Parka Blogs - Art Book Reviews, Anime Artbooks, Animation & some Pop Culture. I'm from Singapore.

Book Review: Dan Dare: Spacefleet Operations (Owners' Workshop Manual)

Robin Benson — Fri, 24 May 2013 05:16:13 +0000

A glance back to the future

Chaps of a certain age will remember April 14, 1950 when the first edition of the Eagle blasted off with the galactic adventures of Dan Dare. Now everytime I see the first issue cover reproduced somewhere I glance down to the bottom left corner to the see the Kingfisher zooming away from the headquarters of the Interplanet Space Fleet and I'm back in 1950.

The book is stuffed full of cutaways (I suppose it was a bit unrealistic to expect them all to be in color) of spacecraft from Dan's adventures over past decades. The illustrator Graham Bleathman has done a brilliant job creating these vehicles and a really nice touch is that they not super slick digital images as you would expect from, say, Daniel Simon but sort of up-to-date contemporary versions of those great Eagle centre-spread cutaways. All of them have numbers and captions explaining what everything does, there must be several hundred of these throughout the book.

Apart from the cutaways there are plenty of pages covering what's going on in space: Treen craft; alien identification; hand weapons, Space Fleet equipment; space stations; commercial craft (including one with pin-up nose art) and near the front of the book a couple of spreads with mug shots of the twenty-five leading characters, including Digby's aunt Anastasia.

Overall a lovely bit of nostalgia for those of a certain age.

Dan Dare: Spacefleet Operations (Owners' Workshop Manual) is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN) and Book Depository (US | UK)

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If you buy from any links on the blog, I get a little commission that helps me get more art books to feature.

The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black

Teoh Yi Chie — Wed, 22 May 2013 03:22:44 +0000

This book contains dark stuff.

Flipping through the pages reminded me instantly of human transmutation in Fullmetal Alchemist.

Well, the book comes from the world of Dr. Spencer Black, back in 1870s. Son of a grave robber, Dr Black studies medicine and has a dark obsession with mutation. He claims that humankind evolved from mythological beasts such as mermaids, minotaurs and chimera, and even attempts to recreate these creatures. He's as unorthodox as any mad or delusional genius.

The first half of the book is a biography into the doctor's past of robbing graves for anatomy studies. As with good dark fantasy, there are unanswered questions. Questions maybe you don't want to know the answer to.

The second half features the anatomy breakdown of these mythical creatures. These are drawings of bones and muscles similar in style to those you find in human anatomy books, and therefore have an eerie vibe. The art is great. If aliens find this book in the future, they would probably believe these creatures are real.

If you like macabre content, check out the book.

The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN) and Book Depository (US | UK)

Below's the video interview with author E.B. Hudspeth

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If you buy from any links on the blog, I get a little commission that helps me get more art books to feature.

Book Preview: Goddamn This War!

Teoh Yi Chie — Tue, 21 May 2013 03:23:07 +0000

Jacques Tardi is a French comics artist who has produced many antiwar comics. His earlier book It Was the War of the Trenches (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | BDUS | BDUK), translated by Fantagraphics to English, won an Eisner in 2011 for Best Reality-Based Work.

His new graphic novel Goddamn This War! looks like it's going to be as gritty and harrowing.

The book's scheduled for release in August 2013.

Below are some preview pages.

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If you buy from any links on the blog, I get a little commission that helps me get more art books to feature.

Book Review: Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Volume 1

Teoh Yi Chie — Mon, 20 May 2013 09:28:07 +0000

Here's the companion book for the Dragon Age video games. The book's 184 pages, hardcover.

While you can actually get most of the information on the Dragon Age wikia page, the book format is more convenient as a package.

I'm not familiar with the game so I can't comment much except say that other reviewers on Amazon have pointed out several errors and inconsistency with the content. The contents include Legend, Map of Thedas, Races, Nations, Magic, Religion, The Fade, The Blight and Bestiary.

The art featured in the book is wonderful. There are beautiful illustrations of the environment, scenes, characters and creatures. The environments are painted in concept art style - they are not considered really finished but they feel finished and the mood is captured well. The artworks are printed quite big and they are almost on every page. There are several paintings filling two pages.

The layout of the book is also nice.

It's worth it just to buy for the art alone.

And this book reminds me very much of The World of Might and Magic: The Ashan Compendium, which is also a book to get if you're into fantasy art.

This book was borrowed from Basheer Graphic Books for review purposes. You can order the book from them. Check with Basheer on Facebook or visit their website.

Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Volume 1 is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN) and Book Depository (US | UK)

Visit Amazon to check out more reviews.

If you buy from any links on the blog, I get a little commission that helps me get more art books to feature.

This book was borrowed from Basheer Graphic Books for review purposes. You can order the book from them. Check with Basheer on Facebook or visit their website.

Book Review: Things Come Apart: A Teardown Manual for Modern Living

Robin Benson — Mon, 20 May 2013 05:30:22 +0000

Piece by piece

A fascinating look at just what is inside everyday objects and what surprised me was just how many bits there are when they carefully laid out and photographed from above in one of Todd McLellan's shots. A nice touch was keeping a running total of all the pieces: a 1982 Walkman has 370; 2007 Blackberry 120; 1960 blender 147; 1970 sewing machine 482; 1980 bike 893. Oddly cameras seem to have a very similar number of components: 1973 SLR has 576; 2012 digital SLR 580; 2005 digital video camera 558. Admittedly all these totals do include every washer, nut, and bolt. Most of the products were hand-holdable except for three, a bike, piano and a Zenith two-seater light aircraft (the CH-650 with 7580 pieces) this was photographed in the company hangar and shown over three pages with a fold-out.

Take the book apart and you'll find it's in three sections. First the fifty products were disassembled and laid out in a precise and formal way, photographed and then a second shot, taken with strobe lighting, as all the pieces were dropped from a platform in the studio to create a free-fall photo of parts and the complete opposite of the other photo. Actually McLellan says he had more success creating these second images by dropping them in groups and using software to combine the photos. The third part of the book and the weakest in my view, are four essays looking at tech innovation, restoration, online repairs and product disassembly.

These short essays are interesting enough but I thought they were rather out of place in a strongly visual book of products in pieces. They really should have had some photos, too. Penny Bendall, a ceramics conservator, discusses how she repairs broken ceramics: a valuable antique vase or figurines. Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School, talks about his summer camps where kids can learn how to use power tools and make things from scrap. Neither of these two essays had pictures of the things discussed.

This one of those wonderful books that can be opened at any page and you'll be immediately grabbed by stunning photos of hundreds of small items laid out with geometric precision or the same pieces floating in a spatial montage. I think the idea is good enough for second book (though without any essays).

Things Come Apart: A Teardown Manual for Modern Living is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN) and Book Depository (US | UK)

Visit Amazon to check out more reviews.

If you buy from any links on the blog, I get a little commission that helps me get more art books to feature.

Book Review: Color Rush: American Color Photography from Stieglitz to Sherman

Robin Benson — Mon, 20 May 2013 05:26:07 +0000

Color Check

'Color rush' is one of those books that was co-published with a museum coinciding with an exhibition. The show at the Milwaukee Art Museum ended in May but this lovely book will most likely be the standard history of American color photography. It follows the same format as Kevin Moore's 'Starburst' book (another exhibition title from 2010 at the Cincinnati Art Museum) with essays in the front of the book followed a portfolio of work from relevant photographers.

I thought the two essays in 'Color rush' were first class. Katherine Bussard covers the history and Lisa Hostetler looks at the nature of color work. Both writers cover it all: early color; Hollywood; newspapers; Kodak; advertising; magazines (National Geographic, Life and Vogue) and many individual photographers. The acceptance of color as art took some time as Hostetler says on page twenty-one: 'Thus in the documentary era -- the 1930a and early '40s -- monochrome photograph's association was with reality and truth, while color photography was usually associated with superfluous fantasy and commercial extravagance'. Bussard makes an interesting point about the 1976 MoMA Eggleston exhibition that is generally assumed to kick-start the creative interest in color because in the same year Ernst Haas, Jay Maisel and Pete Turner started the Space Gallery, and the George Eastman House, Corcoran Gallery, Images Gallery, Zabriskie Gallery all had serious exhibitions of color work. She says of the MoMA exhibition: 'It should instead be understood as one of many separate instances in which artistic practice embraced the hybridity that had long characterized color photography'.

One of the strengths of the book is the excellent portfolio section, mostly showing the work of individuals but nicely there are photo sections looking at the remarkable advertising work of Nickolas Muray (including two stunning photos of models sitting around a swimming pool from 1931) and Victor Keppler, magazine photography by Anton Bruehl, Victor Keppler, Louise Dahl-Wolfe. Kodak gets six pages, FSA six and Life magazine eight. Thirty-four photographers are included in the rest of the book each having a short biographic essay to go with their work (mostly two to five shots). The back pages have a useful twelve page photography timeline, glossary, exhibition checklist and index.

Aperture have done a lovely job with the book's production using a silky matt art paper for the 250 screen printing. Someone had a bright idea of putting all the many footnotes on the same page to avoid the tedious (and annoying) turning to back pages to check out a reference.

'Color rush' delivers with two excellent essays and two hundred beautifully printed photos.

Color Rush: American Color Photography from Stieglitz to Sherman is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN) and Book Depository (US | UK)

Nickolas Muray lovely shot of models sitting around a swimming pool. From the Ladies Home Journal 1931.

Pages from Life magazine.

A Glossary in the back pages with an Index, Biographies and a Timeline.

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If you buy from any links on the blog, I get a little commission that helps me get more art books to feature.

Book Review: Dusty Revenge: The Art of Revenge

Teoh Yi Chie — Sun, 19 May 2013 09:02:37 +0000

Few days ago, I posted about a Kickstarter campaign for the artbook of Dusty Revenge, a video game by PD Design studio in Singapore.

They have sent me a preview copy of the artbook they have printed out. It's a 150-page hardcover.

Here's the trailer of their game:

It's a run-and-slash game in a sort of anime style.

The artbook features the concept art and includes character designs, background art, stage designs and a short comic with the story's background. There are some pretty interesting enemy designs which make them look like thugs. The finalised art for the stages actually look quite beautiful.

The Kickstarter campaign ends on 24 May 2013. Visit the link to support: http://kck.st/XVweMQ

Preview: Lost Cat by Jason

Teoh Yi Chie — Sun, 19 May 2013 02:21:31 +0000

Jason's new graphic novel Lost Cat is coming up in August 2013. 160 pages. Hardcover.

A detective returns a lost cat to its owner and finds out they have a lot in common. They agree to hang out some other day and she did not appear. The mystery begins..

Below are 15 preview pages for the book.

Lost Cat is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN) and Book Depository (US | UK)

Visit Amazon to check out more reviews.

If you buy from any links on the blog, I get a little commission that helps me get more art books to feature.

Queenstown Recce

Teoh Yi Chie — Sat, 18 May 2013 11:55:34 +0000

The upcoming sketchwalk location will be at Queenstown, again, if you're in Singapore. It's on 25 May 2013, Saturday morning.

Follow Urban Sketchers Singapore on the facebook page and blog for updated details.

Below are photos from walking around the area.

The colourful and heartful cows are in Queenstown.

A small beautiful pond by the park connector

Topless palm trees now stand on the vacant land. There used to be flats here, I suppose.

An abandoned running track.

There are lots of big houses in this quiet area.

Colourful Queenstown Primary School.

Urban adventurers.

Small bottled ink.

The Love and Rockets Companion: 30 Years (and Counting)

Teoh Yi Chie — Fri, 17 May 2013 03:53:09 +0000

The companion book for Love and Rockets is coming soon in August 2013.

It's going to be 240 pages and features in-depth interviews with creators Gilbert, Jaime and Mario Hernandez. There will be character family trees and glossary, timelines, the Hernandez Brothers bibliography of all things drawn over the 30 years.

You can download a 32-page preview from the link below (right-click, save as):
http://www.fantagraphics.com/images/stories/previews/lrcomp-preview.pdf

The Love and Rockets Companion: 30 Years (and Counting) is available for pre-order at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN) and Book Depository (US | UK)

Definitely also check out The Art of Jaime Hernandez: The Secrets of Life and Death.

Parka Blogs - Art Book Reviews, Anime Artbooks, Animation & some Pop Culture. I'm from Singapore.

Book Review: Dan Dare: Spacefleet Operations (Owners' Workshop Manual)

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The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black

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Book Preview: Goddamn This War!

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Book Review: Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Volume 1

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Book Review: Things Come Apart: A Teardown Manual for Modern Living

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Book Review: Color Rush: American Color Photography from Stieglitz to Sherman

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Book Review: Dusty Revenge: The Art of Revenge

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Preview: Lost Cat by Jason

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Queenstown Recce

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The Love and Rockets Companion: 30 Years (and Counting)

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