Graphics Books

This product showed up speedily and in very good condition. I am very happy with it.

This epidsode will make you want to continue on to the next issues. Its fun, its sad, and it's entertaining.

I own this series in Japanese, and it is a wonderful read! It has all the important elements of a good shoujo manga: it is romantic, twisted, with a shoujo (in the traditional meaning of the word) involved in finding a new family and love triangles galore. It is just a very fun read, no matter the language!

This volume was definately one of the best so far. It was so good, it surprised me! No part of this volume is boring. I loved the parts with Kureno (he's one of my favorite characters), and the class trip was the best! This volume raises LOTS of questions, those of which you'll have to find out for yourself. But trust me, this volume is so worthy of the $10 you'll have to spend, that I'll read it again after just reading it yesterday! Take my advice, you will love this volume. Fruits Basket really does put all else to shame!

I absolutly love this series. While at first it may seen strange you just can't help falling in love with the characters (<3 kyo) and their whole story. Before you know it you end up rooting along with the characters on their journies. While they are aimed at a teenage audience my mom aunt and 12 year old brother even enjoy them! This series was the first Manga I had ever read and its what actually got me started on reading manga and enjoying it. I Absolutly cannot wait until the 14th book comes out...
I highly recommend this series to everyone of all ages.

All this book is, is a collection of the daily comic from the last book with very little new material. I don't think they've created any new material for this strip sense Liz and John ended up together.

I got this book in a 3-pack and could hardly stop laughing. Jim Davis has really reached his pinnacle of humor! Buy the book!

Garfield is funny when kicking odie off the table,playing with mice,being lazy,and hating mondays all in in this book...... Garfield feeds the kitty

I have two cats. They are both fat and lazy. I think the only difference between my cats and Garfield is they these do not particpate in the weddings of the mice. This is book is funny. Buy it! Read it! Enjoy it! and don't forget to LAUGH!

No matter what kind of a mood I'm in, I'm always entertained by reading Garfield comic strips. I have no problem admitting that, even though I'm in my early twenties. I think it's a very hilarious strip and it gets better with every year. "Garfield: Feeds the Kitty" is yet another very amusing collection of funny Garfield strips.

Laugh along as Garfield takes on dieting, Mondays, his owner Jon, the very not-so-bright Odie, smart-aleck mice who always get the last laugh, and much more. With Garfield, you know it's never a dull day (even if HE finds it dull).

Again, Jim Davis never misses a beat with making Garfield funny and entertaining. While some strips are funnier than others, the overall product is very satisfying. You'll want to re-read the book over and over again. It's a great read, especially when you need some cheering up.

The 35th book in the Garfield series, "Garfield: Feeds the Kitty" is a very hilarious collection of Garfield hijinx that you won't want to miss out on. If you're a Garfield fan, I highly recommend you checking it out. Always nice to have something that is bound to get a laugh or two from you.

I just love these cards, they are exactly what I wanted. My friend hates them they are too creepy for her but I wanted something dark, and this is exactly what I was looking for. Lots of vampires and skeletons.
Beautiful artwork, and I always get accurate readings with them.
I was able to see a sample of the cards on another website. ( forgot which one ) so just google for gothic tarot and eventually you will find them. It was cheaper to buy them from Amazon though.
A great deck for those who like dark things.

This Tarot is beautiful, easy to use if you are familiar with the Rider-Waite Tarot, and definitely not for the faint of heart. If you are looking for a "happy" answer, this deck is not for you. If you love to court your darker nature and desire to understand it, then jump in and enjoy.

The art work is incredible, the images profound yet simple. The card stock is thick enough to be able to withstand numerous uses but not so thick shuffling is a problem. I recommend this to anyone who has a desire to work with their own darker natures.

Joseph Vargo's Gothic Tarot is by far the most visually impressive tarot deck to come along in many years. Not only is the deck a veritable mini gallery of his numerous, popular gothic fantasy images, the Gothic Tarot is a meticulously detailed divination tool that faithfully adheres to traditional tarot symbolism. Vargo scrupulously adapted and altered many of his famous paintings and renderings to accurately reflect the accepted meanings of each card, making this deck a true "working" deck that tarot users should embrace. The vivid, crisply reproduced images and heavy, durable cardstock likewise make the Gothic Tarot an aesthetically satisfying and functional deck that is light years beyond the tired Rider-Waite deck, which has inexplicably dominated the tarot world for years. The Rider-Waite deck's annoying menagerie of poorly rendered medieval caricatures in pantaloons is no match for Vargo's lushly painted warrior angels, sinister vampires, supernatural seductresses and fearsome stone gargoyles. Unlike many tarot decks, Vargo's cards illustrate a richly imagined world of mystical, otherworldly forces, both light and dark, thus making the Gothic Tarot one of the few truly serious tarot specimens on the market.

What an extraordinarily mesmerizing offering this is, but unfortunately, it isn't a Tarot deck. This is a graphic novel, or a coffee table book of Gothic art. We both really like the art and the overall concept of the deck, but the story just isn't in the cards in the traditional sense, which would make it difficult for a novice reader to draw on the imagery during their interpretation of a spread.

The palette is very dramatic and overall they hit that perfect, with the exception of a few cards. The cards labeled as Justice, Wheel of Fortune, Knight of Swords, and Knight of Wands seem like they are from a completely different deck that somehow became accidentally mixed in, they don't appear to be from the same palette. Also, the Death and Temperance cards feature a red sky that works within the palette, but there isn't a correlation between change and patience, or an element to draw upon for this distinction. The Tower and Ten of Swords cards would have been better served with the red sky.

The four Aces are very well done with each item in gray metal against a very elaborate red silk wrought iron background. However, the twos and threes of each suit are merely two and three of each item respectively, with some facial extrusions and crows thrown in. The one exception, and what very well could be the most traditionally accurate depiction in the entire deck, is the Three of Swords.

The LWB (Little White Book) that comes with the deck provides the traditional interpretation of the cards along with a brief explanation of the Mystic Seven and Celtic Cross spreads. It would have been nice to have a full-length book explaining the reason, if any, for the choices that were made in regards to the artwork on the individual cards. Two examples of our inability to interpret would be the Ten of Pentacles and the Ten of Cups. The Ten of Pentacles; "the fruition of a lifetime's worth of hard work, financial and emotional security, etc." This is quoted from the book included with the Gothic Tarot deck. The card depicts a man carrying a dead or unconscious woman down stone steps. The Ten of Cups from the included book; "the heart at ease, a content family life, inner peace and tranquility, love, safety, etc." Portrayed on the card is a winged female vampire over a dead or unconscious man.

Aside from the aforementioned limiting aspects for reading with this deck, the card stock is flimsy, and will not withstand shuffling without showing immediate wear and tear on the cards. As we mentioned above, we do like the art and general concept of the Gothic Tarot deck, we just won't do any readings with it, and perhaps that was what they had intended all along.

[...]

It's my business to catch the overtones of the soul... the ghosts of beings highly organized enough to have looked on Hell and known the meaning of what they saw.
--Richard Upton Pickman, in H.P. Lovecraft's "Pickman's Model"


If there is a modern artistic successor to Richard Pickman, surely it must be Joseph Vargo. Vargo draws like H.P Lovecraft writes -- his work does more than illustrate or describe; it creates feelings of melancholy and dread that give his works emotional impact, drawing the observer deep into the world of the dark and sinister. In his images of graveyards you can almost smell the cool, damp, moldy air as it gently blows by. That WAS just the wind, right? -- or was it something less tangible, something that should have been left deep within the mind, but somehow escaped to pass by almost unnoticed in the night. Many of his creatures are hideous, yet also convey a sense of sympathetic humanity: one just has to ask, what's it like to be a gargoyle?

The Gothic Tarot is a collection of Vargo's artwork cleverly arranged in the form of a Tarot deck. In some ways, this is a traditional Tarot deck -- the arrangement roughly follows the Golden Dawn lineage, though some interesting adaptations and interpretations prevent this deck from being considered an RWS "clone." On the other hand, the images are not the usual, standard Rider-Waite or Marseilles graphics re-cast in some particular theme. The images stand on their own, and are art works in their own right, whose meaning is enhanced by presenting them in the Tarot framework. This concept of using the Tarot as a medium for presenting the images, as opposed to the usual process of creating images that follow the expected Tarot format, is one of the features of this deck that places it well outside -- and imaginatively beyond -- the usual flurry of clones.

The deck follows the traditional Marseilles arrangement of Major Arcana, suits and court cards. Most of the artwork is in Vargo's usual tones of bluish grey set against black borders and backgrounds, suggesting ancient stonework and forgotten graveyards lit by the moon on a dark night. There are notable exceptions, particularly among the Major Arcana: the Fool is Vargo's "Realm of Shadows," showing a ghostly figure in a stone archway with an eerie green luminescence, to which a large wolf was added for the Tarot version. The Emperor is Count Dracula himself, with details added in blood red. Red dominates Death and Temperance (adapted from Vargo's "Sorceress"), while greens return in the Devil. The Minor Arcana are, for the most part, moonlit style art to which the appropriate number of wands, cups, swords, or pentacles have been added. The backs are black with Vargo's "Realm Icon" in red; the backs are not reversible, though why that should matter is beyond me, since most readers read the fronts and not the backs.

The small booklet that accompanies the deck gives some short interpretations for the cards, and suggested layouts for reading them. This is only minimally useful, mostly for those who read only occasionally, or have only a passing interest in the Tarot. A more useful book has recently appeared: "The Gothic Tarot Compendium," written by Joseph Vargo and Joseph Iorillo, is a far more comprehensive guide to the cards and their interpretation. Each card is illustrated in black and white, along with a divinatory meaning, description of the card, and more extensive notes on the background and interpretation of the artwork.

The trouble with this kind of thing is that the interpretations found in any book or booklet are those of one individual, arising out of that individual's background and understanding, which may be very different from yours. Further, reading Tarot cards according to keywords or one-liners amounts to the same thing as reading fortune cookies, and misses the whole point of the Oracle. A Tarot card does not "mean" what any book or expert -- or even its author -- says it means. It "means" what it draws forth from your own imagination, and skill in reading the cards does not mean learning any system or set of meanings, but rather learning how to immerse your own consciousness in the imagery of the card. The Tarot is not about your "personality" or your own situations; it is about Poe's "vast formless things that shift the scenery to and fro" -- the invisible, impersonal forces of spirit and nature that shape the events of past, present and future. The wind is not about you, the movement of the sun and stars is not about you, but those things can affect you, and how you interact with then can affect the past, present and future. That is what the Tarot is about: understanding those forces, how they affect you, and how your own consciousness interacts with them.

This is particularly true of the Gothic Tarot -- its imagery is unusually rich in feeling tones and imaginative depth, and how its images affect you cannot be determined a priori. Take, for example, The Chariot. In most decks, I find this card somewhat ambiguous and shallow. But in the Gothic Tarot, it is very different. The image is that of a dark carriage with a ghostly, top-hatted driver, drawn by two fiery red-eyed horses, through a fog-shrouded woodland of bare-branched trees. The Compendium tells us that, "The Chariot teaches us to take the reins and steer your life in the direction you truly wish to pursue." Bah. When I first saw this card, I immediately thought of Count Dracula's carriage, carrying poor Renfield to his fate. Like, he truly wished to pursue THAT? No, fate is, as Idries Shah quotes an Islamic teaching, "An endless succession of intertwined events, each influencing the other." The Chariot is a card of forces in motion, and not entirely under your own control. You may, however, have some control over how those forces affect you, and in turn how your actions can affect those forces.

I discuss these matters because, more than any other deck, the images of the Gothic Tarot have an imaginative richness that puts it in a class by itself. Of course, you have to like the images and the theme for it to work in this way. You also need to spend a great deal more time with this deck -- it doesn't wear its meanings on its sleeves. If dark imagery appeals to you, then you may find the Gothic Tarot to be the best deck you have ever used.

Linda Barry nails tweener angst. And her drawings are so different from anyone else's, they're mesmerizing.

I read the "Marlys" comicstrip back when it appeared in DC's City Paper. Marlys, her friends, her mother are drawn in gorgeous and grotesque panel-cartoon style. Barry's characters are bizarre yet familiar. The angst is universal. Think Gidget on acid: a super gift book to delight a funky friend.

If your a long time fan or have never heard of Lynda Berry this is a book you must own. For the first timer the drawings might seem alittle rough,(but you get past that real quick and realize its perfect)just like the stories about Marlys. I love Lynda Berry and her work. Iv followed the stories of Marlys since the early 80's. I can so relate to Marlys and her environment and I think many others will too. Im not a writer just a huge fan so I hope you all will give it a peek and find out for yourselves. Matt Groening (creator of Simpsons) says "Lynda Berry rocks".

Wow! Number one!! This book captures the feeling of childhood in an amazingly touching fashion.

I love Marlys and her goofiness. She is alternately hilarious (as when she describes all the different methods of fake smoking, such as the gum cigarrette with its realistic coughing, or a hot dog, for when you're having hobo feelings) and touching (as when she describes her sister's threat to kill herself when the tree outside loses its last leaf - which prompts Marlys to glue a bunch of leaves back onto the tree). I love how she reminds me so poignantly of the bossy kid that I was, and the wacky things that kids think. This book is way worth it.

This is a benchmark book for interactive design. It separates the design process into information design, interactive design and presentation design. Those who head the process and focus on information design tasks at the beginning of an interactive project will find that costs are lower.

Information design changes are easiest at the beginning of a project and create large cost problems at the end.

If you have proceeded with good information design then interactive design and costs are much less difficult and less expensive.

Finally if you have made good information design and interactive design decisions, then you have a vast arrays of how to present the final product. It is at this stage the costs the highest with graphic designers, video producers, web developers, programmers and so on.

Read the book and memorize the process.

The book promised a lot based on previous readers' reviews and the publishing house's reputation but I was disappointed with its contents. The information is well presented but too simplistic. Lacking any further elaboration this book is of little use if you have some experience in the field of interactive design. A good brain-storming session at home would come up with the same findings of this book.

I have had this book for 4+ years. I loaned it to a friend once who didn't return it, so I bough another one.

Among the dozens of books I own and read on usability or project management, etc. this one is fantastic - a real stand-out.

The one drawback is that it's not as contemporary/up-to-the-minute as newer books. [shrug]

This is nicely organized, introduces important concepts and explains them in plain english. I used it as a textbook for a multimedia class and it was well received.

You will not find fancy tricks and designs, but you will get a good overview of multimedia, interface design and project management. It is 'outdated' so it is not suitable for experts but its information is excellent for an intro class, especially for people with little graphics experience.

For once, someone makes the distinction between information design, interaction design and presentation design. This book was invaluable in helping our division more clearly define our process for product development.

Basquiat is one of my favorite artists. I was first captivated by his works that were used in conjunction with Mya Angelou's poem Life Don't Frigten Me None. I was entranced by his art! I looked all over for a book that would give me a retrospective of his art. I found it. This book is wonderful. Great color great art work. Check it out. You'll Dig it too.

I am not convinced that this is the BEST Jean Michel Basquiat retrospective catalogue to date...but the work selected for this publication is certainly consistently better than most others published before or after this one. Basquiats peak of productivity was from1981-83 and much of that work is catalogued here..But the dissapointment is that many of his last works (circa 1988) will not be found here....but in the more extensive Basquiat catalogue published by the Tony Shafrazi Gallery.
There are also a few images here that will make you wonder why they were selected and some of the text seems to over emphesize  
the fact that Basquiat died of a DRUG OVERDOSE.
You can skip the text or consider it ....it's the work that counts in the end!

This is by far the best catalogue of Basquiat's work as it was shown at the Whitney. By far, this book superseed others as it relates to quality and quantity of plates. Strongly recomend.

If you are looking for a wonderful combination of Basquiat's work and biography, this is the book to own. This book is full of many beautiful color plates of his work, as well as the story of his short, successful, but tragic life as an artist who had his brief moment in the sun before succumbing to the drugs.

Such a tragedy for a talented fellow like Basquiat to succumb to the temptations of drugs at such an early age. His paintings are so raw and fresh. I feel as though he used canvasses as giant doodle pads which he displayed to the world. Many of our own doodle pads (next to our phones, on our office desks, etc.) end up in the [bin] but Basquiat's ended up in the galleries and museums of the world. Some think of his work as [bad] but I view it as a treasure. Fine art, cartoons, grafitti and doodling...the best things in life. This book is the best collection I've seen of his work. The reproductions are well done and the essays are enlightening. For the art afficianado, this book needs to join the collection.

Joseph Lowery has a love affaire with Dreamweaver dating back to 1998 and version 1.0; that's why this book is more than just an expert writing about a piece of software, Joseph is passionate about Dreamweaver and the result is a real work of love. The book contains 10 chapters, covering different topics; each chapter stands on its own, allowing the reader to pick only one topic at time, there is no need to read from cover to cover here. The vast majority of the material available here is simply not available elsewhere; Mr Lowery covered things that may surprise even a seasoned Dreamweaver veteran like me. If you enjoy pushing Dreamweaver to its limits you can't miss this one

Beyond Dreamweaver covers one of my favorite things about Dreamweaver, which is its open-endedness. Web design is all about pushing limits -- of our own knowledge, of HTML, of browsers -- and Dreamweaver gives its users lots of room to push. So you want to adapt Dreamweaver to work with your company's Content Management System? This book shows you how. You want to work with the latest, greatest XML-based language out there, even though Dreamweaver doesn't *officially* support it? Dreamweaver can support just about anything you throw at it, and this book shows you how. And each chapter is written from a problem-solving, why-would-I-want-to-do-this perspective that makes it quickly useful.

This book will show you what you didn't even know you need to know. I am a medium to advanced Dreamweaver user and I learned so much from this book, starting in the first chapter. I think this book is perfect for people who have used the software for a while, but don't really push it to its limits. Mr. Lowery shows you important things in two general categories: how to accomplish things you couldn't before and how to streamline your workflow to be more efficient.

With an abundance of books on the market focusing on the techniques built into Macromedia's Dreamweaver MX product, reading this book was a breath of fresh air as it takes the product, and completely blows it apart.

The techniques in this book, such as integrating DMX into your content management solution, extending the product using C++ as well as dealing with cutting issues such as accessibility will make you more productive and your workflow more refined.

Lowery leaves no stone unturned, showing clearly how to integrate through the extensibility layer with Fireworks; and explains how to link data into Flash in a concise, easy to understand way.

The techniques discussed are also fully extendable to your own ideas so the book will lay down a very important framework.

A fantastic tome which should hold pride of place on your desktop.

If you have been working with Dreamweaver for some time now, and are ready to take your skills to the next level, Beyond Dreamweaver is the perfect resource. Through a concise and straightforward writing style, the author takes you on a broad exploration of development possibilities beyond Dreamweaver's "everyday" usage.

The book begins with an excellent chapter on the ease of integrating Dreamweaver MX with Content Management Systems. While this chapter may not seem as relevant to developers since Macromedia's introduction of their content management system - Contribute, it clearly demonstrates the extensibility of Dreamweaver. In doing so, it opens the reader's mind to virtually unlimited possibilities for creating custom integrations. Additionally, it continues to be a valuable example for developers using other Content Management Systems such as Interwoven or BlueMartini.

The next chapter provides an excellent overview of Section 508 website accessibility requirements. It also discusses new features available in Dreamweaver MX that will assist developers in ensuring that their websites are accessible.

Beyond Dreamweaver goes on to provide a great introduction to XML. Examples clearly demonstrate how to use Dreamweaver MX, both to export template content to XML and import XML into Dreamweaver templates.

The next few chapters present a variety of techniques that will enhance productivity. You will learn how to build Sequential Navigational Systems for both small and large scale websites; about Dreamweaver's ability to cross-integrate with other Macromedia products such as Fireworks and Flash; and how to go beyond Dreamweaver's built in capabilities and actually build your own custom cross-product extensions.

If you are interested in creating your own extensions, Beyond Dreamweaver explains how to use the standard classes and libraries that ship with Dreamweaver as a starting point. And if you really want to dig in and explore under the hood, it gives you an excellent example of how to take this even further by using C++ to create your own extensions to JavaScript.

The chapter "Making Flash Connections" was of particular interest to me as a designer/developer who specializes in Flash site development and dynamically generated database driven websites. A valuable example that was provided demonstrates the ability to pass data - either static or dynamically generated - from a Dreamweaver coded page to a Flash .swf file. Additionally, a second example demonstrates the new Flash Remoting features which allows Flash to send and receive more complete data structures. I particularly enjoyed exploring the possibilities of combining the Macromedia tri-product MX powerhouse - Flash, Dreamweaver and ColdFusion. Quite a combo!

Beyond Dreamweaver does not extensively delve into any one topic. Instead it provides the reader with a broad range of examples that can be used as a springboard for further exploration.

Gary Larson has a macabre and twisted sense of humor and I commend him for it. His "The Far Side" comic strip was one of my favorites from the first time I read it until he retired the strip. This book contains the cartoons of the last six months of the strip as well as 13 additional cartoons drawn by Larson after he retired. They all have the twisted look at life that was Larson's trademark. If your funnybone is twisted into a similar contortion, then this is a book that you must read.

This book is the last six months of Far Side cartoons. Plus 13 new cartoons. They are phenomenal. And now, a moment of silence for The Far Side...

its like a drug. once you read 1 you cant stop. you got to read more and more AND MORE. till you read them all,then it starts slowly you feel unforfilled then you go in to denile"thair has to be more!!!!!!!!!!!" then anger"i need a (...) FAR SIDE BOOK!!!. then you find more and joy is restored. i just finished Winer Dog Art. now,i am in a state of peril. I NEED A (...)Far Side book. Larson RUN FOR PRESIDENT,you my not no this but you thousands of bystanderdeds who are willing to rise up and carry you to power.i know i would

This isn't Larson's best book but being his last Farside cartoon collection before retirement is a collectors piece. The 140 cartoons in the bulk part of the book contain some classics such as the Inferiority Complex Sufferers cartoon and the ACME Wingbaby cartoon. The majority are good but there are some that you can tell were being left out of earlier books due to their standard. I love the two cartoons on page 80 (the end of the general cartoon section) that tell us The Far Side cartoons were all a dream of a man and the cavemen, cows, nerdy kids all looked like members of his family. The 13 full page cartoons at the back of the book are drawn after retirement and in most cases I would say aren't up to Larson's usual brilliant standard.

There is also an Afterword by Gary Larson that tells a tale his father drew on his kitchen table about a kid in school, drawing a box that becomes a lightbulb then becomes his mum bending over. Interesting story but I would have preferred a few more cartoons.

There are better Far Side collections than this one but if you own the rest you need this to complete your collection. There are plenty of good cartoons here.

For those of you Larson~FarSiders like me, this is a must have. You need to love and see FarSide on your daily life to understand and enjoy Larson's humor. This last book has more of what we all wished he could and would continue giving us. On a scale of one to ten farsides, and compared to previous FarSide books, this one is an "8". Buy it!

This is a major compilation of the work of the intriguing graphic artist, M. C. Escher. Remember seeing depictions of events that seem plausible but, under closer analysis, involve impossibilities? That describes some of Escher's most interesting works.
The book provides just about everything Escher produced (appearing in the "Catalog" section of the book), including his earliest works compiled during his teens. Among the most well known (and fascinating) include "The Waterfall," "Ascending and Descending March," "Convex and Concave," "Liberation," "Synthesis," "House of Stairs," and so on. The catalog section is fun, for one thing, simply to trace the evolution of his art.

But there is more to this volume than the works themselves. The volume provides context, with a brief description of his father's life as well as a more detailed analysis of Escher's life, from his birth in 1898 to his death in 1972.

There is also a most useful chapter labeled "The Vision of a Mathematician" (featuring the thoughts of mathematics teacher Bruno Ernst). It begins by noting two periods in the work of Escher--(page 135): ". . .pre 1935, in which landscapes predominate, and post 1937, which is characterized by a marked mathematical tendency." Ernst describes the mathematical principles in some detail (for those interested in this, a fascinating discussion). The textual portion of the book concludes with an essay by Escher himself on "The Regular Division of the Plane," including his reflections on his art.

This book has been around a while, but it is a valuable backdrop to getting a sense of the art of M. C. Escher.

I love everything Escher. I have several books, numerous calendars, as well as large jigsaw puzzles, T-shirts, magnets and mini jigsaw puzzles. Because of the detail in this book, I will never need to add another book to my collection. I especially appreciate the explanations. I am nowhere near smart enough to figure out what Escher was doing in each of his artworks. The detailed lesson on what each piece means is much appreciated by an art fan who is not an art scholar. I think this book would be great for any Escher fan, but I feel the need to tell you it is very large. Make sure you have room for it.

And c'mon - if you've seen his work, you're a fan.

The great thing about this book is not just the extensive and readable biography, but the complete (so they say) catalog of his graphic works. Even people very familiar with Escher's ouvre will be surprised by some of the entries here. They go back to work he did at ages 18 and 19, and show the devleopment of the Escher that has become so famous. It's just a little disappointing that the catalog is printed only in black and white, when so many of his works used color. The catalog reproductions are just that - a listing of his work, not a gallery, so the quarter-page size of most pieces is adequate for recognizing a piece, if not for appreciating it fully.

It is fascinating to see Escher's style develop though his (and the twentieth century's) twenties. Various influences early on suggest Beardsley (cat. 49, 67), Picasso (cat. 51, 58), or the pervasive Art Deco of his time (cat.34). Even then, some of Escher's later fascinations begin to emerge, including hands and reflective balls (cat. 88 and 80), symmetries and tilings (cat. 61, 65), and complex interactions of many figures in a repeating structure (cat. 90). The lesser-known parts of his work also start to emerge by the time he's 30, including delicate lithographs (cat. 129, 132). As much as I love his visual paradoxes and flirtation with the infinite, the lithos and mezzotints are the pieces that truly move me. "Snow" and "Blowball" (cat. 278 and 330) have an eloquent simplicity. "Eye" and "Drop" (cat. 344 and 356) demonstrate his classical sense and his perseverance with the demanding medium of mezzotint.

The text is also thorough and enjoyable - a good thing, since it takes up half of this heavy book, including its own set of illustrations. I admit that I have only skipped around this section, which starts by describing Escher's father. It's small wonder that his father was an engineer and that his son Arthur studied geology. Although an artist to the core, Escher had fruitful contact with mathematicians and crystallographers. He is one of very few artists that have successfully incorporated hard science into their artistic vision at such a visceral level, and the scientists appreciated that as much as anyone.

Although out of print, this book is available inexpensively on the used market. It's one of the best bargains around; if you've read this far, you'll probably find it well worth having.

//wiredweird

I haven't even had a chance to go through all of this remarkable book yet, but I am so impressed with it so far I cannot burble enough about how delighted I am with my purchase. This is a beautifully produced, designed, and wonderfully complete book. Many tales of the personal life an vision of the artist, countless, cleanly reproduced graphics, many works I have never seen or heard of before. Terrific! Can't recommend enough!!!

Definitely the first book every Escher fan should purchase. It's helpful in getting to know about the man himself as well as his brilliant artwork. It may seem pricey, but it's totally worth it, being hardcover (at least the one I got), and high quality photos of his work. It also shows his lesser known works (ones never released apparently), as well as photos of himself and his family. A very informative read and a quality edition.

These first issues of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's X-Men may not seem that great by today's standards, but taking into account that this was 40 years ago and Stan and Jack started an experimental new line of comics focusing on human drama as much as superheroics, it must be said that they were brilliant for their time. The stories are pretty basic and center around the X-Men's training under the tutelage of Professor X as well as their repeated encounters with Magneto, but the characters these tales introduce is what makes this Masterworks volume a real treat. The Vanisher, The Blob, Mastermind, The Toad, Scarlet Witch, Unus and Quicksilver all make appearances, and boy is it worth it! The battles are well drawn by Kirby, and the humor is there as well, making every panel an exhilirating read. Within a few short issues we can already see most of the characters developing into individuals with personalities, flaws and desires. How they interact with each other is also skillfully handled, and this above all makes X-Men masterworks a fine addition to any X-phile's library.

Although it was self-proclaimed before the X-Men were first published, for me the Marvel Age didn't get started until Chic Stone, Vince Colletta and Joe Sinnott arrived on the scene to ink Kirby's art. As a kid I used to read my older brother's early issues of FF, Spider-Man, Thor, even the Avengers but I didn't start actually buying the things until I saw how Chic Stone transformed the art. I could tell something was different immediately. At first I thought it was Kirby just getting better (which he was), but then I started noticing who was inking the comics. It was like a light switch had been thrown--the art work seemed electrified. It's interesting to see the transition from previous inkers to Chic Stone in this series of early X-Men. I consider him the first "Marvel Age" inker. Later you can see how Kirby and the inkers worked together to put together a product that I have yet to like better. The team of Stan Lee, Kirby and Stone, Colletta, and Sinnott were the real superheroes to me. Their work stood head and shoulders above anything else (and still hold up pretty darn good) around, with the possible exception of Ditko...

This is great stuff! Beyond the simply drawn panels, goofy characterizations and nearly adolescent plot lines there's a real sense of marvel, excitement and virtue that's just absolutely wonderful. To my thinking this book shows the beginning of the combined creative genius of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
Over the course of these earliest issues of the "original" X-Men we see Lee's seminal themes of isolation, alienation and intolerance really beginning to take root. At the same time we witness Kirby slowly depart from traditional styles of comic book illustration and gradually come into his own-by issue #10 with the introduction of Ka-zar we see the first glimmer of Kirby's eventual brilliance.
I can't see how anyone could be disappointed with the stories collected in this book.

I expected and did find the stories to be dated having been published 40 years ago. However, I still found volume one to be a very enjoyable read. I will continue with the X-Men, there are many more volumes to go.

This X-Men Masterworks reprints Unncany X-Men #1-10! These issues were originally published in 1963. they are reprinted in a full color Hardcover format published by Marvel Comics. The Marvel Comics creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created this strange science fiction world of Mutants! The X-Men team roster consist of Cyclops,Iceman,Angel,Beast,and Marvel Girl. the X-Men's Mentor is Professor X. He trains the X-Men to use their Mutant powers for the good of Mankind. the first issue features the first appearance of the X-Men,Professor X, and the super villian Magneto! Buy this X-Men Masterworks edition. Highest possible recommendation! if you want to get Unncanny X-Men#1-10 in full color, this is the place to start! Make Mine Marvel!