Caricature Books

There are ten original coloured Curly Wee annuals published from 1946 to 1953 plus a coloured reprint published in 1990 and several single colour annuals published prior to 1946. The strips were originally published in The Liverpool Echo and franchised in Ireland, Australia, India, South Africa and Egypt. The stories were written by Maud Budden and illustrated by Roland Clibborn both of whom lived in Liverpool. Collectors like myself value the ten original coloured annuals more highly than the 1990 reprint or the early single colour annuals. However all Curly Wee memorabilia is valuable. Count Curly Wee had many brilliantly illustrated charming adventures with his friends including Gussie Goose and Baron Bun. The stories give an insight into the social structure of a bygone age and elicit happy memories of a childhood in a more genteel and innocent age. Prof. Martin Smith

King Tut's tomb and the curse of King Tut is the subject of this graphic history. Ancient Egypt is a great subject for study and my ESOL students love this topic. This book will be great in helping them learn English and comprehend the story better.

Searle's St Trinians' books are probably a bit dated (well, they WERE written and sketched in the 1950s!)but I suspect every adolescent school student whose uniform-clad, rule-restricted heart longs for a rebellious way to display her independence and intelligence may still relate to these very wicked girls!

(Ditto the boys who delve into the morose world of Molesworth, anti-hero of St Custards and Searle's male equivalent of Psyche Pathick, Deidre O'Hooligan and the other St Trinian's femmes.)

However, even though the girls who attended an anonymous English boarding school alongside Searle's sister (thus inspiring his gin-swilling, pool playing, card dealing heroines)are now genteel English grandmothers, human nature remains unchanged.

You don't have to have been sent (at great expense and often at questionable result) by your parents to attend a privately-run day or boarding school to relate to this and the other St Trinians' books...although it helps.

But wherever and whenever you attended school, some of the characters who attend roll call at St Trinians will be awfully familiar ...like the pushy, social-climbing noveau riche parents and their oh-so-elitist "old money" counterparts. The nervous, easily fooled new teacher and the hard-as-nails longtimer. The sociopathic school bully and the phobic school goody-goody. The teacher's pet and the teacher's terror.

If nothing else, take a gentle trip back to the time when the idea of disgruntled schoolchildren carrying guns and taking teachers hostage was the height of satire...not the nightly news!

This was my daughter's FIRST Comic book. She loved it. Her favorite Disney animal character is Meeko. She learned quite a bit about art and design from this book. It was short and concise, not too overwhelming. Nice even for a comic book.

The most wonderful collection fo illustrations by Sempe

If you love satire, parodies or just a good belly-laugh, this book is for you. Dodosaurs - The Dinosaurs That Didn't Make It, is a gut-busting lampoon of the scientific and not-so-scientific gibberish that surrounds and permeates our fascination with things that went bump in the night a long time ago, mostly from falling down and breaking their collective necks.

From the tiny but deadly Tikyltikyltikyl to the terrifying Tryonasaurus Rex, these not so terrible lizards will have you quaking with laughter as you examine their oh-so-slow development and oh-so-merciful extinction.

Written in near comic-book style (exquisitely appropriate)this over-sized soft-cover volume is full of fascinating full-color illustrations, giving you an artists-eye view of the world of the Dodosaurs. How they came to be, how they lived and how they ever managed to survive as long as they did will make for hours of delightful reading, and may shed just a little light on some of the silliness of our own "advanced" civilization.

So, forget about the T-Rex's, the Raptors, the Brachiosaurs and all those other Saurs, and sit back with some really amazing critters, the wonderful Dodosaurs.

A book of political cartoons from 1968 by Ed McNally. It's an interesting look at the politics of Canada and the United States from the late 1960s.

This book shows aspiring artists how to draw with ease by following the step by step method. In this book you'll learn how to draw 50 famous caricatures of famous people. The author says mimicry is prerequisite to creativity. Learning to mimic is the door to developing your own style of drawing.

It is an honored tradition in America that we hold our presidents up to ridicule while in office and no group does more to uphold that tradition than political cartoonists. This collection of cartoons was selected from that held in trust by the national archives, with the goal being to choose some of the best. The 130 cartoons are grouped into the following categories:

* War and Peace
* Political Corruption
* Presidential Caricatures
* Race for the White House
* Balance of Power
* Domestic Issues

While there are a few captions from earlier times, the concentration is on presidents Hoover through Bush 1.
This book is a history lesson in some of the major and minor issues of the last century. It is also a lesson in the American democracy at work. A joy to read, it encapsulates one of the greatest strengths of America, the right to question the President without fear of retribution. Some of the cartoons are also very funny, but it is often necessary to understand the historical context to get the joke.

Jack Hamm is one of the best art instructors there is, period. His books are accessible and easy to use and learn from. He created a series of books that help the budding animator, painter, sketcher, or comic artist. If you have some art skills, this is a great book to buy to learn more about caricature, styles and technique, running figure, scene setup, It has great shortcuts and tips for artists of ALL skill levels. If you haven't read his "First Lessons for Painting and Drawing", it is an indispensible book you may want to read before this one.
For kids, the Jack Hamm books are the next logical step after the Ed Emberly Big Green Drawing Book and others in his series, and next the 2 main Mark Kistler books.