Books Illustrated

Elizabeth Bennett, by Colleen Coover

If you like literary figures, and you also like illustration, then boy do I have the blog for you!

"Hey Oscar Wilde! It's Clobberin' Time!!"

(I can't really work out what this blog is actually called, but it does have a header of The Thing announced his intentions to open up a can of whup-ass on Oscar Wilde, so we'll go with that.) Some fella has been collecting illustrations of literary figures/authors/characters since 1998, and there they are on the web for anyone to look through! The breadth of material here will keep you going for days (I know I've spent far too much time scrolling through), and the quality level of the artwork is just incredibly high. Aside from too many caricatures of Mark Twain and Kurt Vonnegut (that's book-reading Americans for you), there's probably everyone's fave author/character here. Plus Gene Ha, Jim Rugg, Will Eisner, Mike Mignola, Terry Moore, Trina Robbins, Kate Beaton, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Chris Sprouse, Neil Gaiman, and every other illustrator you've ever heard of. I don't know how this guy managed to make friends like these. Anyway, enough gushing, enjoy.

Kavalier and Clay, by Steve Rolston

Orson Welles, by Ethan Vansciver

Tom Sawyer, by Kirk Leonard

Don DeLillo, by Brian Wood

Douglas Adams, by Tom Fowler

Don Quixote, by Dice Tsutsumi

Point and Laugh

How have I gone so long without this website in my life?

Look at This Fucking Hipster

(Pretty much does what it says on the tin.) This site articulates one of my major thoughts on the subject, which is that hipsters are pretty flippin' cool and I secretly want to be one, but they usually take themselves far too seriously. Now, let's make our hipster checklist: layers, old man chic, granny shoes, all that American Apparel 90s acid-washed stuff, a lot of hair at the front, pretentious tattoos, fake geek glasses, wispy moustaches, one of those scarves which people are unaware have political connotations...

BY THE WAY: If I gave the impression I'm permanently up north now, I'm not til the end of June. I just had a trip to drop off my beloved at the airport (boo) and we visited the sculpture park beforehand. Just to clear that up.

Cheese

Do you ever see those places that do professional family photos, and everyone just looks ridiculous and uncomfortable and unattractive? And sometimes they are wearing matching outfits, or in an 'amusing' situation? Yeah, I'm so glad my family never thought that was a good idea for us. Unfortunately these guys did:

These guys too:

Want more delicious awkwardness? Of course you do. It is here, at Awkward Family Photos. The site pretty much does what it says on the tin.

Cereals, Cakes, Cuteness

Thought I would introduce you to a triumvirate of blogs that offer a fresh perspective on everyday things; namely cereal, cake and cute animals.

First up, Tim just told me about The Cereal Critic. This blog involves a guy writing discursive yet biting reviews of breakfast cereals. His thoughts are right on the money as far as I'm concerned. This is also an eye-opener for me since I've never felt myself able to be adventurous with new cereals. How can you try anything new if that means you're committed to eating an entire box of something that may end up tasting like burnt cardboard in amusing shapes? Here is the dude's review of Froot Loops:

"Toucan Sam is jesus. Toucan didn't need to walk on water though to impress a bunch of sandal wearing hippies, he just flew over the water because he's a bird. Look how badass the stripes on his beak are. and he's blue, blue is the best! Look how froot is spelt - just like you've always wanted to spell it. I once heard someone say that all the colours tasted exactly the same. Yeah, they're all a flavor called "perfect". 11 stars."

Secondly, I'm sure you all must know about Cake Wrecks by now. Dreadful, dreadful cakes made by "professional" bakers. You'll be amazed at how many ways there are to get a cake wrong. Garish, gross, weird, badly spelled, accidentally wildly inappropriate, etc etc.

Thirdly, this one basically involves a guy yelling at cute animals. They vex him, with their shamefaced attempts to affect us with their adorableness. Plus it's called Fuck You, Penguin. However, while I enjoy this blog on a satirical level, I also just love it for the SUPER-CUTE pictures of animals. I'm a sucker for the adorability factor, I admit it. On the same theme, here are a couple of pictures of baby sloths in a box.

Will Make You Want to Go Book Shopping

Friends, I have just discovered a great new online source for fantastic bookjacket design. It is called:

The Book Cover Archive

Their collection of the best modern design is ever-growing, they have a thousand as of now, and includes such useful information as designer, photographer, art director, publisher, and (this is the bit which makes my heart sing) cover font identification. They also have some interesting links to other book design-interested sites. Most of all, it is a feast for the eyes just to browse through the pages, if you have an interest in reading, or in looking at what you are reading (you know what I mean).

The Plague, Albert Camus. Designer Helen Yentus

I was hard-pressed to choose my favourite examples from the ones on display, so I just picked a handful that I've actually read (some with these covers, some with markedly more rubbish ones).

1984, George Orwell. Design Shepherd Fairey

The Masque of the Red Death, Edgar Allen Poe. Design Coralie Bickford-Smith

The Best Creative Nonfiction Vol. 1, ed. Lee Gutkind. Design Rodrigo Corral

Vintage Hughes, Langston Hughes. Design John Gall

Mcsweeneys Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales. Editor Michael Chabon, Art Director John Gall

The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle. Design Chin Yee Lai

Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer. Design Gray318

Mcsweeneys Quarterly Concern, Issue 13. Design Chris Ware

Eichmann and the Holocaust, Hannah Arendt. Design David Pearson

The Whole Story and Other Stories, Ali Smith. Design Gray318

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley. Design Gregg Kulick

Books V. Cigarettes, George Orwell. Design David Pearson

A Million Little Pieces, James Frey. Design Rodrigo Corral.

Ali Smith, Supersonic 70s. Design Katie Gibb

Animal Farm, George Orwell. Design Shepherd Fairey

A bookjacket archive "For the Purposes of Appreciation and Categorization"? Yes, OK.

Assignment #63

"Absolutely, Yes", Hollie Victoria Robson, London, UK

I found these on the website Learning To Love You More, set up by Miranda July and a fancy artist friend. The thesis behind the project is that they come up with assignments for people to do, and then those people send in their responses via the internets. Then they put them up on the website for your perusal, although they have also made a book. Here are a few past assignments:

Assignment #9: Draw a constellation from someone's freckles
Assignment #15: Hang a windchime on a tree in a parking lot
Assignment #34: Make a protest sign and Protest
Assignment #45: Reread your favourite book from fifth grade
Assignment #50: Take a flash photo under your bed

These are my faves from Assignment #63: Make an Encouraging Banner.

I am not one for inspirational slogans about chasing your dreams, you can achieve anything, we are all beautiful and unique snowflakes, etc. But these are lovely, because random people have made them in their houses for the purpose of encouraging strangers on the internet. Plus, they are just so cute.

"Get Awesome", Gabrielle Passaro

"Nothing is Going to Explode", Ashley Valverde

"It Will Get Warmer Again", Melissa Stricklan, Logan Utah, USA

"When It Doubt Add More Glitter", Jo, Long Beach California, USA

"Everyone Loves You", Gabrielle Passaro

"You Are Better Than You Think", Elisabeth, Auckland, New Zealand

"Good and Fine and True", Wheat Wurtzburger, New York, USA

Cookies Plus Napoleon = Awesome

Do you find this freaking hilarious? Of course you do, you're a sensible person. Head straight over to Kate Beaton's homepage for more, or check out her livejournal which has just about everything she's ever drawn, as far as I can tell.

Kate Beaton draws comics about historical figures, being Canadian, working with lunkheaded old men, fat shetland ponies, and many other amusing things. My favourites involve a big round Napoleon eating cookies and crying, and also Beaton hanging out with her hyperactive younger self.

Iron Giant Pretty Links

Eeeee! The extremely cool Animations Backgrounds blog, which, as the name suggests, collects backgrounds from animated movies and cartoons (mostly Disney and Disney-similar), has featured one of my favourite movies ever, The Iron Giant.

Here is the post Part One:


Here is the post Part Two:


I especially loved the autumn-tinged colour palette in The Iron Giant, and you also know I am a sucker for folksy American suburban charm. Look at Hogarth's cute little house up there! And the cute little diner where the squirrel-down-pants scene takes place!

Animation Backgrounds is great fun, by the way, especially if you are a Disney fan. Which a surprisingly high number of my friends are. Your DVD collections are rife with Disney movies, and approximately 75% of you have an inappropriate crush on the Disney version of Robin Hood's character. "He's a fox in more ways than one!" you cry. It is disturbing to me. Anyhow, the backgrounds to animation are often surprisingly beautiful on their own, and seeing stills without the characters in reveals just how much care has been taken with the scenery. I also find them a little eerie and sad sometimes, I have to admit. Without the frenetic action of wacky cartoon characters, their environments seem markedly empty. In a cool way, however. Not like all the characters have been murdered by a chainsaw-wielding crazy duck, leaving Disneyville a tragic ghost town. Not like that at all.

I have previously gushed about The Iron Giant here. And written a zine page about it. God, I just love that movie.

Hammerpress

A few band posters from Hammerpress here, connoisseurs of letterpress printing. Kaia saw a few of these in a shop, told me about them, made me wish I was in that particular shop. I want to buy attractive prints. Old fashioned frontier lettering and images, good colours, good bands too. Including Spoon; why is everyone clamoring to design posters for Spoon? (For that matter, how come the same Spoon songs are in every new movie trailer?)

My only quibble is that the designs don't always have much to do with the particular band they're advertising. Posters designed by Aesthetic Apparatus have the distinct AA style, but take care to reference the band in some way - an image from a song, an album, the tour title, musical style, whatever. These posters are all distinctly Hammerpress, but most could be interchangeable. Well whatever, they look cool. I yearn to go have some letterpress fun now. (I've never done it before. It's one of those print techniques I constantly get confused.)

(I am having a terrible time with spacing these pictures by the way, so I apologise for that. I fail at layout.)