Graphics Books

Elfquest - Fire and Flight has to be one of my favourite fantasy books that I have read. At first I was skeptical about reading a novel based on comics, and it has been sitting on my shelf for about 2 years before I thought about reading it. At first I thought it was very childish and rather silly but after the part about the meeting with the trolls, I started to get into the story. To summarise the plot as simply as possible, the story is basically about a group of elves (Wolfriders), driven from the forest after it has been destroyed by humans, and their journey across a desert to a place known as Sorrow's End, which is inhabited by another group of elves. There Cutter, the leader of the Wolfriders, meets Leetah, a healer from Sorrow's End and they know each other through what the elves call "Recognition".(Read the book to find out about this!). An elf, called Rayek, who is in love with Leetah, is hateful of Cutter and is jealous of him.

I really enjoyed how the authors drew out all the characters, especially Cutter and Leetah, and because of this and the simplicity of the story, one can guess how the story would evolve and pan out as one can guess how the characters would behave. That is not a bad thing. Believe me. Even though the story is short, it is an engrossing and entertaining read.

I believe the reason why I liked this book a lot has to deal with the emotions and feelings the Wolfriders undergo, especially the part where they travel through the desert. We have Cutter trying his best as leader trying to hold his tribe of Wolfriders together, Skywise and his trust in the "magical stone" and the love Nightfall has for Redlance, and the anguish of the elves and wolves. All the emotions are portrayed briefly and powerfully. You see many examples of the good and bad side of elven nature which can easily be translated into our lives and which makes the reader feel good all over.
I recommend this story/comic to anyone who wants to read an inspiring story, abut the strength of the elven (human) spirit and how love overcomes all.

I bought this one for my 9 year old son who loved it but ended up reading it myself. I plan on buying all of them!

I first read this book ten years ago, and I have read it at least twenty more since. Aside from being the best comic book ever written or drawn, it is a sensitive, exciting, and fantastic epic anyone can enjoy. If you are not into fantasy just yet... don't worry. You will be after reading the story of the Wolfriders. The World of Two Moons does not let go of its captives easily! Happy reading!

I picked this up about 9 years ago and have been hooked ever since. At the time i was not a comicbook or fantasy fan, but this book has changed that. This is a series that can keep you glued to the pages for hours. Wendy Pini is an amazing author, and her artwork is just as great. You will love this series.

ElfQuest impacted my life in ways I'll probably never be able to comprehend. I first read the comics that make up this graphic novel when I was 13, and I was hooked. I collected all the reprints of the original series I could find, and then found my way to more. This story of love, honour, betrayal, and being one with nature is a must-read for anyone from 8-80. If you find comic books a little daunting and/or simplistic, there are novels as well. Perhaps read those and then come back to the comics and allow them to fill in the blanks. A marvellous gift for a creative kid or an adult who hasn't lost that gleam in their eye.

Ayane Yamano's work is always top noth quality. Interesting stories, beautiful drawings. The only reason why I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 is that only a half of this manga is devoted to the Finder series. The rest are bonus stories that have nothing in common with the main story. They are very good themselves but I would have prefered less bonus, more main material :(

This book is a MUST have for any true yaoi fan. Beautifully erotic, dramatic, and action-packed. Ayano Yamane churns out believable, sexy characters and a plot that will have you begging for more. I loved it!!! Totally worth the buy!

The whole series of Finders books are hot, beautifully drawn, and have good story. The sex scenes are really quality. The creator knows how to give you just enough build-up, romantic tension, and character development before diving into quality sexing that gives your tummy flip-flops because of the tense character intrigue!

The art is meticulous, perfect! Thats why so many artists imitate her. I don't think there's a better manga artist out there in my opinion.

I completely love this series, but it's not for anyone who does not enjoy the prospect of explicit sexual scenes of men with other men. Everyone else can enjoy to the fullest! Truly lovely. Your eyes are drawn back and forth over the dark, stoic Asami and the shiny new penny Akihito. The play between them is palatable.

Akihito is a tabloid photographer, and Asami is a mob boss. Akihito is caught taking compromising pictures of a politician, and Asami and his goons corner him on a rooftop. They begin to interrogate the photographer, and none too nicely. Luckily Akihito daringly escapes before they could discover his source. Akihito even taunts the Yakuza as he clings to the side of the building he jumped from to elude them. Despite a warning from his source, a cop (and apparently father figure) named Yamazaki, Akihito goes on yet another assignment. Possibly one that Yamazaki has set Akihito up on. This gets him snagged by Asami and his men. It's a trap. Akihito had no idea, until Asami stares directly at his camera just as he takes a shot. (A lovely knowing smile on Asami's face in that shot!) What follows is the kidnaping and seriously hot debauching of poor Akihito. Lucky for Akhito, Asami seems to have done this once or twice. (Scoff!) He dances expertly on the line between cruelty and kindness. He teases Akihito with several things, the best among them was taunting him with his own camera by taking some choice shots of his very naked and vulnerable body. There are times when Asami's even quite tender, but he is always in complete control. He makes sure that Akihito enjoys himself very well in the end. Can you say "screaming orgasm"? I knew you could.

The morning after finds Akihito reflecting on the previous night. Attempting to retrieve the equipment left behind during his kidnapping, he stumbles upon a deal between another mob boss and his friend Yamazaki. Akihito waits until the Yakuza leave, then tells Yamazaki that he's ok with him dealing with the mob, that he trusts him and his judgement as a policemen. Stunned at being found out, Yamazaki draws his gun and aims for Akihito shakily. Asami steps out of the shadows. He's been there the whole time. He pushes Akihito out of the line of fire to the floor, stepping into that line himself to kill Yamazaki. The cops are called, and the scene is left with Akihito sitting on the dock crying and feeling used. Asami comes back and consoles Akihito. Angry that Asami has used him too, Akihito tells Asami that he will find out his weakness and use it to his advantage. Asami grinning cooly and smoking a cigarette says he looks forward to being in Akihito's viewvinder, and looking forward to having Akihito watching him.

There is more. It gets even better, (Wait 'till you see Fei Long!) but if this hasn't hooked you nothing that follows will. The artwork is full of excellent detail, and the expressions are beautiful and believable. Asami is sexy and sleek in his tailored and neat business suits, his eyes are part of a well controlled mask. They show just a little emotion, but the satisfaction is completely evident when he's with Akihito. I'd even say he can't quite help himself. Akihito's beauty is his youth and his innocence. His expressions are wild and uncontrolled. He wears the uniform of the young: jeans, t-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, layers that do little to hide his lithe masculine frame. There is no doubt by the end of the manga that Akihito is craving Asami's calculated cruelty every bit as much as Asami craves Akihito's crumbling resistance.

This is my first real yaoi. It's really good but very short for my taste. When it arrived I have thought: good, it's really thick, so I have a lot to read. But of 200 pages, less than 100 are about Akihito and Asami, the two main characters, and the other are all short stories by the same author (some really interesting, like Love Lesson).

Akihito is a young photoreporter; he captures the attention of Asami, a business man who probably is engaged in a drug traffic and with the mafia. Asami kidnaps Akihito and during a night of passion and non consensual sex, marks Akihito as his property. When he frees the boy the next day, Akihito knows he could never forget this domineering man. Everytime he meets him, he can't deny the passion he feels.

And Akihito lets the guy fly away everytime, knowing that he will return back to him. But he will do also everything to protect him from his enemies that could use Akihito as a pawn to draw him in a trap.

Akihito is really young. Maybe not in age, but in experience. But he has a strong wit and Asami is fascinating by his free spirit. And he is really possessive: Akihito could be free, but not free to fly in the arms of another man.

In this graphic novel Akihito is not ready to admit his desires for another man, above all a man with a not so clear past. If I had not yet ordered the next two books in this series I would be a lot disappointed in not knowing if ours two characters will continue their game of love.

The GIMP is a powerful image manipulation package, provided under a free software license. It is very much the PhotoShop of the open source world. This book is an excellent introduction and tutorial to the GIMP's many powerful features. However, it is not intended to be a user manual. There is a separate and complete user manual for the GIMP available on the web. This book is also available on the web, and it is published under an open-source license - although cleverly they don't mention this in the paper copy itself. However useful it is to have the on-line copy, I cannot stress enough the quality and value in having a hard copy of this book.
Each chapter covers a different theme including layers, selections, masks, color spaces and blending, photo touchup and enhancement, compositing, rendering and web-based image production (including animated GIFs and imagemaps). The material is thoughtfully presented as a series of walkthrough examples.
The physical production of the book itself is very good. Every page is in full color and each chapter's start has a color flash at the edge of the page to allow you to easily locate it. The content has been equally well thought out. There is a very comprehensive index. At the end of each chapter is a list of FAQs correcting common misunderstandings about that chapter's subject. All diagrams are very clear and instructive.
My only gripe with the book is that there is no overview of the use of the standard toolbox of tools. I feel a simple explanation of how to use the various painting controls at the start of the book would have set the context for some of the later chapters on the image manipulation facilities of the GIMP, which indeed is the main thrust of the package.
It has been several years since a major book on the GIMP was published. What would be great would be a book that focuses more on programming and on plugins specifically - how to write them and a description of the ones currently in circulation. The next book set to be published on the GIMP, "Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional" is due to be released in April 2006. Until its arrival, this is still the only book on the GIMP worth reading.
For those of you interested in the vast amount of GIMP plug-in source code, just type "Koders Search GIMP" into Google. The first link in the resulting list is what you want. From there you can search through the folders and find the source for the many GIMP plug-ins.

I have read through a lot of this book and it has helped me tremendously in understanding the basic concepts and techniques for creating and manipulating digital images and graphics using the GIMP. Although it does not cover plug-ins in any great detail, it does lay a solid foundation for learning and using them in the future. Aside from that, almost every other conceivable topic is covered.

After I finish reading this book, I am confident that I will be able to read through (and understand) the many GIMP tutorials available online without difficulty. If you are looking for a good introduction to image manipulation and the GIMP, this book does not fail to deliver in any regard.

I have referenced the on-line version of this book several times and found several useful ideas and techniques out of it---especially those dealing with color correction and enhancement. However, there is no comparison to actually haveing physical pages to flip through and seeing the photos "in person". After reading through this book, several other Photoshop tutorials available make much more sense as well. My only complaint is that there is not much attention paid to any use of plugins or "advanced" clone tool techniques for repairing marred photographs without destroying the natural film grain etc. Also, some of the keybinding shortcust appear to have changed, and his examples using Layer masks did not always work for me as described in the book. Overall, though, purchasing this book is a great way to support open-source projects and learn a good deal about the Gimp as well.

I have searched high and low for a decent book on the Gimp. There are a several, good references ("Learning the Gimp in 24 Hours", "Essential Gimp for Web Developers", etc.) though many are out dated due to the rapid progress progress the developers. The Gimp, an excellent example of what open source cooperation produces, is well represented in this book. The author illustrates the use of the Gimp with clear diagrams, concise descriptions, and excellent examples of the Gimp's functionality. Apart from the official Gimp documentation, this book has served me well.

Exelent introduction to a complex subject. Still up-to-date as the fundementals apparently have not changed in 7 years. A few menus have changed slightly but I found this not a problem. This book appears to be out of print but you can download the HTML version and read it on your computer. You'll be trying out all the techniques while you read, so you just need an extra window for the text. I found the writing concise, the organization logical, and the examples helpful. You will find that the GIMP user manual also covers this material but does not really teach you what to do with it. It's not easy to learn--I've been doing photography for years so I thought I'd pick it up just fooling around with the software. It's not so easy!

I'd never heard of Tennapel, and at first glance, this graphic novel looked a little too cartoony and goofy for my sensibilities. But it had cowboys and robots, so I was willing to give it some leeway. And while it is pretty slapstick and silly, I did end up having a fun time with the quickly paced genre blending story. Yeah, the humor's kind of broad, and the pacing is sometimes too rushed and hectic, but it's hard to go wrong when you combine a card-cheating reluctant hero in old California with elements like evil cowboy robots, a hooker with a heart of gold, an Miwok shaman, Sasquatch, an evil Transformer-like train robot, and the Loch Ness Monster. Somehow, these disparate elements work well together in Tennapel's able hands and fluid artwork. Good (mostly clean) fun.

What an outrageously joyous story. I had the pleasure of meeting the author for the first time at this year's Comic Con in San Diego. Very nice guy, and very humble. Iron West is actually my first exposure to TenNapel's work (besides Earthworm Jim). A friend lent his copy to me. I enjoyed it so much that I had to buy most of his work he had on display at Comic Con.

I highly recommend this book. I am not really into comics, but this is a great great starter to get you into it; if not into comics, then into TenNapel's wonderful creativity and imagination.

Doug TenNapel is an artist of many strengths. Most apparent to the casual observer is his incredible ability as an illustrator; he fashions some truly beautiful images and depicts motion with singular fluidity. His visuals alone would be enough to make his work worth checking out.

But there is much more to this guy than his drawings. He also happens to be one of the best storytellers around, one whose characters and situations are exceptionally compelling. None of the people or events in his stories ever feel like filler or formula. They all contribute beautifully to the work as a whole, be that contribution a thoughtful reflection on faith and morality or be it a good old-fashioned fart joke.

"Iron West," while it does carry a well-stated moral about responsibility and integrity, focuses more heavily on silliness than TenNapel's last few books. Whereas there is a good amount of philosophizing and allegory to be found in his "Creature Tech" (one of my very favorite graphic novels), TenNapel presents "Iron West" as more of a straight ahead romp. But it never, ever feels shallow or empty; it just feels incredibly fun. TenNapel pulls disparate elements--cowboys, robots, and numerous surprises which I would not want to ruin--into a coherent whole. Everything gels, and it does so in unpredictable and constantly delightful ways.

This is one of the most truly entertaining graphic novels I have ever read. I highly recommend it, as well as Doug TenNapel's other excellent books. "Creature Tech" is my personal favorite and an excellent place to start, but "Iron West" is tough to beat if you're in the market for a wild, bizarre, and truly satisfying ride.

Iron West has a sense of action and cool that I just don't see in the vast library of whiny emotional alternative comics that turn up every year. Still, I must admit the thought of a western sci-fi tale didn't really catch my attention at first, but knowing that the art would be great, that was enough to get me sold. Don't get me wrong, the art itself is reason enough to buy Iron West, as I have filpped through the pages just admiring it, but Iron West also has a fun story to back TenNapel's incredible style.

If you haven't figured out by now, the story of Iron West starts out with the protaganist, Preston Struck, being chased down by a group of bounty hunters, when he discovers a race of lethal robot cowboys and has to make the decision to save his town from being overrun. In the process of all this he faces a sasquatch, a shaman who is part of a colony of robot "Injuns" (Indians), and a giant train transformer with a western flare. Like his art, It's weird, and thats what makes it so interesting and worth your time. The whole story is non-stop action just like it should be. Surprisingly this is also the funniest of TeNapels's books and made me laugh quite a few times, something other GN's of this type don't even try at.

Iron West looks great, reads great, and is great. There really is no reason you shouldn't pick it up. Sure, it could have been longer but whats here is so good its more than forgivable. highly recommended.

Iron West is another in a line of great, entertaining graphic novels from Doug TenNapel. All of the classic TenNapel trademarks are there - it is somewhat quirky, kinetic action, humor, a few thought provoking moments, and a well crafted story.

Iron West is a "genre blender" mixing the obvious western themes with a bit of sci-fi, and then adds a touch of fantasy just to take an already frantic action sequence to a new level. But it is handled with such skill that you don't even notice the blending of genres by this point. You are too wrapped up in the story being played out in front of you to register the fact that yet another genre element has been put into the mix.

TenNapel's art in Iron West is his best so far. As other reviews have mentioned, his characters have a look that leans toward "cartoony" but retains the detail of texture and features and even personality that make them real to the reader. His backgrounds (and sometimes lack thereof) always seem to work perfectly to the advantage of the story. He doesn't over-render a lot of detail when it isn't needed, and knows the power of a more abstract background that often plays with the foreground and negative space. But then there are the full page establishing shots, full of texture and detail enough to put you right into the setting with the characters.

Story wise - it is purely and simply fun. I'm sure there could be some deeper meanings read into it about technology and it's de-personalizing effect on humanity, but these are never heavy handed or feel forced. The plot is a roller coaster ride that reminded me of an Indiana Jones movie - just when you think there is a moment to catch your breath, here comes something else. Iron West has an action/adventure movie feel to it that transcends its own blending of genre elements. In other words - it is fun and entertaining. Purely and simply.

The only drawback I have found is that it seems too short. But a lot of that has to do with the fact that there are very few slow moments and a lot of action, chase scenes, battles with robots, and then of course there is the Sasquatch doing what appears to me to be some sort of kung-fu/WWE Wrestling combination while killing clockwork cowboys. And I didn't even mention the Loch Ness Monster...

Fans of TenNapel's previous work will not be disappointed. Those unfamiliar with the wonderful world of Doug will get a great idea of the blend that is TenNapel's unique style. This mad scientist mixture of a graphic novel succeeds where so many other genre-blending attempts have failed; it manages to make you forget there are genres being combined. Western, science fiction, action adventure, monster movie - whatever. By the time the "final battle" is taking place, you won't even notice. You'll be too busy enjoying the story.

Cute book. Very funny and insightful. Helped me figure out that my neighbor was gay. I shared it with him. We both had a good laugh.

The best thing you can do with this book is to give this as a gift to a friend who is dating a gay man, and who thinks that she isn't.

The best thing about this book is that it walks through the steps of a gay man/straight woman relationship, and talks about it from the woman's point of view. It has a section: "What the woman is telling herself," that is very informative.

I don't think there are any gay men who match up 100% to the checklist that this book ends up being, but like I said, I think that this book is more a tool for coping than for anything else.

Technical stuff: This book is written in a comic book format--mostly pictures. I finished this book in about 10 minutes. It's pretty small, too. Only 80 pages.

Overall, an excellent buy, especially since they are selling so cheap used on amazon now.

I bought this for a female friend who doesn't know I'm gay after we debated whether someone else was or not. (She assumes that all effiminate men are gay and that all gay men are effiminate, - I had to laugh to myself as she said this and I butched myself up even more than normal!)

The book has some annoying stereo-types, like all gay men are great dancers (I'm not), but since it's clearly tongue-in-cheek and a quick read, it's great for a few good chuckles to any one, gay, straight, male or female.

This book is a witty, entertaining, enlightening look at a quandary faced by so many young women who are plagued with wonderful guy friends that just don't seem to date ANYone. One of my best friends referred this to me who is a closeted gay man. This book not only made me laugh, but I didn't feel as dumb as I used to. Sometimes, gay men seem to be the answer to all of your problems; but then again, there is one thing that a gay man just CAN'T do for a woman...so we have to love them for what they can do for us...

I received this book as a gift from my best friend, who happens to be a gay man. This book tells you all the signs (which are just general, but mostly true) to look for in a guy, and has some of the cutest illustrations. I would recommend this book to any woman out there who thinks she might have picked up a gay best friend instead of a boyfriend.

Yeah nice book, can't wait to get in the bathroom to read some more, 3D animation
is making a big red ring around my a _ _ , Empire of the Sun is starting I'll sit here and watch that too! It's cold in here, is that true about cold surfaces and what they do to your *&#%@^( ?

The book, 1001 Tips & Tricks, has straightforward techniques approach to Learning Advanced LightWave Skills and Knowledge. I purchased Timothy Albee's Lightwave 3D, "Getting Started Guide" which came with my purchase of the program, LightWave from Newtek. The Book got me started back in 2005. (A general skills book covers a broad range of LightWave. But does not get too deep, which is good for beginners.)

I was very interested in and loved cartooning and character creation in 3D. So I purchased Jonny Gorden's "Cartoon Character Creation-Volume 2". If ya don't know and wanna learn Rigging right, get this book. Jonny be getting off with his techniques in this bad boy. Loved the book.

(Jonny's book covers A through Z in Rigging and Animation mostly plus overviews on general knowledge stuff as well. But since I already learned the basics with "Getting Started" I was able to get deep into Jonny's techniques.)

I was a professional Graphic Designer who wanted to move over to the 3D world, I desired to be a power-user at 3D animation. So I purchased Dan Alban's "LightWave [8]," extremely good learning tool. Dan's book got my doing just about anything I could imagine.

(In Depth book cover almost everything. Big pictures illustrations and nicely written make learn easier. Ya gotta get this one.)

But in some areas I was still creating very slowly. Like how to optimize a detailed and completed scene for a render farm, so that I could not only render, but also render scenes very fast. How to build a scene for a real movie that would render quicker than if I built it another way.

For example, I built a scene which took four months to render on a 4 node render farm of fast G5 with 2 gigs of Ram. I'm thinking that, I've got to be able to create the same scene, but in such as that it would render in say, two weeks. I wanted to learn the fastest power moves, since I work alone in my home studio. I do not have peers and co-worker to exchanged knowledge with

Then, I order this book, and it fit the bill. It helps to complete my learning needs and answered and reconfirmed, other books and technique that I pick up off of the Internet.

This is an excellent book it is a most get. Although I got it for advanced how tos; there is beginner level help here as well. A lot of the dudes and dudettes that I've learned from through downloading Internet QuickTime movies from the Newtek website and other places, these movies are excellent show and tell ways to learn. But with expressions and certain dynamic it is good to have it in a book form as well.

(Since there are so many experts contributing to this book, you get a really balanced guide to knowledge. If you are going to be a power-user, this book completes the other books and knowledge that I have accumulated. You got to it as well.) "1000 Tips and Tricks," book is worth every penny of the cost.

I'm one of the authors, so take that into account. Still, there are around thirty authors total so I'm at most 1/30th biased.

That being said, this is a real standout among LightWave books and one I'm proud to be part of. The strength is in the numbers - never before have you gotten such a wide and varied number of opinions in one place. Because there are so many different approachs to creating 3D art, this book is really a must own and it's a book you'll go back to again and again. I keep a copy on my desk, within easy reach and I pick it up for reference or for some quick reading during a render.

It also covers a wide variety of topics, from lighting to surfacing to LScripts. Not every tip is something I agree with, but that's the beauty of this book - there's just so much information here that you'll be finding new things to think about or to add to your work for years to come.

The blurbs about this book are right. There are no other places I have found for the kind and quality of information contained in this book... at least for a non-super expert in Lightwave 3D.

Yet at the same time, there is much redundancy within the book itself (several tips are essentially identical) and with the reference manual provided by NewTek.

So there are really quite a few less than 1001 super neat and fantabulous tips and tricks here, but there are plenty enough to make the purchase a valuable addition to your reference library for LW8.

Without wasting time here...if you're a Lightwaver, you should get this book. Put the bills on hold, if necessary, and eat cereal for a week. :-) As a beginning - intermediate Lightwave user/student, I've bought and read most of the new Lightwave books, and this one is the most valuable, by far. Having this book lying beside your computer is like having 30+ Lightwave gurus at your elbow, whispering their secrets in your ear as you model, texture, and render. There's nothing out there like it...well, Killer Tips maybe but 1001 T & T has tons more information. If ever a book deserves a 5 star rating, this is it.

I had all of the items shown in the book as a kid so paging through it was a big trip down memory lane. It reminded me of a lot of fun times.

This book does not cover everything Mego, but its a wonderful collection of photos and important information. I recommend the book for any Mego collector.

Simply put this is a fantastic book. It is a walk down memory lane for Mego fans who had the pleasure to grow up with these wonderful action figures in the 1970s. The photographs are splendid and bring to life Mego's WGSH line. The author's attention to detail cannot be matched by any other book out there that purports to touch upon this fine line of Mego action figures. If you are debating between Mego books to buy, please don't pass this book up. It is a decision you will regret a year or so from now when you are trying to track down this book from online auction sites, etc. For anyone looking for a wonderful trip into the past, jump on and enjoy the ride!!!

No complaints here! Excatly as a MEGO book should be done with lots of color pics!

Very nice history of the Mego Company. Mego was one of the premier toy manufacturers in the Seventies. If you had any of these toys as a child this book will bring back memories. The book is also very detailed in which figures were released when and with what accesories which should satisfy any collectors. Be advised this book covers ONLY Greatest Super Heroes, just as the title suggest. For some reason I had expected the Star Trek and Planet of the Apes line would be included. My fault. Never the less, this book more than made up for it. Great for the avid collector or the person who wants to relive his or her childhood.

I think based on the reviews below - you get the drift. Those reviews speak for themselves (and the book). I don't need to repeat every thing noted by the other reviewers. It's a great book and I learned more than I would have ever thought.

Don't let the 800 pages scare you off. The diagrams and the tutorial flights are just awesome. I have been flying MSFS since way back in the early days. The interest over the years has come and gone and I would skip a version here and there... then FSX hit the market. I since have turned this interest into a full fledged hobby. Everything from a TrackIR, Matrox (3 screens), Rudder pedals, yokes,good PC and a full set of navigational charts and IAPs - I thought I had it all together and knew everything there was to learn. What I found out from this book, I had barely scratched the surface. What I was missing was real world knowledge. This book has tied it all together and has made my hobby seem almost as authentic as the real deal. Now I can go any place at anytime in any aircraft.

Great great book! Do yourself a favor and invest the tiny expense (relative to the rest of this hobby) and enjoy. Remember, it's all about the journey and not the finish line. Soak up the knowledge that these authors have penned for your simming pleasure!

If you would like more information or would like to discuss simming in general feel free to contact me at fly-bman2006@hotmail.com

Bman.

I've had all the Microsoft Flight Simulators since 1985 and have always winged it when it came to flying. That works but I never really knew what I was doing. I think this book is the best I've seen so far in helping one to learn to fly with the reasons why. Links to downloadable files are an extra bonus that expand the contents. The author also ties his content in with the lessons in the Simulator Program. Very comprehensive coverage.

I got this book and was amazed! It is a huge book and has everything in it. I have only started and this book has all the details and covers pretty much everything you need.

My opinion is anybody who gives this book less than five stars is REALLY hard to please or has some pet peeve they can't turn loose of.

I have spent (wasted in many cases) lots of money and time on GA training books in the past and ignored this one for quite a while as "just another book on flying." When I saw the price drop below $20, I decided to take a risk. Wow! This could be the best training book I have every bought. I hate to be dramatic about that but honestly, I probably have fifteen books of this nature and this is the clearest, most well laid out of any of them. I love the way the authors bring FSX into the training as yet another tool to help you practice your technique. The online material (especially the films) are very helpful too. It is obvious these guys did not write this book because they are "professional authors" but because they really do love flight training.

This book is a labor of love and you would do yourself a disservice by passing it by.

This book is what I was looking for and did not find in Bruce Williams'Flight Simulator as a Training Aid. The authors are Real Pilots who have painstakingly incorporated their vast experience into a very readable and often entertaining soup to near nuts FSX-based teaching tool. I have been using the book for the last three weeks in preparation for a ten day intensive IFR training course. The proof of the West Cummings book's success will come with my flying pudding a few more weeks hence when I get checked out. I get the feeling I'll do ok which will be in no small measure due to the comprehensive and well organized approach taken in the book.
Hightly Recommended for real or simulated piloting.

This is a phenomenal book for PS use - I'm sorry I had already bought other books. I'll probably never look at those other books again, and will end up selling them.

I was skeptical of getting a CS3 book since most of the ones I've perused were a bit much, relying on adept knowledge on CS2. This book, however, has been so easy to read and understand, I can't put it down!
It has a wealth of how-tos and information on effective photoshop CS3 editing. Highly recommended!

As a web designer I've been using Photoshop professionally for years. I've also worked on lots of photographs, both my own and those I've gotten from clients. I don't need a how to book on layers, cropping and levels. I've got a good understanding of the basic Photoshop tools, and have benefitted from Scott Kelby's Photoshop CS for Photographers. But Kelby's book is a recipe book both useful and well presented, but I want more.

What I want to do now is take my own photography to another level. Past a certain point, improving becomes less a matter of collecting tricks and recipes and more a matter of learning the entire workflow from experts. For that a basic how-to cookbook is no longer of much use to me. I could probably spend a lot of time working out a good workflow and set of procedures through trial and error, but why not take advantage of the experience of those who have already taken the art of nature photography editing to a high place?

Enter Photoshop CS3 for Nature Photographers. As one reviewer has stated, much of the introductory Photoshop material is covered in other books, but not in quite the same way. Photoshop has many tools, each of which has many settings and options. It's perfectly possible to be familiar with one tool or filter in one context and not realize that it can be used in combination with another tool to achieve a completely different result. I once read that when Einstein proposed his theory of relativity maybe three people in the world understood it. I wonder if more than three people in the world completely understand all of what can be done with Photoshop. What I was looking for and found here is an expansion of my Photoshop horizons, a deeper exploration of the art and science of nature photography and photo editing.

Anon and Grey offer an excellent look over the shoulder of experts in both practice of nature photography and in the use of Photoshop as a digital darkroom. I can't emphasize strongly enough how helpful that approach is for someone who has some Photoshop chops or who has used the program for another end and who wants to get great results with nature photos. Their workflow is time tested and produces excellent results

And nature photograph editing benefits from following a slightly different approach from that of product photography, with which I have some experience, portraiture, photojournalism and so on. Again, I'm struck with how specific and helpful the presented workflow, and the mindset that using such a workflow creates is. And placing editing in context with a specific photographic goal informs my picture taking too.

I recommend this book to anybody interested in nature photography who has at least some experience with Photoshop, though a dedicate beginner could work through the introductory phases with this volume. For someone who has used Photoshop in another context and wants to expand into the nature photography realm this book is brilliant.

I gave this book as a gift, so I am quoting the recipient:
"The book gives a clear, well-written overview of both basic and advanced photoshop techniques geared toward editing nature photographs. One of the strenghts of the book is that it presents the differing views and techniques of two seasoned and highly skilled photographers. The explanations are clear, and the book proceeds logically through the various steps associated with the tools and features of photoshop CS3. A special treat are the beautiful photographs that illustrate the techniques discussed in the book. The methods presented by the authors are not necessarily limited to nature photography, and can be applied to a broad range of photographic subject matter. Very highly recommended."

I bought this book based on several positive reviews and also because of the focus on "nature photography". I was not displeased with it, but I was kind of disappointed. Most of the techniques given were stuff that could be found in almost any of the "how-to" books on Photoshop. Mostly it was just workflow, and workflow for nature photography vs other types of photography is not so different that a whole book can (or should) be written about it. On the bright side, I did pick up a couple of tips and techniques that I hadn't seen in other books. I was also pleased to note that the authors drew a distinction between documentary nature photography and nature photography to "make a pretty picture". They feel that so long as the photograph is not said to be representational of a moment in time, there's nothing wrong with compositing and modifying it to make it more aesthetically pleasing or artistic. Some of the resulting compositions are fabulous, and capture the "mood" of a scene beautifully. Since most readers of this book are likely to be shooting for their own pleasure primarily, this was good information.

Bottom line - if you have other Photoshop CS3 "how-to" books, you can pass this up, as there's virtually nothing that hasn't been told many times over. But, if you're fairly new to PS, focus primarily on landscape and/or nature, and are only going to invest in a couple of "how-to" books, then go ahead and get this one.

As much as I respect the old Fleicher Studios for producing some wonderful Popeye cartoons that became an integral part of establishing him as a worldwide phenomenon I think they did him no favor in moving him into an urban environment. Popeye is at his very best, as a sailor, adventuring on the open seas. Nobody wrote or drew Popeye like Elzie Segar. Unfortunately, Mr. Segar passed away at the very young age of 43 having created Popeye a mere 9 years earlier. So what we have here is over a year and a half of Popeye's absolute best run ever.

This is not the Popeye most people are used to. This is the Popeye that existed prior to being significantly toned down at the behest of William Randolph Hearst in response to the characters growing popularity. This Popeye is a violent, foul mouthed sailor with a serious gambling addiction. Few able bodied males outside of the diminutive Castor Oyl manage to gets through the book without receiving one of Popeye's famous haymakers and I have to give credit to Elzie Segar for his skill in drawing the most thunderous, teeth rattling punches in the history of comics. In the opening introduction there is a group drawing by Segar of a menagerie of characters from Thimble Theater including a most mild-mannered looking fellow named Johnny Doodle. I thought surely Mr. Doodle would be safe from Popeye's fists but sure as the sun rises in the east, before the book was through Johnny Doodle was left horizontal.

In one particularly funny sequence Popeye punches out a man for no apparent reason. When asked why, Popeye answers, "I don't need a reason... I socks `em where I sees `em, I leaves `em where I socks `em". Queried further Popeye responds, "I jus wanted to see which way he'd fall" and finally adds, "I likes to smack tall swabs on account of they fold up so nice" Later it turned out the man he socked was a crook but when it gets right down to it the humor of Popeye revolves around his burning desire to punch everyone he meets and Castor Oyl's vain attempt to control it. Popeye is a man who kills a horse with a single crushing blow. In volume one Popeye is arrested multiple times on assault charges and proudly proclaims, "I hits cops too - I hit's `em jus' like they was somebody else" In a sense the original Popeye seems almost like a parody of his future self.

I absolutely loved this book. A few reviewers complained about size of the images saying they caused eyestrain but I didn't have any problems at all. My biggest complaint is with the gigantic dimensions of the book. I would have preferred something similar to what was produced for the Dick Tracy or Peanuts collections. I also have to confess that the covers are absolutely bewildering. I'm not sure what the publisher was going for but I don't think it worked. I guess I also have to take issue with the introduction which really didn't do anything for me. In the end it's the brilliance of Elzie Segar's drawings and writing that makes this volume. I've already purchased volume 2 and intend to continue buying them as they are released.

Popeye shows up as a natural man. A flawed, older man who has lived a hard life. He is profligate and has low impulse control. He shoots craps whenever he has excess cash. He lies when convenient; but, deep down he is a decent guy who will give the shirt off his back to anyone that neds it. No wonder he was popular. Read these comics and reaqlize that people haven't changed all that much.

Simply one of the finest books I've purchased in recent memory. I own many of the earlier Fantagraphics-published Popeye books ("The Complete E.C. Segar Popeye" series) and this book is a far better product and value. I particularly applaud the removal of the sydicate-added titles and by-lines above the daily strips that were included in the above-mentioned books. Their omission makes for a smooth read. Much praise, also, for the far superior production and design on the book. And the fact that I can get all the material in six volumes including all the color Sundays as opposed to what was previously published in well over a dozen volumes almost twenty years ago? Sweet news, indeed.

I won't go into the brilliance and relevance of the book's content, others better qualified have and will do so here and elsewhere. This book and its forthcoming volumes are essential. I'm so pleased they finally did the material real justice.

It's designed well and it looks great on my shelf. It is very interesting and a joy to read. If you are a fan of the old-time comic strip, this is a treat. If you are not, you will be when you finish.

Be sure to eat not only spinach but lots of carrots before tackling this one.

Even so, you'll likely need a magnifying glass to read these strips. Who's bright idea was it to cram six strips onto a 10.5 x 14-inch page? It made for some serious squinting when I checked this out at my local comic book store.

And at 10.5 x 14-plus inches, this book hardly makes for cozy reading material.

Bad book design and layout have made what could have been more accessible material a real chore. I like the dimensions of Tony Millionaires' Maakies books: one strip per page, and look ma! no squinting!