose myths help articulate the black tradition's theory of its literature, Gates uncovers a unique system forinterpretation and a powerful vernacular tradition that black slaves brought with them to the New World. His critical approach relies heavily on the Signifying Monkey--perhaps the most popular figure in African-American folklore--and signification and Signifyin(g). Exploring signification in black American life and literature by analyzing the transmission and revision of various signifying figures, Gates provides an extended analysis of what he calls the "Talking Book," a central trope in early slave narratives that virtually defines the tradition of black American letters. Gates uses this critical framework to examine several major works of African-American literature--including Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, and Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo--revealing how these works signify on the black tradition and on each other. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, John Day, 1st US, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a lightly edgeworn, price-clipped dust jacket. Another in the author's popular series of early-mid-20th-century travel guides from an Asian perspective, this one representing his first trip across the Atlantic where he brings New York City to life with 120+ of his own pen-and-ink drawings & 17 full-color plates, created using traditional Chinese technique & media, painting on both absorbent paper & sometimes silk. His observations on the life and scenery of America are as oblique and charming as ever, while his experiences round Times Square, along Fifth Avenue, in Chinatown, Greenwich Village, the Bowery, and Harlem are depicted with the postwar charm that would soon be lost forever. In 281 pages with map endpapers, this is the First American Edition (no date in book, but research places it at 1950).
Hardcover. NY, Random House, 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 240 pages. The Sixties is the product of a 30-year collaboration between photographer Richard Avedon and writer Doon Arbus, whose images and words combine in this volume to create a compelling portrait of one of the 20th century's most tumultuous decades. Avedon, the celebrated photographer whose portraits of some of the best-known personalities of our age have graced the pages of Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and The New Yorker magazines since the early 1950s, was prolific during the '60s. Looked at together, his images from those years create a visual time capsule. This large book is filled with a cacophony of Yippies, Black Panthers, Weathermen, Hare Krishnas, Andy Warhol Factory Superstars, pop artists, rock musicians, astronauts, pacifists, politicians, electroshock therapists, media correspondents, civil rights lawyers, antiwar activists, and more--all shot against his signature white background. Arbus, a novelist and writer for magazines including Rolling Stone and The Nation (and the daughter of photographer Diane Arbus), conducted interviews with many of the subjects. Snippets of those conversations provide an intimate and unforgettable document of the tension, vulnerability, anger, recklessness, hope, and empowerment many people experienced during that era. Brief biographies of the portrait sitters, as well as a chronology that spans the first signs of the war in Vietnam in 1960 to its final conclusion in 1973, provide excellent context for the images.
Hardcover. NY, Random House, 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 240 pages. The Sixties is the product of a 30-year collaboration between photographer Richard Avedon and writer Doon Arbus, whose images and words combine in this volume to create a compelling portrait of one of the 20th century's most tumultuous decades. Avedon, the celebrated photographer whose portraits of some of the best-known personalities of our age have graced the pages of Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and The New Yorker magazines since the early 1950s, was prolific during the '60s. Looked at together, his images from those years create a visual time capsule. This large book is filled with a cacophony of Yippies, Black Panthers, Weathermen, Hare Krishnas, Andy Warhol Factory Superstars, pop artists, rock musicians, astronauts, pacifists, politicians, electroshock therapists, media correspondents, civil rights lawyers, antiwar activists, and more--all shot against his signature white background. Arbus, a novelist and writer for magazines including Rolling Stone and The Nation (and the daughter of photographer Diane Arbus), conducted interviews with many of the subjects. Snippets of those conversations provide an intimate and unforgettable document of the tension, vulnerability, anger, recklessness, hope, and empowerment many people experienced during that era. Brief biographies of the portrait sitters, as well as a chronology that spans the first signs of the war in Vietnam in 1960 to its final conclusion in 1973, provide excellent context for the images.
Hardcover. Montreal, Drawn and Quarterly, 1st, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover. British cartoonist Tom Gauld (Mooncop, You're All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, Goliath) has created countless iconic strips for The Guardian over the course of his illustrious career. A master of condensing grand, highbrow themes into one- to eight-panel comics, his weekly strips embody his trademark British humor while simultaneously opening comics to an audience unfamiliar with the artistry that cartooning has to offer. Funny but serious, these postcards allow Gauld to put his impressive knowledge of history, literature, and pop culture on full display-his impeccable timing and distinctive visual style setting him apart from the rest.
Hardcover. Insight Editions, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 16 pages. Born from shadow and mystery, Will Eisner's deathless hero returns in a recreation of The Spirit's final two issues. Coinciding with Frank Miller's upcoming Spirit movie, Will Eisner's The Spirit: A Pop-Up Graphic Novel spins a noir tale of blackmail, murder, and espionage innovatively crafted into seven full-color pop-up spreads. Reborn, The Spirit breaks out of the conventional comic book frame, animating the vigor and dynamism of Eisner's original vision. Designed by renowned paper engineer Bruce Foster (creator of The Pop-up Book of Celebrity Meltdowns and designer of the Caldecott nominated Little Red Riding Hood) Will Eisner's The Spirit: A Pop-Up Graphic Novel comes alive with expansive panoramic cityscapes, three-dimensional action sequence pop-outs, frame-by-frame expanding mini-booklets, and scene change pullouts. Re-colored and ingeniously renovated, the novel design animates the vigorous action of the Spirit's final exploits with an inventiveness merited by Eisner's original imagination. From the noir aficionado to the comic zealot, fans will celebrate this renaissance of Eisner's masterpiece, heralding the interactive ingenuity of a new format for sequential art.
Softcover. Urbana, University of Illinois Press , 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 361 pages, b&w illustrations. The Stonemans is an eye-opening slice of Americana---a trip through nearly twenty years of country music history following a single family from their native Blue Ridge Mountains to the slums of Washington, D.C., and the glitter of Nashville. As early as 1924 Ernest V. "Pop" Stoneman realized the potential of what is now known as country music, and he tried to carve a career from it. Successful as a recording artist from 1925 through 1929, Stoneman foundered during the Great Depression. He, his wife, and their nine children went to Washington in 1932, struggling through a decade of hardship and working to revive the musical career Pop still believed in. The Stoneman Family won the Country Music Association's Vocal Group of the Year Award in 1967. After Pop's death a year later, some of the children scattered to pursue their own careers. Ivan Tribe relies on extensive interviews with the Stonemans and their friends in this chronicle of a family whose members have clung to their musical heritage through good times and bad.
Hardcover. Boston, David R. Godine, 1st, 2009, Hardcover, 192 pages. The photography of Angus McBean encompasses more than three decades of the history of British theater. His work includes most of the memorable productions of the Old Vic Company and of what is now the Royal Shakespeare Company; opera productions at Glyndebourne and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; ballet and operetta at Sadler's Wells; and West End productions of plays and musicals both old and new -- hundreds of productions in all. He was the favorite photographer of Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and Edith Evans, and he photographed countless plays starring John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, and Alec Guinness, not to mention younger stars such as Audrey Hepburn, Richard Burton, and Elizabeth Taylor. In fact, McBean photographed virtually every great actor of his era, perhaps the most brilliant years in the annals of British theater.His studio was active and eclectic; among his patrons were not only actors, singers, and dancers, but also playwrights, producers, composers, artists, and writers. In his early career, McBean had been a pioneer of surrealist photography, with a highly popular series of "surrealized" portraits that appeared in The Sketch, and, later, of montage and multiple-exposure photography in a long-running series for The Tatler.In 1969, McBean approached Harvard University to initiate the sale of his collection, and in the following year his archive of glass plate negatives, index prints, and programs, together with the copyrights, became a part of the Harvard Theatre Collection, where it remains the most often-requested collection of visual material. The photographs in this book, selected and captioned by the archive's curator, Fredric Woodbridge Wilson, have been carefully reproduced from the original negatives.
Softcover. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 205 pages, b&w illustrations. A comprehensive look at a controversy that continues to fuel debates about the role of public art in America. Since its installation at and subsequent removal from New York City's Federal Plaza, noted sculptor Richard Serra's Tilted Arc has been a touchstone for debates over the role of public art. Installed in 1981, the 10-foot-high, 120-foot-long curved wall of Cor-Ten self-rusting steel instantly became a magnet for criticism. Art critics in the New York Times and the Village Voice labeled it the city's worst public sculpture, and many denounced it as an example of the elitism associated with art and as an obstacle to the use and enjoyment of the plaza. Harriet F. Senie explores the history of Tilted Arc, including its 1979 commission and the heated public hearings that eventually led to its removal in 1989 (it was dismantled and is currently stored in a government warehouse in Maryland). Analyzing the archive of popular opinion, Senie shows how the sculpture was caught in an avalanche of shifting local and national discussions about public funding for the arts. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, The Dial Press, 2nd pr., 1971, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardccover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 497 pages, b&w illustrations. An overview of what entertained America for 200 years, from opera to comics. Clean copy.
Hardcover. Washington DC, National Gallery of Art , 1st, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards with blue cloth spine. In 1860 James McNeill Whistler and Joanna Hiffernan met and began a significant professional and personal relationship. Hiffernan posed as a model for many of Whistlers works, including his controversial Symphony in White paintings, a trilogy that fascinated and challenged viewers with its complex associations with sex and morality, class and fashion, academic and realist art, Victorian popular fiction, aestheticism and spiritualism. This luxuriously illustrated volume provides the first comprehensive account of Hiffernan's partnership with Whistler throughout the 1860s and 1870s a period when Whistler was forging a reputation as one of the most innovative and influential artists of his generation. A series of essays discusses how Hiffernan and Whistler overturned artistic conventions and sheds light on their interactions with contemporaries, including Gustave Courbet, for whom she also modeled. Clean, bright copy.
Softcover. London, Tate Publishing, 1st UK, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover. VG+. Red and color pictorial wraps, French flaps, 272 pages., many color and BW illus. Issued in conjunction with a 2015-2016 exhibition of pop art from a variety of international artists and sources. With eight thematic and illustrated essays. The illustrated catalogue presents 162 specific pieces.