Artists Books

If you are any kind of amateur Civil War historian than you probably grew up looking at the American Heritage or Golden books about the civil war. They were chock full of illustrations from the Harper's Weekly sketches to the bursting with color lithographs of Kurtz & Allison. Yes, these images were full of fully uniformed boys in blue and gray gathered in massive lines firing point blank at each other. And even as a child gazing at these...you wondered...was it really like that?

Then you glimpse your first Troiani painting and you know you are in the presence of the real deal. Don Troiani sweats the details and doesn't just throw something on the canvas and attach a name to it. The event depicted is so vividly and realistically portrayed that you almost know what moment in the American Civil War you are seeing without having to be told.

This wonderful book finally brings together in one place some of Troiani's greatest Civil War paintings. It is a book that no Civil War library is complete without. This is perhaps as close to witnessing the actual event as we are ever likely to achieve.

I only wish the Ken Burns had taken advantage of these paintings and used them in his series on the Civil War. His insistence on utilizing contemporary images reduced his otherwise wonderful documentary to a rehash of what I had already seen a thousand times in my Golden book. Imagine how much richer the story telling as his camera zoomed into a Troiani painting.

It's time to see the Civil War as it was. Trust Don Troiani to show you.

This Book is not only regiments history and a lott of beautiful accurate illustrated uniforms, is history alive. The only thing this book lack off is sound but thanks to the hands of Don Troiani the paintings are so full of live you can hear it in the back of your mind. Art by Don Troiani, text by Brian C. Pohanka. This book presents in a beautiful landscape format his unique view of the war and the men who fought it. Each painting is accompanied by an extensive background text by noted historian Brian Pohanka The good thing about this book is that if you consider yourself a Civil War historian or reenactorss a just a fan beginning to study the civil war, you won't find the typical error of other authors, this would help you enjoy the painting one by one so you can understand better who and how was this War fought. One last thing DO NOT PUT THIS BOOK ON YOUR COFFEE TABLE people fall in love with this book so fast that they can even stole from you, believe me this is the third time I buy this book. If you enjoy this book you would love Don Troiani's Soldiers In America, 1754 - 1865.

What a nice book, both to the artistic and literary eye. I am fortunate enough to own three Don Troiani signed Civil War prints. This book is dessert, providing a thorough if not complete collection of all the Civil War art I will never own but can now enjoy. Troiani, an avid collector of Civil War uniforms and gear, provides perhaps the most accurate representation of soldiers, regiments and engagements normally limited to what the mind's eye can conjur from words on a page. Troiani not only excells at the equipment's detail, but paints a vivid image of the topography and climate as well as the determination, anguish, fear, and heroism of the soldiers. These are not charactures but the images of people who seem to walk off the page and out of your imagination. Pohanka's commentary complements the art by placing the action within the broader context of the battle and the war. I made this book a gift to myself and, if you appreciate art - either in a historical context or for arts sake - you should as well.

Every Civil War enthusiast should have this book. It's beautiful, enjoyable, as well as educational. Troiani's attention to detail and historical accuracy is astounding. Most of Troiani's work is of active battle scenes with anonomous characters, unlike John Paul Strain's work which focuses on specific leaders in non-battle situations. I recommend both books.

A quick glance of the customer reviews tells one that this book is something special. Page after page of astounding paintings complemented by capable text. The detail of Don Troiani's artwork is such that you can literally spend hours examining them, and if you let others look at the book you can grow impatient trying to get it back!

This is a good book for someone who is intersted in FLW and wants to see most of his Masterworks. However, I wouldn't call much of anything he did after the late 1940's a Masterwork but never the less the book gives a nice overview of his entire career. The guy lived to be 92! Lots of just gorgeous photos. Not many floor plans and the ones included are too small to read. Lots of original colored renderings, sections, elevations & some floor plans. The ratio of text to pictures is 20:80. The book goes quick.

I've seen a lot of books on Wright over the years, and read a number of them, but for sheer enjoyment and the celebration of his work, this work is the best I've seen. It strikes the best balance between the photos and text, but the photos are truly magnificent and worth the price of the book by themselves. Much of the information, as another reviewer has commented, is available in other books on Wright, so there might not be that much new here for the Wright expert, but for those not steeped in Wright scholarship, this book is as good as any to learn about his architecture, philosophy, and life. Thirty-eight of Wright's most important buildings are covered, equally divided between his private and public buildings. Overall, probably the best single book out there on Wright to gain an understanding and appreciation of his work for the general reader.

By the way, just today we toured Taliesen, in Phoenix, AZ. It's a great tour if you ever get to the area and are a fan of Wright's buildings. Perhaps that's why I was inspired to write the review. :-)

No one book could capture the full range of Frank Lloyd Wright's brilliance and versatility, but this one comes close! If you're a fan of the man who was arguably the 20th century's greatest architect, this book is a must-have. It covers his design philosophy, and shows how that philosophy was manifested, from Wright's preliminary sketches to great photos of the finished structures. A visual treat and an invaluable reference work.

Coffee table book, lovely photos; if you love the vision of FLW you'll enjoy this book

The pictures are marvelous and the content is more than the usual re-written information. i have really enjoyed this book.

I had heard about this book through relatives and decided to pick it up.
It was great read. Very entertaining from start to finish. I would recommend this to anyone. Can't wait to read her next book "Invisible Touch".

Angel loves doing art, but is still finding her place within the scope of it all. Her work is labeled "whimsical", but she wants to up it to "realistic". However, when bad boy Miguel approaches her saying she has the perfect style to be a great graffiti artist, well, what else can Angel do but say yes to lessons? But as the days go on, she gets wrapped up more and more in the sometimes seedy underbelly of the world of graffiti art. Will she be able to pull herself out before it's too late?

I really enjoyed this book. Told in a very raw, honest, and realistic way, this novel portrays the Latino culture in a way I don't think I've seen before in YA literature. The events in this novel feel very real and make you invest so much into Angel and her life, leading up to a killer climax. I almost cried while reading this book and that is extremely hard for someone to do. This book is highly recommended.

Parra weaves the conflict of a races, multi-hertiage, and defining one's identity in this fast-paced novel. Labeled YA, the novel can be enjoyed by a broad range of ages. It is difficult to believe this is Parra's debut work--such a terrific job!

Personally, I will never see graffiti the same since reading of Angel's struggles. While the book began a bit slow for me, the pace heightens quickly and won't let you go. The situations are real, so are the conflicts and the decisions that Angel faces throughout her journey. Parra has a fantastic YA voice, and I look forward to her next creation!

The Sista Hood: On the MicAngel reminded me of myself as a young girl writing in California. Kelly felicidades on your first novel, it's great to see Latinas writing postive novels about subjects that young people can relate to. I felt you weaved Angel's personal journey as a writer and growing young women with humor, realness and craft.

I read this book in two sittings, which should tell you that it was downright entertaining.

Graffiti Girl is labeled young adult, but the themes in the story can appeal to a much broader audience. The protagonist, Angel Rodriguez, is a young artist who has an incredible need to express herself, yet struggles to embrace her unique style. She jumps right off the page-the kind of tough, sweet heroine who isn't concerned with prom dresses and makeup. Angel has real issues, driving internal conflict, and a message. She'll stay in your thoughts a long time after you finish her story.

Parra creates a seamless balance between the edgy and wholesome-an accurate description of setting in a racially diverse, small town high school. The prose is snappy and clean without being weighted down by excessive slang or references to pop culture, something a writer with less experience might use to remind us that we are reading contemporary fiction.

Well written, and well worth my time. I'll be looking out for Parra's next.

I can't really add anything substantive to what the other reviewers have said but wanted to add my five star review - this is just a beautiful book that any artist or any person interested in painting would love to have.

I love the book! I wanted a book with more paintings than text and that's just what I got. Beautiful paintings on page after page. You won't be disappointed.

After viewing a Tom Thompson art show in Ottawa, Canada, I became mesmerized and hooked on Tom Thompson.(Previous to the show, he was an unknown to me. No references in my art history classes!) I read about his short life and mysterious death. I became enamored of his style of painting, anxious to try it myself.
I bought my first copy of this book as a gift for someone else. After seeing what a lovely reference it was to T.T. and the Group of Seven. . . I knew I needed my own copy! A nice chunky overview of all these great painters, their styles, their visions. A thumb's up!

If there were no words at all and just this incredible trove of pictures, this book would be worth its price many times over. These painters had an incomparable way of taking the ethereal and ineffable and turning it into thick literal frosting; so many of these pieces just floor me, wordless. I have been in large US art book stores and found no mention of this group (typical American myopia/hubris), so it is great to find such a vast and thorough collection at last. In particular it's great to see Lawren Harris' early urban pieces. I've already bought two extra copies as gifts, and they were breathlessly received. Brilliant book, very happy to own it.

This is an exquisite book filled with amazingly beautiful images of some of Canada's most amazing painters' work. I'd recommend it to anybody who loves landscape art or who is studying to be a painter as I am.

I'll keep this review short and sweet in order to save you time. This book is my favorite book ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever of all time. I like it better than the Spooky Old Tree. Buy it now. That is all.

I read and re-read this book as a child in the 70's. I now have a copy for my children and they love it too!Very entertaining and each page holds a childs attention. A clacsic!

I love Grover. Grover is a three-dimensional kid's character the likes of Linus and Charlie Brown. Elmo, on the other hand, is a two-dimension character, along the lines of a Barney or Boots. Up with Grover, down with Elmo. Elmo's incessant brightness leaves no room for the ego to breathe. When I was a kid watching Sesame Street, it was all Grover all the time. Then Elmo took over and was shoved down our throats. Marketed rather crassly for a PBS character, thank you Rosie.

But guess who's back?

Grover visits the Everything in the Whole Wide World Museum, with such hallowed halls as The Things You See in the Sky Room, The Things You See on the Ground Room, and The Things That Make So Much Noise You Can't Think Room. This is a great kids book. There is humor, ranging from the slapstick of Grover bumping into doors and falling into holes to the subtle references to Camus' use of the myth of Sisyphus to critique existentialism (Grover finds a Heavy Rock in the Room of Things that are Light, and carries it up a mountain of stairs searching for the Room of Things that are Heavy. At the peak, Grover loses control and the rock rolls all the way back down to the level where he found it, crashing into the door of the Heavy room). Grover enters The Long Thin Things You Can Write With Room and finds a carrot that doesn't belong. He takes the carrot instead to The Carrot Room, which is adjacent to the All The Vegetables in the Whole Wide World Besides Carrots Room. Good funny stuff. At the end he realizes he still hasn't seen everything in the whole wide world. He finds the final door, labeled as "Everything Else," which of course is the back door. It opens up to the world.

Heavy.

I have had this book since I was a baby in 1974. Sesame Street's Grover goes threw a museum with different stuff you see in the Whole Wide World. Each page is a different room. IE Vegetable room, Undersea room, room of loud things. This book is like the Bank Street Museum book titles of Dinosaurium, Planetarium, Oceanarium & Floratorium which came out in 1993 & 1994. Unfortunitly are out of print. I highly praise that series so check out my reviews on those titles.

This is an extremely funny and engaging book, buoyed by the enthusiastic character of Grover and a variety of different situations that will be both instructive and humorous for a young child.

Grover is walking through the various rooms of the "Everything in the Whole Wide World Museum," and every room contains a category of objects, such as "Things so Loud that You Cannot Hear Yourself Think." In every room, the objects are neatly labeled, so this will be a great vocabulary builder for your toddler. But Grover finds himself in different situations within the museum that make each page unique, and not just a word list. There's even a room of things that tickle, which gives you the opportunity for a tickling session with your listener.

This book just flows extremely well, in my opinion, and I remember that it was a big hit in our home when I was a toddler. Along with -Oscar's Book- and -There's a Monster at the End of This Book- (which also features Grover), this is part of a trio from the Sesame Street gang that represents the pinnacle of what picture books are all about: interaction, humor, and learning.

'Guide to watercolor paints' is one of the best books I have ever read on color. Never will you have to buy any brand of color and not know what its made of. From Manufacture to color its all here...

I am giving myself three pats on the back for buying this book and Hilary Page, ten star's for writing it!! Nancy

I recently purchased Page's Guide and I'm delighted that I did. Firstly, the book came autographed and with several appended additions to information. Page's dedication to accuracy and clarity is impressive. Secondly, the book has a remarkable amount of information about all the brands of watercolor paint available in the U.S. relating to lightfastness, transparency, granularity, opacity, and so on, and the colors are actually shown in the book. Unlike other writers of watercolor paint guides, she uses all the colors in her book, which makes it sigificantly more interesting to review and read. Lastly, I take painting lessons from a nationally-known artist who has also published books relating to watercolor painting and color, and she recommends Page's book over others. I had already purchased Page's book, so I was thrilled to hear another expert give it praise.
I rate Page's Guide with four stars because I believe there is always more we can know about art, and Page may decide there's a more detailed edition she needs to publish, and also because actual publication printing inks are not as accurate in depicting colors as seeing the actual watercolor paint on watercolor paper. But for anyone contemplating purchasing Page's Guide, I highly recommend it.

I've read dozens of books on watercolor pigments. This is by FAR the best out there. Complete and unbiased information on all the leading manufactures pigments. This is the only book I keep on my studio desk with me at all times.

"Hilary Page's Guide to Water Color Paints" is a necessary book for anyone doing watercolor. Her coverage is very through and she also has a web page for updating the information. She compares every well-known brand of artists' watercolors from Holbein to Winsor and Newton and her observations will save the artist, whether professional or rank amateur, both frustration and money. What's more, she tested every one herself! I liked the index, which first lists the company and under each company the colors sold. It makes it very easy to check up on the paints that interest you. Her short introduction on pigments and paints is also quite informative. If you work with watercolor you simply cannot afford to be without this book!

By the way my copy was given to me by my daughter for my birthday and was autographed by the author. The author had also neatly written a correction inside the book. This is a dedicated person and her work is much appreciated!

This was the first, and is still the definitive book on the chemistry of watercolor paints. Hilary Page is a fine watercolorist, but her main contribution to the industry has been her copious analysis of the characteristics of various manufacturers, brands, and qualities of watercolor paints. I became interested in the stability of paint in the early 80's while trying to find the most fade-proof pigments available for my own watercolor paintings. I did many of the same tests Hilary did, but no where near as complete. When her book came out much later, I purchased a copy and still use it today. My copy is marked up with notes that I refer to constantly. I feel this book should be on the shelf of any serious student of watermedia.

This is a wonderful book!

This book is written in a style that is both unique and easy-to-read. Craig's writing-style is so quick-witted, it's easy to just fly through this book, and hard to put it down once you start reading it.

The characters are well-defined and people you really start to appreciate as the story rolls along. There are moments of serious action and very clever comedy.

I don't want to give away a thing with this book. Just go read it. You will be glad to add it to your collection. Smart, funny, and full of action, it's a great read, and I look forward to checking out more of Craig's work.

The story Hot Plastic centers on a boy named Kevin, in the late 1980's. Kevin's father, Jerry, is a small-time con artist, ripping off department stores, and the occasional unsuspecting old lady. Kevin Helps him in this, playing major roles, but he strives for bigger things, and imagines that he is only stealing from people who don't deserve what they have.

Early in the story Jerry hires a girl named Colette from an associate of his to watch Kevin when he is very sick. Kevin secretly falls in love with Colette, and she becomes Jerry's young lover. She also shoves Kevin down a rung in their criminal troupe, taking Kevin's original spot.

The book really was a bit confusing at first, and I found myself setting it down often, taking breaks. Soon I got adjusted to Peter Craig's interesting writing style and couldn't put this book down. The confusing part, at first, was how the story jumped around at odd places to show different times in Kevin's life, I soon begun to rather enjoy this artsy structure.

I suggest this book to anyone that enjoys an immensely satisfying criminal suspense novel, and wants some tricks on how to survive underground. This is also a book you can judge by its gorgeous cover design by Allison J. Warner; she did a simply stunning job.

I'm a huge fan of classic noir novels, and a good friend of mine urged me to give this book a chance. I must admit to a great deal of skepticism, mostly because I'd heard that the author was the offspring of one America's best known actresses. But I must say, after finishing the book, that I'm extremely impressed with Craig's talent and his grasp of the genre. There is a slight self-consciousness to the book--an intentional one, a kind of acknowlegement that he's working in solid Jim Thompson territory; but the writing is far more extravagant. The end result feels partly like an homage to old hustler novels, and partly like a renewing of the genre, a mixture of pulp and literary sensibilities. For one thing, Craig's dialogue is a perfect contemporary version of the kind of quick, clipped banter in old James Cain and Jim Thompson books. The twists are surprising, but heavily rooted in this tradition as well. In the end, I was surprised by the weight of the book, considering how fast and shiny it all seemed on the surface: it was a book about lost kids, contemporary America, the ills of our system, commerce, love and loss, and it advanced all of these themes with an amazingly effortless quality, all the while serving mostly as a fun read about grifters. I'm very pleased that I read this book, and I'll continue to follow Craig's career.

Facinating view into the life of a con artist and family. Hot Plastic is an exciting, well written story with rich diverse characters. It's suspenseful and action packed with a few good love stories thrown in for good measure. It's easy to lose yourself in this book.

Loved it. Seems to me like where Mr. Craig may have been a little hesitant in Martini Shot, he's really hit his stride in this one. A great story. Great writing. Both books have palpable characters, but this one is truly a page-turner. Can't wait for the next one.

First off, the paper and print is very good. Some of the posters in this book are great, specifically the Sean Connery "From Russia with Love" posters (which there are a lot of). My only issue is really that many of the Bond posters are awful. Specifically the Roger Moore era... The posters are so bad that they are in some cases comical. Overall, there's enough content to please fans, but I think it would be great if there were even more classic and foreign posters.

I purchased this for my James Bond fan and he loved it--much larger than I expected and a very cool collection of posters and images.

I bought this book as a present for the huge James Bond fan in my life and it was perfect. He really enjoyed looking at all of the classic posters from the various movies. If you have someone who really is a Bond fanatic, this is the way to go!

I bought this for my husband's birthday, he's a HUGE Bond fan...he was really excited about this book, and i was impressed with the large format and the posters from around the world for the different Bond films. Definitely worth buying, even as a book to leave on the coffee table for people to flip through.

This is a wonderful collection of James Bond Movie Posters. The illustrations and quality of the images are outstanding. They are crisp and sharp and very colorful. This book covers Bond posters from all over the world. The composition of the Japanese posters are quite eye catching and innovative. This is a wonderful and essential book for James Bond enthusiasts.

When I gave this as a gift to cat-loving friends I knew I was doing the right thing. It has been received with great appreciation, not only for the subject matter, but for the beautiful way it was written and illustrated. Judy Chicago is a master at what she does.

This book is exquisite: well-researched, superbly-written, and the art is incredible! I love cats and love art - she has done a masterful job capturing the feline essence, and the relationships she and Donald have with their cats.

I've been sharing my life with cats for twenty years, and thought I knew feline behavior and physiology pretty well. She taught me things I never knew before.

I plan to give this as a gift to many of my friends. I am proud to have it as a part of my personal library. It is a true treasure that I will always cherish. Every time I open it, I find something new to marvel at. Her feline companions are very lucky to have found her; her love of, and understanding of, those she has made a part of her family, shine through on every page.

Bravo, Judy!

As an artist and an animal person, I treasure this exquisite book. Not only is it beautifully painted (in the challenging medium of water color no less!) but it has a rich feel of the Medieval with its purples, golds and parchment divider pages. Hence the sub-title, "A Feline Book of Hours." I share my home with several cats as I have my whole life. This book honors cats by not just showing one's daily routine with them, but also shows the dignity, courage and humor cats possess. It also shows, from the artist's perspective, the joys of daily life in the companionship of cats and the tragedy of inevitable loss.
It is a joy to see cats represented as the unique creatures that they are by one of the most gifted and brilliant artists of our time.

Kitty City: A Feline Book of Hours caught my attention because of the author's name, Judy Chicago. I have always admired her work in the world of fine arts. This book is a wonderful surprise. It is beautifully illustrated and truly influenced by the illuminated Book of Hours treasured during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The pleasing illustrations are enhanced by the use of gold and vellum.

To my delight, the reader is allowed a very intimate look at the life of the artist with her husband and their feline family. The day-to-day joys as well as life's harsh reality in the loss of a loved one.

Kitty City makes a great gift for anyone that has ever loved an animal or is interested in feline history and feline facts of life. Little known tidbits about cats and their place in the world add to the uniqueness of this book.

If you are familiar with Judy Chicago's work, you know that endless hours of research precedes each project, and this one continues in that tradition. The text is lively and informative, and the illustrations prove once again what a fine artist Judy Chicago is. Her sense of color is just amazing. Even if you're not a cat lover, this book is a treasure.

When I noticed that many of my favourite cartoonists have said that Herriman's 'Krazy Kat' is the greatest comic strip ever, I decided I should check it out. It didn't take long before I agreed with them.

George Herriman is one of those rare individuals who genuinely deserves to be called a genius. That's a word that gets thrown around a little too casually perhaps, but in Herriman's case it is almost an understatement.

He was a brilliantly inventive artist, but his writing is what really sets him apart. A lot of the dialogue is written phonetically in bizarre dialects, a tricky thing to do, but he uses it to great effect.

Whereas space restrictions force cartoonists today to avoid using more words than is necessary, Herriman would often use a lot more, and much of the pleasure of reading 'Krazy Kat' comes from the sheer virtuosity with which Herriman uses language.

That a comic strip could be as funny, as intellectually stimulating, and as beautiful to look at as 'Krazy Kat' seems to me to be some kind of miracle. This book is a great introduction to Herriman and his work. There's a generous helping of 'Krazy Kat' strips, as well as some of Herriman's other work. Anyone who loves comics should have it. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

This book stands as the best introduction to one of the best comic strips ever produced. Not only is it packed with hard to find "Krazy Kat" strips, but it also includes a biography of the artist, George Herriman. Some consider Herriman the first African-American mainstream cartoonist. His colleagues didn't know his ethnicity (and Herriman didn't tell them) so some called him "the Greek". He felt he had to hide some of his features from the public. For example, he kept his very curly hair closely cut and hidden under a hat. Not only that, his birth certificate shows his parent's ethnicity as "colored". The prejudices of the time likely would not have allowed an African-American the mainstream status and freedom allowed to George Herriman. So through "Krazy Kat" we get a glimpse of what early 20th century American culture may have missed out on due to its racial myopia. For "Krazy Kat" stands as an absolute masterpiece of its genre.

Herriman found some modicum of fame in his lifetime. William Randolph Hearst (the newspaper magnate) loved Herriman's work and rewarded him with a lifetime contract (according to the biography in the book, Hearst once read a "Krazy Kat" Sunday page and immediately demanded a raise for the artist). Herriman's success didn't come quickly, however. His first big break came in 1897 with the sale of a sketch to the Los Angeles Herald. Around 1901 he landed his first job as a "Staff Cartoonist" (a person who literally reported to the office every day and rattled off strip after strip; very different from today's cartoonists). Between 1901 and 1916 Herriman penned numerous strips (the book includes samples of many of these strips - many in color), including: "Musical Mose" (this strip's overt racial humor would not fly today), "Professor Otto and His Auto", "Acrobatic Archie", "Two Jolly Jackies", "Major Ozone's Fresh Air Crusade", "Home Sweet Home", "Baron Mooch", "Mary's Home From College", "Gooseberry Sprig" (considered to be a direct forerunner to "Krazy Kat"), "Alexander the Cat", "Daniel and Pansy", and finally, in 1910, "The Dingbat Family" (which changed its name briefly to "The Family Upstairs"; it was Herriman's first hit). It was in a "Dingbat Family" strip in 1910 that a mouse first "beaned" a "Kat" with a projectile (in the "running boards" of the strip). Eventually the Kat and mouse sideshow surpassed the main strip's popularity, and "Krazy Kat" debuted as a daily in October 1913 (the famous Sunday pages began in 1916). Herriman kept experimenting with other strips through 1923 when he finally placed his focus squarely on "Krazy Kat".

From roughly 1913 to 1944 (when Herriman passed away leaving a week's worth of unfinished Krazy Kat's on his drawing table) "Krazy Kat" developed from a "Kat" and mouse game (filled with puns, misunderstandings, and musings on the imperfections of language) into a complex love triangle between Krazy (the "Kat"), Ignatz (the mouse) and Offisa Pupp (the dog). Ignatz's entire being revolves around "beaning" the "Kat" with a brick, and Krazy interprets this as an act of love (unbeknownst to Ignatz). Offisa Pupp loves Krazy (in a fatherly sort of way) and his obsession revolves around catching Ignatz in the act and jailing him. Three obsessions collide in an almost jazz-style derivation of themes. Herriman developed this theme brilliantly over 30 years of strips. But overall it defies analysis: the strip can only speak for itself.

Sadly, though "Krazy Kat" counted such dignatiries as e.e. cummings, George Gershwin, Gilbert Seldes, James Joyce, and other literati, as fans, its popularity waned dramatically throughout the 1930s (as it became more surreal, esoteric and unabashedly uncommercial). It was kept in print by Hearst himself. The book does not cover the frustration of Hearst editors at the inclusion of the strip in their papers. They rebelled against it in some cases. Many simply tried to remove it from circulation only to find Hearst himself yelling "keep it in!" So we have, of all people, the controversial William Randolph Hearst to thank for the continuation of "Krazy Kat". By the end of its run "Krazy Kat" only appeared in some 30 papers.

The main focus of this book lies in its numerous incredible strips. The book includes daily strips (most dating from 1938 to 1944) and Sunday pages (dating from 1916 to 1944 with some in color; it also includes both the first and last Sunday pages). If one reason exists to purchase this book, here it is. The strips retain their amazing character even after decades of aging. And the artwork remains astounding. Not only that, the book includes samples of hand colored drawings of Herriman's, and photos of Herriman and his family. All in all, this book opens the door on one of the comic strip medium's most celebrated strips. Those that get hooked should continue thier obsessions (in the true spirit of Krazy, Ignatz, and Offisa Pupp) with the Fantagraphics' series of Sunday pages, and the Pacific Comics club's reprints of daily strips. Someday every Krazy Kat strip Herriman drew will finally appear in printed form. We can hope, at least.

This is a wonderful book for Krazy Katz fans to own. It is large, colorful and very informative on one of Americas great cartoonists. The delivery through Amazon was fast and effortless. The book, a treasure to own. Worth the lower price through Amazon.

This is a wonderful introduction to George Herriman's great comic strip Krazy Kat that ran for several decades in the early twentieth century. This introduction provides biographical background to Herriman's art, a survey of some of his influences, and a very healthy dose of Krazy Kat panels, both color and black & white. It also discusses the way that Krazy Kat became a cultural phenomenon, easily one of the most highly regarded comics of the century, and permeating many other arts as well.

The Krazy Kat strip is utterly insane, surreal stuff. Here is the premise: Krazy Kat (who is usually female but is sometimes apparently male) is in love with Ignatz Mouse. Ignatz loathes Krazy, and to prove it konstantly kreases that kat's krown with a brick. Incredibly, Krazy sees this as proof of Ignatz's affection, and falls even more deeply in love (many panels show hearts rising from Krazy's heart when she is hit by one of Ignatz's bricks). Officer Pup, the town constable, is in love with Krazy and frequently throws Ignatz into jail for hitting Krazy, which causes Krazy to pine for her would-be lover. This is merely the barest sketch of this weird and wild world. The town of Concocino is populated by a host of equally outrageous characters, though the focus continually comes back to the three principals.

Though even the most recent of these strips are over sixty years old, Krazy Kat has stood up magnificently over the years. Part of the reason surely lies with Herriman's enormous gifts as an illustrator. The Sunday strips in particular are things of great beauty, with the frames arcing around the page in spectacular designs of considerable innovation and complexity. The content of the comics reflects a genuine wit and substantial intelligence, while the bizarre love triangle possesses endless possibilities for both humor and pathos. This truly is one of the most unique comics in the history of the medium, and even those who do not usually respond to the genre are apt to find this enormously entertaining.

This is what all popular art forms should be. A social commentary as love poem. And poem this is. There is very little that someone can write about the Krazy experience without treading in the same terran as this wonderful book. This is were your Krazy love afair begins. And unlike Ignatz you don't show your love with a brick.