Illustration Books

Jill Bossert has captured the essence of this fascinating artist from his immigrant beginnings to his lavish life style at the height of his career. It's a captivating story of a time when illustrators lived the life of celebrity equal to today's most famous movie stars. Bossert's sensitive descriptions of John La Gatta's work shows she's knowledgable about the art of illustration and that she appreciates the fact that La Gatta's work is worthy of acclaim.

This book communicates an era when illustration dictated taste and artists were as famous as rock stars. I recommend it to anyone interested in American popular culture. The reproductions are first rate, very high quality.

John La Gatta bridged the enormous gap between the disciples of the Pyle-Wyeth school and the candy box illustrators who eventually closed down a great century of American illustration. Unlike the photo-dependent noodlers who followed him, La Gatta carefully chose his models and worked directly from life, a fact clearly evident in the pieces selected for this well-crafted book. I would have liked an index and another signature or two to accomodate larger reproductions of his earlier work from the 1920s and 30s, which I feel would have more than justified a higher cover price. This book is a bargain considering the importance of John La Gatta and his place in the history of this uniquely American art form. La Gatta and his tasteful style of illustration are to art what Ellington and the American Songbook are to music.

We've loved ALL of the Katie Morag stories, and (more importantly) so have our children. They are smart and socially aware and beautifully written and illustrated.

Hedderwick is a master story teller with wonderful illustrations which delight children & adults. Katie Morag's home is so comfortably chaotic and the parents and grandmothers are characters. In this tale, there is an increased understanding between the "fancy-ways" Grannie mainland and her strong, competent counterpoint, Grannie Island. And the Scottish is wonderful!

I love the Katie Morag series of children's books. Little ginger haired Katie Morag is split between the traditional ways of Granny Island and the modern Granny Mainland. Granny Island works with her hands and isn't afraid to get dirty. Granny Mainland wears nice clothes and bothers about her appearance. Katie Morag loves them both, but they don't appreciate each other.

How to solve this? Why, with sheep of course. How perfectly Scottish.

I bought this as a gift and my wife was very pleased. She is a player of Everquest and loves Keith's art!

Along with Clyde Caldwell, Larry Elmore, and Jeff Easley, Keith Parkingson completes the "Fab Four" of fantasy artists. To think that all four were on staff at TSR at one time is mind boggling. One can only imagine the creative competition that took place between these four supremely talented artists. Kingsgate from SQP features 128 pages of Parkinson's paintings in full, lush color and printed on heavy stock paper. Bestselling fantasy writer Terry Goodkind provides an introduction to the book. Goodkind is an unabashed fan of Parkinson's who has done the covers to several of his books. Goodkind provides commentary on each cover and offers his unique insight on how the covers were devised. I think my favorite cover that Keith did for the Sword of Truth series was for Naked Empire showing the statue of a powerful warrior, long forgotten in the remote wilderness.

Parksinon's book covers are often enough to sell a book and he's done numerous book, RPG, and computer game covers over the years including one of Polgara, the David Edding's sorceress with her dark hair and trademark white steak, holding an owl in the forest. His fantasy calendars are always in a league of their own. There's a certain magic and myth to his work that's often missing in many artist's work. They seem to tell a story all on their own. Parkinson relates how Blizzard wanted him to do the cover for Diablo II but he was already tied up with other projects. So enamored of his work were they that they basically told him to give them anything as soon as he could and Keith would deliver a stunning painting that would be uses in promotional posters for the game.

Dungeons & Dragons fans will be sure to recognize many paintings from some of their favorite game accessories over the years including his group of skeletal kings in "Gods of Lanhkmar" and the "Temple of Elemental Evil" One of my favorites was always one of the Ravenloft Death Knight, Lord Soth. It's simply a gorgeous book that comes with an index to the paintings. A fitting collection by one of the genre's best artists.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

With this second collection of Keith's paintings, we finally have a book worthy of the art it contains. This all new material is a wonderful collection of paintings and renderings of fearsome dragons, hideous creatures, captivating women, and sword-wielding men of valor. Also included are cover paintings for bestselling books by Terry Goodkind and David Eddings, as well as computer game art for EverQuest and Diablo, never-before-seen sketches, colorful commentary by the artist, and a whole lot more. One of the "Fab Four" from the TSR glory years, his work never fails to kindle the imagination and whisk one away to the worlds he creates.

"Magnificent modern fantasy at its finest--sensual, richly colored, imaginative, powerful. He's on our 'A' list of contemporary fantasy painters; his previous book was a bestseller for us." - from the Bud Plant catalog

With the sad news of Keith's recent passing, this will likely be the last collection of new material, but what we have here, we can treasure forever. Rest In Peace Keith, and thank you for sharing your wonderful gift with us.

I bought this book about 2 years ago...I still pick it up, ohhh about every week. A great book for those inspired by skateboarding, graf and urbankulture. Ton's of grrrreat layouts from those crazy New York ...er... German Design boys.

this is a best-of collection from the german magazine Lodown. it's pure candy for the eyes as well as a great documentary of current skate culture etc. (also has great coverage of street graphics, music, and snowboarding). the Lodown stuff is miles ahead of most other like-minded journals and stands alone in sheer quality and craft. text is in english. get this book!

This book is beautiful. Thick, and extremely well designed mixing skateboarding photos, articles, and street stlye graphics and illustrations. Featuring such legendary artists as Futura 2000, Haze, and Shepard Fairey of "Andre the Giant has a Posse" fame. Not to mention photos and text about musicians such as DJ Shadow, Jeru, and Wu-Tang. For fans of this vein of art, music, and styles, this book is a masterpiece.

I am a sucker for good romance novels and this one held my interest. It was a very good book read. Janie De Coster author of Man of My Dreams?

As much an art book as a literary survey, Look Of Love considers the covers and stories of the romance market which have captivated millions from 1940-70. From changing themes of romance novels - such as women who come to struggle between careers and love - to changing images of women and passion, this is a colorful and revealing survey.

Individually these covers are very dull as graphic designs but put 150 in a book and they become interesting. As the author says in the intro, the paperback romance has come a long way. For years the covers of this literary genre had a dominant painting, predictably of the heroine, mediocre typography for the title, blurb and author's name. By the seventies things had changed for the better and covers took on the full force of the Marketing Division, image space was reduced to make way for expressive typography (some of it very good too) die-cut holes, foil stamping, embossing, fluorescent inks, thermography and varied paper stock.

Unfortunately there is only one example of the contemporary look ('Hearts Aflame' by Johanna Lindsey) in the 150 shown. Mostly they are American covers from the forties to the mid-sixties, some from Canada and a few from Mills and Boon the main British romance publisher. Each of the nine chapters has a page of intro text printed on slightly yellowing paper, leading into the covers, a nice touch on these intro pages is the turned over top right-hand corner creating a bookmark, as one does with inexpensive books. Some of the covers also have the back shown and you can read the clichéd copy written to convince the casual book browser that they really do want to know what happened next.

This is worthwhile addition to my popular culture book collection and if you want more have a look at the six hundred covers in Richard Lupff's `The Great American Paperback', a book of coffee-table proportions covering all genres but which I found rather disappointing because of its sloppy production.

I don't think I'm giving too much away if I quote the last page of `The Look of Love'...
"That's what it's like, darling," said Mrs. Stokes uneasily, "Being a doctor's wife, I mean."
"I know," said Linette softly, her eyes starry. "Isn't it wonderful?"

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

This book introduces the reader to the people and processes involved in the production of manuscripts, and is interesting as a resource for methods of book production as much as it is for the insight it gives into the lives of the very real people whose efforts and whose lives went into the production of books by hand. With more than enough information to interest the scholar, this book is at the same time extremely accesible to the average reader interested in the subject. I would reccomend this as a textbook and as a good read, but would suggest that a reader have a good guide, such as Michelle Brown's Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts on hand, in order to best understand every facet of the material being presented. The book is clear and well-written, but a deeper understanding of the finished product adds greatly to the value of reading about their creators. This is a book I am proud to have on my bookshelf, for its readability, its attractiveness, and its value as a source for interesting historical information.

whether you are interested in the typical lives, education, training, as well as social status of the people whose work became immortal or in the techniques and tools used to create the magnificent pages.. this is a well written and interesting read. beautiful photographs of works in various levels of completion, numerous countries, schools and eras combined with well researched documentation and critiques makes this book an excellent resource. focusing mainly on the creation of illumination and explaining the lives of those creating the page, covering multiple aspects of training, techniques and changing social status throughout the decades leads to an overall thorough understanding. you will walk away not only being able to understand the illuminated page, its signifigance and constructuion but also those who toiled to creatre it. whether an art history lover, in love with the illuminated page or interested in the lives of people who lived centuries ago this book is a wonderful addition to you personal library. i wish my art history books were this well written.

Medieval Illuminators has been invaluable to my own studies and construction of illuminated manuscripts. The author presents a timeline of the history of illuminated manuscripts, their layout, methods of construction and their purpose, couched within a socio-cultural context of the eras in which the manuscripts were constructed. I found the large reproductions of key manuscripts extremely helpful in identifying the minute brush strokes of the white work, which is often difficult to discern in smaller reproductions. The enlargements also provided lovely details of designs and images that are not easily observed in non-enlarged reproductions. Lastly, I appreciated the author's discussion of the monastic book lending tradition for the purposes of copying manuscripts to expand a library's holdings on a particular subject and the inclusion of illustrations to demonstrate this practice. This is a must have for anyone pursuing the study of this literary and artistic tradition.

this book alone with its companion cassettes tapes should be required study in every school and drama class in the u.s. the scope and depth of its humor and ideals are simply extrodinary. if there is anyone who 'thinks' history must be dull or doubts mr. allen's intellectual brilliance then this book is for you. you will not regret the experience. find the vhs tapes of these programs if you can.

This is a must hear for all Americans. Thought provoking, globally analytical, it is a positive tribute to the brilliance of Mr. Allen.

this book [alone with its companion cassette tapes or VHS-TAPES] should be required study in every school in america; and maybe drama classes as well. steve allen's take on history and great historical personalities and ideals is truly stunning in its humor, brilliance, scope and insight. you will not soon forget its impact. [get the cassette tapes if you can] if you are fortunate the vidio tapes even more so.

The artwork is original and inspiring. I love the Columbia Record covers from the olden days.

Full Disclosure: I am Art Director for the publisher, although this book was completed before I arrived. That said, this is an incredible and much-needed look into the work of one of the artists that defined the concept of record cover art. A darkly fanciful artist with explosive vision, Flora worked alongside Alex Steinweiss to conceive of what album art should be. There is no way to overstate how important his work is (then and now) and what a shame it is that it took so long to give him his due. Less restrained-in fact, more exuberant-than the revered Blue Note covers, Flora's art put a different face on jazz and classical. One just as accurate but with uninhibited joy in a shadowy world. If you enjoy the likes of the modern low-brow masters (most notably Tim Biskup) you must own this. If you want history on record cover art (which is painfully lacking on the bookshelves), you want an inspiring coffeetable read, or just want to look all hipper-than-thou, then buy it. Fantagraphics has made a beautiful collection in this book.

This book is a terrific introduction and overview of the beautiful, grotesque, familiar and yet shockingly fresh work of Jim Flora. It's pure eye candy, Flora's limited color palette illustrations are brilliantly reproduced in large scale. Essays by Irwin Chusid and others are both witty and informative. You'll come away from this book inspired and giddy.

This book is very adorable and follows the movie well. If you like the movie you will like the book.

This book contains the entire storyline of the movie in both text and illustration and hits all the key events with perfect focus. The 'illustrations' are taken directly from the movie but are very crisp and high quality - not like some books that have poor quality movie stills. Our kids love this movie, have a home made soot-sprite mobile in their bedroom, and are crazy about this book. This is a really nice quality hard cover book and is much better than the comic book version in my opinion. Price is very cheap for what you get.

The book pretty much follows the story of the movie and is full of movie photos. It's a bit long for a childs book, but my kid loves it and we read it every night.

So if you're kids love the movie and want to see it over and over again, buy and read them the book instead.

Is this the most excellent book, that clarifies the mind of the students and doctors in the world. 'I WANT ONLY A FAVOR: I NEED THIS TWO BOOKS COLLECTION IN CD ROM URGENTLY PLEASE, I WANT TO KNOW IF YOU HAVE THEM OR NOT, PLEASE Y BEG YOU'

This book is another masterpiece by Netter. Each page has a large detailed illustration. Netter is a genius. The way Netter draws something is usually the best way for a student to mentally visualize the topic. Netter takes complex topics and makes them relatively straightforward by clever, aesthetically pleasing drawings that combine the anatomy, physiology and pathology. These words are based on a lot of experience as I have taught neuroanatomy over the past 10 years and am a neuroradiologist.

I have the German edition and used it during my studies for the medschool exam. The pictures really help memorizing difficult facts about several diseases.