Arts and Culture Books

Punk is an art and Winston displays it as it is

Punk is an art and Winston displays it as it is

Winston's work to me is so amazingly awesome that I can not define how great the book is. Check it out for yourself and you will understand

Winston Smith takes retro drawings and paintings from thee original picture, and turns them into collages. Thee collages are intended to inform and amuse you. In thee opinion of me, Winston does with pictures what people like William S. Burroughs and Jello Biafra have done with words. Most of these pictures are very funny and very thought provoking. This book also makes for a great conversational piece for your coffee table or whatever. Also included are album covers he has done for Dead Kennedys, Green Day, Tijuana No! etc.. There is a four page pull-out of the banner for Tijuana No! and a two page pull-out for the cover to Dead Kennedys' album Bedtime for Democracy which you can find in thee music section of this site. I reccomend this book not only for punk rockers but for free thinkers of all shapes and sizes. There is so much to look at in one picture you can read this one again and again.

For those of us who are self-taught artists and look to the work of other artists for inspiration and guidance, Brian Bolland's work is, in a word, intimidating. One of the deans of comic book artists working today, Bolland's clear, clear, virtuoso style is one of the most recognizable on the comics page, and looking at his work - deceptively simple - you can't help but ask yourself "How did he do that?" The Art of Brian Bolland showcases Bolland's work and will no doubt have you asking the same question.

Published by Image Comics - which has produced a number of excellent "art of..." books over the past few years - The Art of Brian Bolland is a retrospective of Bolland's career thus far, starting with his childhood drawings and continuing to the present day. There is a lot of text in this book discussing Bolland's career but, unlike so many "art of..." books, Bolland himself actually wrote the text, and he is amazingly honest and quite droll in his writing.

While this book is certainly on the expensive side, it is well worth it - at more than 360 pages, it seems to stretch on forever (in a good way) and showcases just how talented Bolland truly is. A good number of the pieces center on his Judge Dredd and DC Comics (largely Wonder Woman) work; also, most of the work pictured is in black and white. The book itself is exceptionally well-produced: sturdy and hefty, it is printed on nice, glossy paper and all of the images are reproduced with exceptional clarity. Any fan of Bolland or of comic book art in general, should pick this book up. Highly recommended.

Very enjoyable ramble through all of his work, with lots of rambling thoughts and background thrown in. Gorgeous reproductions of some of my favourite images. Well worth the money!

I'm a bit biased here, being a longtime fan of Brian Bolland's work, but I loved this book. I've bought a few of these types of books and it's ususally a collection of artwork, but this book gets a bit personal with great interviews, family pictures and funny stories. You really get a sense of the man and his development as an artist throught the years.

Highly recommended.

This is easily my favorite art/illustration book of the last several years! Bolland is an outstanding illustrator and this thick hardcover book offers a very comprehensive look at his work over the course of his career, from obscure early art in UK underground comics to the beautiful covers he is doing these days for DC/Vertigo. The quality of the paper, binding and reproduction is top notch - a must for any serious fan of Bolland, modern comic art, or quality illustration generally!

James Jasper's "The Art of Moral Protest" is one of the most important recent contributions to the scholarly literature on social movements and political and moral protest. The book's title signifies two important ideas. First, Jasper wants to restore the moral dimension to political protest, which of late has been reduced by many scholars to the calculated pursuit of material interests. Second, the book stresses the "artful" nature of protest, the fact, that is, that protest doesn't simply arise in some mechanical fashion from "structural" preconditions, but involves choices and improvisation by thinking (and feeling) individuals. Indeed, Jasper wants to reintegrate feelings and emotions, which scholars have studiously avoided in recent years, back into our understanding of moral protest. And he emphasizes how specific individuals with specific biographies (who, again, have been largely purged from the scholarly literature) matter for protest. The book weaves a powerful critique of dominant ways of thinking about protest through a series of fascinating studies of several movements and movement participants. In sum, this is an extremely important and pathbreaking book. It should be read by anyone with an interest in politics, social movements, or protest.

I use this book every year in my social movement class at the University of Texas at Austin. It provides an excellent overview of the social movement literature through the mid-1990s. More importantly, it provides a pathbreaking theoretical approach to social protest with rich empirical evidence.

My students are also very high on the book. It is a must read for all students of social movements.

James Jasper offers one of the best books available on social movements. In "The Art of Moral Protest" it is mostly the cultural and emotional sides of social movements which is explored leaving aside the more traditional structural accounts of social movement theory. Jasper emphasize principally 4 dimensions of protest: culture, resources, strategies and biographies and divide movements into two categories: citizenship movements and post-citizenship movements. Interestingly however, the structure of the book do not follow these main dimensions and categories but propose a kind of linear logic of movements' evolution from the emotion (moral shock) which send people into action to the creation of a movement culture which help sustain participation to the relation between movements and the broader culture in which they evolve and try to change. An interesting last part deal with the author's own "normative view" of social movements exploring the pleasures associated with movement participation, the danger sometimes embodied in social movement (particularly those who harbour totalizing ideologies) but also the necessity of protest for our societies. The book is full of stories and historical details which help make sense of the arguments developed in the book and keep this theoretical book as interesting as a novel.

If I had to teach a course on social movements, I would probably chose two books for my students to read. The first one would be "Power in Movement" from Tarrow and the second one would be "The Art of Moral Protest". Many excellent books have been written on social movements but very few complement each other as well as these two books. They present the two current main branches of social movement studies.

If I had to find a few problems with the book it would be related to the reference system adopted. By placing all references and notes at the end of the book, the more interested reader easily get lost. It might sound silly at first, but since the book is quite thick it becomes quite annoying with time... especially when you are thrilled by the reading but still want to get that extra detail hidden at the end of the book.

I loved this book. Anyone who likes the cultural side of politics will appreciate this book, Jasper's magnum opus. If you're writing a dissertation on social movements, you can't not read it.

Plot is the meat and main course of any and all fiction scripts script regardless of film genres - without a good plot, it takes a miracle to have a good movie. "The Art of Plotting: Add Emotion, Suspense, and Depth to your Screenplay" covers all you need to know to make your plot the best it can be, explaining the complex principles, advice on integrating characterization and exposition to make the story more compelling, how to spot and overcome common plot problems, and demonstrate how plot can enhance everything else about your screenplay. "The Art of Plotting: Add Emotion, Suspense, and Depth to your Screenplay" is enthusiastically recommended to aspiring screen writers everywhere and deserves a place on any community library's Writing and/or Film Studies instructional reference collection.

Someone famous once said, "This is the Emotion Picture Business." This book will help you add Emotion and Depth to your screenplays.

Ok, I've been writing scripts for decades now. What's the common complaint generations of script readers and producers make: Anybody can come up with an exciting idea, or a powerful hook. Anybody. And there are tons of ideas out there - just open a newspaper! The problem is execution - keeping a 90 to 120 page script exciting. We can all write 10 or 20 pages of exciting scenes - but most of us run out of gas. In one word, plot. The plot goes no where, or gets boring. How do you keep the plot interesting, emotional? Plot is the entire focus of Linda Cowgills's book, and she presents 180 pages of ideas and suggestions on how you can keep your entire plot exciting, eventful and emotional.

Answer this question - what's the difference between conflict and complication? Which one keeps the plot moving?


Table of contents:
1 - The Three Requirements of Drama
2 - Plot: Event and Emotion
3 - The Role of Conflict
4 - The Principles of Action
5 - The Tools of Plotting
6 - The Sequence of Story
7 - The Real Art of Plotting
8 - Common Problems in Plot Construction
9 - Tools for Analysis

Great book. Highly recommended.

Great book, gives a lot of detailed information to lay the groundwork, then gets to the nitty-gritty with three terrific chapters at the end -- the real art of plotting, common problems in plot construction, and tools for analysis. These chapters are really specific about how you put your information together in your plot, as well as address specific problems writers encounter. A great asset to any writer's library!

Has some really nice work inside and it's nice to see the process they went through making the movie.

If you are a fan of the Art of Pixar books, Robots is easily on par. It has some of the most talented, amazing and awe-inspiring pre-vis work I have ever seen in an art book. The entire Robots world is contained inside these pages, its entire evolution plotted out with hundreds of drawings, paintings and sculptures.

My biggest problem with "Art of" books is when they show too much finished film imagery. Why would I buy a book with the same images from the movie? I want to know where the film came from, not where it ended up. Art of Robots shines in this respect. In only a few places will you find actual images of the finished CG renders. The rest are raw, traditional works of art that give valuable clues into the films development. I especially like the pages that show a painted character and the photographs used to reference their color and texture for the film. Great information on the film-making process at Blue Sky.

Despite the obvious shortcomings in the film's story, this book stands on its own as one of the better "Art of" books I have seen. A real honor for all the artists who poured their talent into this film.

This book is fabulous! It is better than I thought it would be. It has so much wonderful art inside.

As one of millions of people who have a story to tell, I was extremely interested in finding out how to do it. This book cut right to the chase and helped me organize my thoughts and transfer them to the written form. I was grateful to find a how-to book that is written in understandable English without long, dreary explanations. I did not have to spend weeks with a dictionary and magnifying glass trying to decipher the author's obscure meanings. I was able to read and comprehend Mr. Druxman's references and utilize his suggestions right away. This book incorporates humor and simplicity to educate and enlighten. His examples are right on point. Thanks for the help!

I am new at the art of screenwriting. When searching for some basic information about story telling, I rifled through my mom's library and found "The Art of Storytelling" by Michael B. Druxman. I immediately liked the humor and intelligence of the author, but what made me really get with this book was the attention to simply stating the facts and getting on with the essence of storytelling. Making it complicated would have turned me off, but Mr. Druxman is wise to keep it simple. One thing that cools me on a movie is the lack of a real story. In my earliest reviews of movies (a school project), I noticed one thing that stands out as the most important element for a good time at the movies. You can have all the special effects, all the laughs, all the fascinating characters, all the flashy, attention-getting gimmicks in the world, but without a good story, told in solid, basic structure, you lose my interest. It's really the story that's important. I've found myself totally engaged in the quietest and simplest film experiences because the movie tells a good story. Sometimes the simplest, well-structured story, is the most awesome experience. Michael B. Druxman showed me how to write a good story and I am grateful for his book. It's sound advice gave my first screenplay effort the kind of quality that excites agents. I got one!

The author shows you the ropes of successful storytelling by mingling examples of his own screenplays with those of Casablanca and The Godfather. Note the fine print at the bottom of the page (Paraphrase:"My as yet unproduced screenplay"). HAW!

Many books on writing try to cover so much material that they offer little practical advice. Michael Druxman keeps his work focused. This easy to read and understand guide to writing is one of the best books on writing I've ever seen. For the beginner, Druxman offers simple and direct advice on story structure. The intermediate or advanced writer will find practical business advice in the later chapters of the book. This is a great resource and a great value to boot.

Impressive look back to early days of air travel. The posters are very clear and have been reproduced well. This is a keeper!

The main difference between early airline posters and later years was the size of the plane. The new winged transport was a prominent design element and the end location, if any, was hardly mentioned. Now, with air travel so commonplace and lots of airlines using the same jet (thanks Boeing and Airbus) the destination is the selling point. Geza Szurovy has selected some fascinating examples of the genre for his book.

Page eleven shows the first airline poster, the 1914 St Petersburg to Tampa route, in a tiny Benoist flying boat, that amazingly only carried one passenger. The venture lasted three months. Of the 170 posters shown there's plenty of choice to nominate your favorites, I like the ones that feature cut-aways of the aircraft and also the beautiful stylised airbrush rendering of New York that TWA used for their Transcontinental Boeing 307 poster from 1940, on page fifty-eight.

Presented in a book these posters create their own interest but I don't think many of them would have won any design awards. The typography and graphics, mostly paintings, just reflect what the airlines marketing department wanted. However ignore the type and look at the artwork and you'll see some wonderful illustrations from Cassandre, Jean Carlu, McKnight Kauffer, David Klein and Stan Galli and one from ace cartoonist Jack Davis, for Icelandic Air.

This is a large size all-color book but I was disappointed by the bland presentation, all the posters are butted into a light grey top-to-bottom panel on each page and even more annoying, on many pages, someone had the silly idea of adding small black and white photos of the planes that appear in the posters. This addition makes the depth of many posters smaller than they need be and the little photo, frequently showing plenty of detail, is just wasted. Fortunately this design treatment does not apply to every page.

If you are interested in the graphics of the airline business have a look at the beautifully designed 'En Route' by Lynn Johnson and Michael O'Leary, this concentrates on airline luggage label art and shows some super examples from airlines featured in 'The Art of the Airways'.

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

This is a superb book. The posters are gorgeous and interesting-such as evocative scenes from North Africa in the 1930's and an airplane where the passenger seats were in the wing root. The text is intelligent and concise. Overall the book transports you to times and places far away. We have watched people aged 8 to 80 with no special interest in airlines spend far more time with it than they (or we) had expected.

Mr. Szurovy has had a life long love affair with airplanes, and it shows in this book. We highly recommend it for those who love airplanes, and those who want a great book of romantic and exotic posters from airline companies of yesteryear.

If you take an interest in world aviation history from the passsengers' viewpoint, this book should conjour up the romance and adventure of flying by air during the last century. And in the days when it was extremely expensive relative to sea and land travel, you can understand the need of the airlines to entice people to spend the money.
The book has posters from around the world, even from Australia's Qantas (which the author mis-spells as Quantas), but not alas from a New Zealand airline (but don't worry, the book "The Aircraft of Air New Zealand and affiliates since 1940" puts that right). All posters in this book are superbly reproduced, with an adequate commentary and the page design is very nice. Good stuff!

Bernard Krigstein is most famous as one of the pantheon of extraordinary artists working for EC comics in the Fifties. However, this volume shows that EC was just one facet of this comics genius. This is a thorough biography, plus a wonderful analysis of Krigstein's life's work. This book, along with the companion volume "B.Krigstein: Comics," belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in comics history and sequential art.

Greg Sadowski's biography of Bernard Krigstein, who possessed one of the most innovative minds---and pens---in comic book history, is a labor of love that is revealed as such on every page. From the high quality of the paper to the superb graphic design, from the sharp reproductions to the text that details his life, career, and reputation, B. KRIGSTEIN is a book that would grace any library. But it covers not only his comic book work. For here are also his many book illustrations, his World War II field sketches and paintings, his canvases and gallery works (among them portraits of his wife and family), urban vignettes and rural landscapes, even greeting cards, gum cards,
and advertising art. He was truly a modern-day Renaissance man, fully deserving of this highly focused, incredibly beautiful tribute. There have been many innovators in comic art over the decades (George Herriman and Art Spiegelman, to name just two), but none of them had Krigstein's range of powers and depth of creativity. His was a name that the centuries will remember.

This book will show you all the reasons for my title. Mr.Krigstein was truly a master at pacing and design on the comic page.
His art speaks far better than I can write so I'll just tell you if you buy this book you will not be disapointed.
The comic Master Race alone is worth the price of this book.

the world was not ready for the work of bernie krigstein when he hit his stride in comics in the early 50's. a fine artist at heart, he became obsessed with the art form of comics and the possibilities that it held. few were attempting to take comics so seriously and in those days, they were just above pornography as far as respectability goes. he produced some brilliant works, but the book reveals just how much of a struggle it was to get these masterworks in print. the artwork speaks for itself, but i was really drawn into the text which details the inner workings of the comics machine of the 1940's-50's and how ridiculously it was run. although he begged and pleaded with management, he was never able to bring a story out further than 9 pages, and had to threaten leaving in order to even ink his own work rather than have it butchered by someone else. considering the roadblocks that constantly stood in front of him, it was amazing that he was able to experiment as much as he did.

among his more famous experiments was panel subdivision, breaking away from the standard 6-9 panels per page and, in one instance, producing some 75 panels in 6 pages. this brought an entirely new dimension to comics, introducing the break down of time and space within the page. he also brought a style of cinematography that was never thought of in comics before that must have influenced filmmakers years down the road.

greg sadowski has assembled a truly staggering biography. he had direct access to the artists collection and publishes for the first time many works that have never seen the light of day. rare artist photostats of pencil artwork that went on to be mutiliated by someone else's inks. original panels that were ordered by management to be covered up with different artwork. exhaustive research with coworkers, friends and family, as well as unbelievably wise words from the artist himself given in various interviews many years ago that gives a definitive look into the workings of this man's artistic mind.

it must [stink] being the pioneer, you never get to see the fruits of your labor. but all who charged through the door that b krigstein kicked down acknowledge him as the man who started it all.

THIS BOOK IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL FOR ANY COMIC ART FAN, AS WELL AS ANY ARTIST OF ANY TYPE. IT IS VERY INSPIRING AND IS A GREAT READ.

In my view this movie is the best movie ever produced. It becomes the best send up of Australian Culture and Contemporary life in Australia today.
Bubby isnt a mental case or demented, he has just discovered the outside universe ,the EXTERNAL MANIFESTATION of the world he knew------IE Australian Lifestyle.
If you like Australia and want to go to bed with it, then I recommend this!

Aaron from Brisbane Australia

When me saw Bubby, me be luvin' it! Bubby be havin good time with Mum and Pop and makes them be still. Cat be still too. Adrian wants to be Bubby. 'Two of those wonderfully fattening chocolate eclairs please....thanks sweety.' Adrian be luvin Bubby things and espescially be luvin' Rachael in her garden. Adrian cry for he has no Rschael

Bad Boy Bubby (Rolf de Heer, 1993)

de Heer's (The Quiet Room, The Old Man Who Read Love Stories) fourth film is a marked departure from anything he'd done before; in fact, it's a marked departure from anything anyone had done before. It's twisted, grotesque, certifiable, and in its own way, incredibly sweet.

Nicholas Hope (Henry Fool, Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid) starts in the title role, a man, perhaps autistic, who's been a bad boy (no surprise). He's been so bad that his mother (Robbery Under Arms' Claire Benito, in her only leading role) has kept him locked in the house his whole life, and he's had no human contact other than her. She's convinced him the air outside the house is poisoned, so when he is forced out into the world after a visit from his long-estranged father, he's not only completely unprepared for human contact, but scared to breathe, as well. After he leaves the house, we follow him through a series of adventures that teach him (in warped ways, granted) to communicate with those around him and with the outside world. It's the old Jeff Bridges movie Starman filtered through Oedipus Rex.

I'll warn you, the first half hour of this film is going to drive many people away. The dynamic between Bubby and his mother is a little too weird for the mainstream mind to handle; as well, the first third of the film plays out more like a psychological horror film than the dark comedy it really is. If you have problems with the first half hour, persevere. Once Bubby gets out of the house, things lighten up a good deal (though the humor in the film is never lighter than, say, midnight blue). Bubby's arrested development, both emotional and social, makes for some wonderfully twisted comedy (and, needless to say, various adolescent obsessions that one would expect more from a Hollywood comedy, but they're done here with a little more style-- emphasis on little).Inside the whole thing really does rest a heart of gold; while Bubby may have trouble interacting with the outside world, once he meets people who understand him, the movie reveals a surprisingly sweet center inside the sour coating.

Bad Boy Bubby may not be the best-constructed film in the world, and many viewers will likely find it somewhat crude, but it's still a must-see. *** ½

To my knowledge the only North American showing of this film was at the Seattle Film Festival. It instantly became a word-of-mouth hit. Bad Boy Bubby ROCKS!

While earning honors at Canne, this Australian release was doomed for distribution in this country from the opening scene - Bubby standing naked in a washtub as he is sponge-bathed by his Mum. American distributors blanched; there was NO WAY they could invent a blurb for this film in the first place, and now a naked guy, well forget it, gimme some good old exploding bullet hits.

The first 40 minutes of this film are not for the faint-hearted....there isn't any blood or gore to speak of, but it is unremittingly grim: All Bubby has known for his 34 years is a 2 bedroom windowless cement apartment. His Mum tells him there's been a war, and that without a gas mask, he will die if he goes outside.

There hasn't been any war, or poison gas, Bubby's Mum is just a tad overprotective and wacked out. Of course, he do! es manage to get out. From there...well it HAS to be seen...how do you explain how Bubby buys food in the real world with a saran-wrapped cat corpse? Like Eraserhead, you can't talk about this film, you can only watch it.

Bottom line: I have never seen a film that starts out as grim and unpleasant as this one does that finishes with as sweet an ending. There are a number - many - plot transitions that any other director would have flubbed; the way that De Heer skips thru this minefield is a joy and a wonder. Get it, view it, be grateful that it has finally made it back into this country. A quote from Bubby - "God can see everything I do - and he's gonna beat me brainless."

I havent red this book but it souns cool

this was a wonderful collection of interviews of Stephen King. It would be interesting to see another collection done, with some of the more recent interviews and thoughts from him.

In this collection of essays, both new Stephen King fans, and SK'ers alike can enjoy a unique, indepth and personal view into the mind of the world's greatest horror writer. In Bare Bones King does just that -- he Bares his Bones, showing us the reader what really goes on inside his head. You are taken down into a dark cavern that few men have traveled into and survived. (Well, at least literarily -- not literally). As stated above, I was so impressed and intrigued by these works that I bought all three copies available: the 1st edition paperback, the first edition hardcover, and number 588 of 1152 limited handnumbered copies. Truly a "missing link" in any King collection. If nothing else, Bare Bones is a "must-read".

This is maybe the most interesting book about Stephen King available. If you want to know something about him, you have to read it, because you won't learn more anywhere else. Not even in his own 'On Writing' by the way.

Maybe it would be interesting too to read more actual interviews, but these one help a lot. Okay, it's not always that interesting, like in the conversation about his radio station and sometimes weird, like in the one about 'Maximum Overdrive' if you have seen it. And of course a lot of things are repeated.

But it's really a must for King-fans.