Coming Up: New Book By Bob Dylan Looks At "Philosophy of Modern Song"

"Bob Dylan's The Philosophy of Modern Song" is out Nov. 8. You can pre-order the print and audio editions of it now from Amazon.

Details:

Today Simon & Schuster announced it will publish The Philosophy of Modern Song by Bob Dylan, coming November 8, 2022. This is the first book of new writing since Dylan’s Chronicles, Volume One (published in 2004 and on the New York Times bestseller lists for over 50 weeks) and since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016.

Dylan, who began writing The Philosophy of Modern Song in 2010, offers a master class on the art and craft of songwriting. He writes over 60 essays focusing on songs by other artists, spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. He analyzes what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song, and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. These essays are written in Dylan’s unique prose. They are mysterious and mercurial, poignant and profound, and often laugh-out-loud funny. And while they are ostensibly about music, they are really meditations and reflections on the human condition. Running throughout the book are nearly 150 carefully curated photos as well as a series of dream-like riffs that, taken together, resemble an epic poem and add to the work’s transcendence.

In 2020, with the release of his outstanding album Rough and Rowdy Ways, Dylan became the first artist to have an album hit the Billboard Top 40 in each decade since the 1960s. The Philosophy of Modern Song contains much of what he has learned about his craft in all those years, and like everything that Dylan does, it is a momentous artistic achievement.

“The publication of Bob Dylan’s kaleidoscopically brilliant work will be an international celebration of songs by one of the greatest artists of our time,” said Jonathan Karp, President and Chief Executive Officer of Simon & Schuster. “The Philosophy of Modern Song could only have been written by Bob Dylan. His voice is unique, and his work conveys his deep appreciation and understanding of songs, the people who bring those songs to life, and what songs mean to all of us.”

Simon & Schuster President and Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Karp and Executive Editor Sean Manning acquired World English Rights, audio, and first serial rights from Andrew Wylie at The Wylie Agency, which is handling translation rights. The book will also be published by Simon & Schuster’s international companies in Australia, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom, and in audiobook by Simon & Schuster Audio. Dylan will narrate a portion of the audiobook with a mix of other voices. 

Coming Up: Chip Kidd Takes a Panel-By-Panel Look at Early Spider-Man Comics

Out Oct. 18 and available for pre-order now from Amazon. 

Details:

Timed for the 60th anniversary of Spider-Man and includes two complete stories plus the original art from the Library of Congress!

Spider-Man first swung onto the comic book pages in August 1962 with the publication of Amazing Fantasy no. 15, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and with cover art by Jack Kirby, which was soon followed by The Amazing Spider-Man no. 1 in March 1963. Sixty years after the comics' publication, award-winning graphic designer Chip Kidd reimagines the iconic first stories using original vintage copies of both comic books to present these classic tales in a whole new way.

Perfect for both lifelong fans and the latest generation of Marvel enthusiasts, the book also includes text by Chip Kidd, Marvel editor Tom Brevoort, historian Mark Evanier (Kirby: King of Comics), and Library of Congress curator Sara Duke. Stunningly photographed by award-winning photographer Geoff Spear, Amazing Fantasy no. 15 and Amazing Spider-Man no. 1 are showcased as you’ve never seen them before—oversized and up-close. This is a panel-by-panel exploration of both entire issues that captures every single detail and nuance of Lee and Ditko’s groundbreaking story, making it a must-have for every comic book collection.

New Pop Culture Books: The Nineties; The Mandalorian; John Buscema; The Method, and more!

Click the links to order from Amazon.

The Nineties: A Book

It was long ago, but not as long as it seems: The Berlin Wall fell and the Twin Towers collapsed. In between, one presidential election was allegedly decided by Ross Perot while another was plausibly decided by Ralph Nader. In the beginning, almost every name and address was listed in a phone book, and everyone answered their landlines because you didn’t know who it was. By the end, exposing someone’s address was an act of emotional violence, and nobody picked up their new cell phone if they didn’t know who it was. The 90s brought about a revolution in the human condition we’re still groping to understand. Happily, Chuck Klosterman is more than up to the job.

    Beyond epiphenomena like "Cop Killer" and Titanic and Zima, there  were wholesale shifts in how society was perceived: the rise of the internet, pre-9/11 politics, and the paradoxical belief that nothing was more humiliating than trying too hard. Pop culture accelerated without the aid of a machine that remembered everything, generating an odd comfort in never being certain about anything. On a 90’s Thursday night, more people watched any random episode of Seinfeld than the finale of Game of Thrones. But nobody thought that was important; if you missed it, you simply missed it. It was the last era that held to the idea of a true, hegemonic mainstream before it all began to fracture, whether you found a home in it or defined yourself against it.

    In The Nineties, Chuck Klosterman makes a home in all of it: the film, the music, the sports, the TV, the politics, the changes regarding race and class and sexuality, the yin/yang of Oprah and Alan Greenspan. In perhaps no other book ever written would a sentence like, “The video for ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was not more consequential than the reunification of Germany” make complete sense. Chuck Klosterman has written a multi-dimensional masterpiece, a work of synthesis so smart and delightful that future historians might well refer to this entire period as Klostermanian.  

The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season Two)

The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season Two) takes fans behind the scenes of the second season of the Emmy Award–winning Disney+ live-action Star Wars television series. Filled with concept art, character, vehicle, weapon, and creature designs, and interviews with key crew and creatives, including executive producer/showrunner/ writer Jon Favreau (Iron Man, The Lion King) and executive producer/ director Dave Filoni (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Rebels), The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season Two) will provide readers with an exclusive look at the stunning art and design work that helped bring new and returning characters and locations to life.

    Season two of The Mandalorian tracks the continuing adventures of Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and the Child as they explore the far reaches of the Star Wars galaxy in an effort to return Grogu to his people and stay one step ahead of Moff Gideon’s (Giancarlo Esposito) Imperial remnant and squad of dark troopers. Alongside comrades from the first season, the duo encounters a cadre of new allies and forms tenuous alliances with former Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson), frontier marshal Cobb Vanth (Timothy Olyphant), fellow Mandalorians Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) and Koska Reeves (Mercedes Varnado aka Sasha Banks), and fan-favorite bounty hunter Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison). In The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season Two), readers will encounter early visual and conceptual ideas for these new characters and their arsenal of weapons, ships, and armor, as well as the icy, lush, war-torn, and razed planets that serve as crucial stepping stones in Djarin and Grogu’s quest.

     Returning for The Mandalorian season two, executive creative director Doug Chiang (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) and the incomparable group of artists, designers, and dreamers known as the Lucasfilm art department “visualists” undertook the challenge of continuing to push the boundaries of Star Wars storytelling while also translating Ahsoka Tano from animation to live action and updating the look of the legendary Boba Fett. The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season Two) is the only book to explore the artistic vision for this groundbreaking sophomore season, taking readers on a deep dive into the development of the next chapter of Din Djarin and Grogu’s story. Exclusive interviews with the filmmakers and the Lucasfilm visualists provide a running commentary on The Mandalorian’s innovative art and design, revealing the inspiration behind the look and feel of the series.

The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act

On stage and screen, we know a great performance when we see it. But how do actors draw from their bodies and minds to turn their selves into art? What is the craft of being an authentic fake? More than a century ago, amid tsarist Russia's crushing repression, one of the most talented actors ever, Konstantin Stanislavski, asked these very questions, reached deep into himself, and emerged with an answer. How his “system” remade itself into the Method and forever transformed American theater and film is an unlikely saga that has never before been fully told.

    Now, critic and theater director Isaac Butler chronicles the history of the Method in a narrative that transports readers from Moscow to New York to Los Angeles, from The Seagull to A Streetcar Named Desire to Raging Bull. He traces how a cohort of American mavericks--including Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, and the storied Group Theatre--refashioned Stanislavski's ideas for a Depression-plagued nation that had yet to find its place as an artistic powerhouse. The Group's feuds and rivalries would, in turn, shape generations of actors who enabled Hollywood to become the global dream-factory it is today. Some of these performers the Method would uplift; others, it would destroy. Long after its midcentury heyday, the Method lives on as one of the most influential--and misunderstood--ideas in American culture.

    Studded with marquee names--from Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, and Elia Kazan, to James Baldwin, Ellen Burstyn, and Dustin Hoffman--The Method is a spirited history of ideas and a must-read for any fan of Broadway or American film.

Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, 

and the Invention of the Twentieth Century

Born the same year as the film industry in 1895, Buster Keaton began his career as the child star of a family slapstick act reputed to be the most violent in vaudeville. Beginning in his early twenties, he enjoyed a decade-long stretch as the director, star, stuntman, editor, and all-around mastermind of some of the greatest silent comedies ever made, including Sherlock Jr., The General, and The Cameraman.

    Even through his dark middle years as a severely depressed alcoholic finding work on the margins of show business, Keaton’s life had a way of reflecting the changes going on in the world around him. He found success in three different mediums at their creative peak: first vaudeville, then silent film, and finally the experimental early years of television. Over the course of his action-packed seventy years on earth, his life trajectory intersected with those of such influential figures as the escape artist Harry Houdini, the pioneering Black stage comedian Bert Williams, the television legend Lucille Ball, and literary innovators like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Samuel Beckett.

    In Camera Man, film critic Dana Stevens pulls the lens out from Keaton’s life and work to look at concurrent developments in entertainment, journalism, law, technology, the political and social status of women, and the popular understanding of addiction. With erudition and sparkling humor, Stevens hopscotches among disciplines to bring us up to the present day, when Keaton’s breathtaking (and sometimes life-threatening) stunts remain more popular than ever as they circulate on the internet in the form of viral gifs. Far more than a biography or a work of film history, Camera Man is a wide-ranging meditation on modernity that paints a complex portrait of a one-of-a-kind artist.

Bob Dylan All the Songs: 

The Story Behind Every Track Expanded Edition

Bob Dylan: All the Songs focuses on Dylan's creative process and his organic, unencumbered style of recording. It is the only book to tell the stories, many unfamiliar even to his most fervent fans, behind the more than 500 songs he has released over the span of his career. Organized chronologically by album, and updated to include all of his most recent work including the 2020 release of his 39th album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, Margotin and Guesdon detail the origins of his melodies and lyrics, his process in the recording studio, the instruments he used, and the contribution of a myriad of musicians and producers to his canon.

John Buscema's Marvel Heroes Artist's Edition

The artistic mastery of John Buscema is apparent on every page of this book—an incredible selection of stories, covers, splashes, and interior pages. Viewing these pages, it’s easy to see why Buscema has been called the Michelangelo of comics.

    Like all Artist’s Editions, each page in this book has been scanned from the original art, allowing the reader a rare glimpse of a true "artist's artist" work. As you peruse this book you will see editorial notations, white out, blue pencils, and so much more--all the subtle nuances that make original art so unique. The only way to better view these pages is if you were in John Buscema’s art studio as he was drawing them!

Electric Light Orchestra: every album, every song

2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of the first Electric Light Orchestra album. The ELO story is one of continued success for over 50 years. From inauspicious beginnings in 1971, where live audiences barely reached double figures, ELO would become one of the most popular bands in the world by the end of the decade, thanks largely to the songwriting and production talents of Jeff Lynne; hits such as ‘Evil Woman’, ‘Mr. Blue Sky and ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’; multi-platinum albums like Out Of The Blue and Discovery, and, of course, their spectacular stage shows. Although ELO finally called it a day in 1986, they re-emerged in 2014 as Jeff Lynne’s ELO, playing a triumphant comeback concert at London’s Hyde Park. Since then, they haven’t looked back, releasing further albums to critical and public acclaim, culminating in ELO’s biggest ever live show in front of 70,000 fans, at Wembley Stadium and 2019’s chart topping album, From Out Of Nowhere. As well as examining all of ELO’s recorded catalogue, the author has spoken to many people who have been involved with the band over the decades, uncovering along the way previously unseen photographs and new information about the group and their recordings, making this one of the most comprehensive guides to ELO ever published.

The Rolling Stones All the Songs Expanded Edition: 

The Story Behind Every Track

Since 1963, The Rolling Stones have been recording and touring, selling more than 200 million records worldwide. While much is known about this iconic group, few books provide a comprehensive history of their time in the studio. In The Rolling Stones All the Songs, authors Margotin and Guesdon describe the origin of their 340 released songs, details from the recording studio, what instruments were used, and behind-the-scenes stories of the great artists who contributed to their tracks.

    Organized chronologically by album, this massive, 704-page hardcover begins with their 1963 eponymous debut album recorded over five days at the Regent Studio in London; through their collaboration with legendary producer Jimmy Miller in the ground-breaking albums from 1968 to 1973; to their later work with Don Was, who has produced every album since Voodoo Lounge. Packed with more than 500 photos, All the Songs is also filled with stories fans treasure, such as how the mobile studio they pioneered was featured in Deep Purple's classic song "Smoke on the Water" or how Keith Richards used a cassette recording of an acoustic guitar to get the unique riff on "Street Fighting Man."

Coming up: "The Charlton Companion" coming from TwoMorrows Publishing

Out in October. Pre-order now from TwoMorrows.

Details:

An all-new definitive history of Connecticut’s notorious all-in-one comic book company! Often disparaged as a second-rate funny-book outfit, Charlton produced a vast array of titles that span from the 1940s Golden Age to the Bronze Age of the ’70s in many genres, from Hot Rods to Haunted Love. 

The imprint experienced explosive bursts of creativity, most memorably the “Action Hero Line” edited by Dick Giordano in the 1960s, which featured the renowned talents of Steve Ditko and a stellar team of creators, as well as the unforgettable ’70s “Bullseye” era that spawned E-Man and Doomsday +1, all helmed by veteran masters and talented newcomers—and serving as a training ground for an entire generation of comics creators thriving in an environment of complete creative freedom. 

From its beginnings with a handshake deal consummated in county jail, to the company’s accomplishments beyond comics, woven into this prose narrative are interviews with dozens of talented participants, including Giordano, DENNIS O’Neil, Alex Toth, Sanho Kim, Tom Sutton, Pat Boyette, Nick Cuti, John Byrne, Mike Zeck, Joe Staton, Sam Glanzman, Neal Adams, Joe Gill, and even some Derby residents who recall working in the sprawling company plant. 

Though it gave up the ghost over three decades ago, Charlton’s influence continues today with its Action Heroes serving as inspiration for Alan Moore’s cross-media graphic novel hit, Watchmen. 

By Jon B. Cooke with Michael Ambrose & Frank Motler.

Coming up: "The Life & Art of Dave Cockrum"

Out in June from TwoMorrows Publishing.

Details:

From the letters pages of Silver Age comics to his 2021 induction into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame, the career of Dave Cockrum started at the bottom and then rose to the top of the comic book industry. 

Beginning with his childhood obsession with comics and continuing through his years in the Navy, The Life and Art of Dave Cockrum follows the rising star from fandom (where he was one of the “Big Three” fanzine artists) to pro-dom, where he helped revive two struggling comic book franchises: the Legion of Super-Heroes and the X-Men. 

A prolific costume designer and character creator, his redesigns of the Legion and his introduction of X-Men characters Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Thunderbird (plus his design of Wolverine’s alter ego, Logan) laid the foundation for both titles to become best-sellers. His later work on his own property, The Futurians, as well as childhood favorite Blackhawk and T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents, plus his five years on Soulsearchers and Company, cemented his position as an industry giant. 

Featuring artwork from fanzines, unused character designs, and other rare material, this is the comprehensive biography of the legendary comic book artist, whose influence is still felt on the industry today! Written by Glen Cadigan (The Legion Companion, The Titans Companion Volumes 1 and 2, Best of the Legion Outpost) with an introduction by Alex Ross.

New pop culture books: Buffy, Bond, noir and more!

Click the links to order from Amazon.

In Every Generation

Return to Sunnydale in a brand-new series by New York Times best-selling author Kendare Blake, set in the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

    Frankie Rosenberg wasn't yet alive when her mom, Willow, her aunt Buffy, and the original Scooby Gang destroyed the Hellmouth and saved the world from the First Evil. These days, life in New Sunnydale is blissfully quiet. Frankie is just trying to survive her sophomore year at the rebuilt high school and use her budding magical powers to make the world a better place.

    But that world is suddenly plunged into danger when the slayer community is the target of a deadly attack, leaving the future of the line uncertain. Then Frankie discovers she's sort of freakishly strong. Oh, and there's something Willow never told her about her true identity.

    Cue the opening credits.

    Quicker than she can carve a stake, Frankie discovers there's more to saving the world than witty one-liners and stupid hot demons. now everyone looks to her for answers, but speaking up has never been her strong suit. And it's hard to be taken seriously when your mom is such a powerful witch she almost ended the world once, while your greatest magic trick is recycling.

    Despite the many challenges standing in her way, Frankie must assemble her own bumbling Scooby Gang, get dressed up in Buffy's (vintage '90s) clothes, and become a new slayer for a new generation―before whatever came for the rest of the slayers comes for her next. 

NOIR CITY Magazine #33

NOIR CITY, the acclaimed magazine of the Film Noir Foundation, now available in print!

    Issue #33 spotlights the 2021 adaptation of Nightmare Alley. Brent Calderwood interviews Guillermo Del Toro and Kim Morgan, co-writers of the bold new reimagining of William Lindsay Gresham's novel. FNF founder Eddie Muller weighs in on the film, while Brent Calderwood considers the long history of carnivals in film noir.

    Also in this issue: Eddie Muller in conversation with author Paul Auster; Star Trek: The Next Generation actor Brent Spiner selects his five favorite classic noir films; Imogen Sara Smith on doppelgangers in noir and particularly in the film Mr. Klein (1976); Jake Hinkson considers noir's cab drivers; Danilo Castro sizes up the "Frontier Trilogy" of filmmaker Taylor Sheridan; and Vince Keenan interviews novelist/musician Willy Vlautin. Plus book reviews, film reviews, and more.

The James Bond Film Guide: The Official Guide to All 25 007 Films

Celebrating 60 years of James Bond films! The essential guide to all 25 Bond adventures, including No Time to Die, starring Daniel Craig!

    The James Bond Film Guide has it all: facts on the stories, characters, vehicles, gadgets, and locations of each 007 movie. This authorized guide takes fans through six decades of one of the entertainment industry’s greatest, most-enduring film franchises ever, and it boasts nearly 1,000 photographs, posters, and movie images from the filmmakers’ extensive archives.

    007 expert Will Lawrence, author of Blood, Sweat and Bond: Behind the Scenes of Spectre, delivers an indispensable guide to what happened in which film – and when – providing everything new and longtime fans alike could ever want to know about the world of James Bond. That phenomenal world has been at the center of EON Productions’ iconic film franchise, the long-running big screen series in history, since the release of Dr. No in 1962, and continuing later this year with No Time to Die.

The World of All Creatures Great & Small: Welcome to Skeldale House

A detailed behind-the-scenes look at PBS Masterpiece's All Creatures Great and Small, based on James Herriott's beloved classic book series

    Welcome to the wonderful world of Skeldale House: the veterinary surgery and bustling waiting room for the locals of Darrowby village and their animals.

    In this exclusive behind-the-scenes book, go through the doors of the famous 1930s practice and discover the real-life inspirations for the TV remake of All Creatures Great & Small.

    Offering exclusive insight into the making of the show, and paying homage to its impressive heritage, including Herriot’s bestselling memoirs and the long-running series, but also to the incredible backdrop of the Yorkshire Dales, this book is the ultimate celebration of a cast of characters – human and animal – who have been bringing us joy for over fifty years.

    Along with exclusive interviews with the actors Nicholas Ralph, Samuel West, Rachel Shenton, Callum Woodhouse and Anna Madeley, you will get to know everyone from the vet advisor, the animal trainers and the animals themselves, to the director Brian Percival, the make-up stylists and the production team. Learn about their adventures on- and off-screen as they went about evoking the authentic experience of the house, the practice and its unforgettable setting.

Stompbox: 100 Pedals of the World's Greatest Guitarists

A deluxe photographic celebration of the unsung hero of guitar music—the effects pedal—featuring interviews with 100 musicians including Peter Frampton, Joe Perry, Jack White, and Courtney Barnett.

    Ever since the Sixties, fuzz boxes, wah-wahs, phase shifters, and a vast range of guitar effects pedals have shaped the sound of music as we know it.

    Stompbox: 100 Pedals of the World’s Greatest Guitarists is a photographic showcase of the actual effects pedals owned and used by Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Frank Zappa, Alex Lifeson, Andy Summers, Eric Johnson, Adrian Belew, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Ed O’Brien, J Mascis, Lita Ford, Joe Perry, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Vernon Reid, Kaki King, Nels Cline and 82 other iconic and celebrated guitarists.

    These exquisitely textured fine-art photographs are matched with fresh, insightful commentary and colorful road stories from the artists themselves, who describe how these fascinating and often devilish devices shaped their sounds and songs.

Harry and Me: 200 Memories of Harry Nilsson 

by the fans and musicians that loved him the most

Harry Nilsson was The Beatles’ favourite recording artist but terrified of performing live. Consequently, only a tiny minority of the hundreds of fans and musicians who contributed memories to this collection of stories ever saw him play in front of any kind of audience. But it’s the songs—“there’s nothing like them” according to Jimmy Webb—and his vocal style—“the supreme singer of any generation” says producer Richard Perry—that keep the love of Harry Nilsson lingering so long after his death aged just 52 in 1994.     These very personal reflections by Harry on his career have been transcribed and added to the book and effectively make it Harry & Me… & Harry. Illustrated with rare and personal photos and memorabilia from the fans, Harry & Me is a beautifully designed treasure trove of the memories of a unique character who left an unforgettable legacy of some of the most life-affecting songs ever recorded.

Doctor Strange: The Book of the Vishanti: 

A Magical Exploration of the Marvel Universe

An immersive in-world guide to all things magical in the Marvel Universe

    One of the most formidable and powerful items in the Marvel Universe, the sacred Book of the Vishanti contains an infinite number of potent spells, incantations, and lore from fantastic realms. Created thousands of years ago in the ancient city of Babylon to combat demons and those who wield dark magic, this tome has been passed down by the greatest sorcerers of the ages, each adding their own discoveries into its ever-expanding pages. Now in the possession of Doctor Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme and Earth’s foremost protector against mystical threats, the Book of the Vishanti acts as his first line of defense.

    The greatest source of magical knowledge in our dimension, the Book of the Vishanti is the ultimate collection of spells, history, and personal accounts recorded by practitioners over centuries, including notes from Doctor Strange himself. Featuring detailed inscriptions, mind-bending illustrations, and everything you need to know about the heroes, villains, artifacts, creatures, and worlds that make up the mystical and supernatural side of the Multiverse, this book is a must-have for all Marvel fans.

Friday Foster: The Sunday Strips

The Friday Foster comic strip is the story ofa former nightclub “camera bunny” turned photographer’s assistant turned fashion model. With an innate inclination to help others and a natural beauty that makes her a magnet for men, Friday often finds herself in some very sticky situations and world class adventures.

    For the FIRST TIME EVER, the classic FRIDAY FOSTER newspaper color comic strip created by James D. “Jim” Lawrence (of Buck Rogers and James Bond fame) and illustrated by Jorge “Jordi” Longarón then later Gray Morrow is collected. The strip inspired the 1975 movie of the same name starring Pam Grier. The strip is the first mainstream comic strip starring an African-American character in the title role.

    The book will also include a significant bonus section including multiple interviews, an expanded sketchbook section, artwork, photos, essays, articles, behind-the-scenes info, and more!

Marvel's Falcon and the Winter Soldier Collector's Special

Includes interviews with the cast and crew of Marvel Studios’ The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, along with exclusive photos and art. This special collector’s edition focuses on Captain America’s fighting companions, Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes, played by Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan.

 

Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley: The Rise and Fall of Stanton Carlisle 

Join Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro for an intimate exploration of his darkly electrifying psychological thriller Nightmare Alley.

    Comprehensive and insightful, Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley: The Rise and Fall of Stanton Carlisle, is the ultimate companion to the master director’s latest work.

• DISCOVER A RIVETING STORY: Inspired by William Lindsay Gresham’s cult 1947 novel, Nightmare Alley stars Bradley Cooper as Stanton “Stan” Carlisle, a talented but troubled drifter who takes up with a traveling carnival. Ingratiating himself with its troupe of misfits, Stan swindles his way to fortune and fame, but when he meets psychiatrist Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), his greed and duplicity will put him on the path to self-destruction. Also starring Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, and Rooney Mara, Nightmare Alley is del Toro’s most ambitious film to date, an engrossing yet disturbing journey into the psyche of a tragic swindler whose own nature seals his fate.

• EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS: This deluxe volume delves into the creation of all aspects of the film through extensive interviews with del Toro and his cast and crew, including writer Kim Morgan, with whom he collaborated closely on the script.

• NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN CONCEPT ART AND PHOTOS: This incisive commentary is illustrated with a broad range of striking visuals from the production—including concept art and unit photography—that illuminate the film’s two distinct worlds: the ramshackle life of the traveling carnival and the sophisticated art deco trappings of 1940s Buffalo, New York.

• INSIGHTS FROM DEL TORO HIMSELF: Tracing the arc of a production that faced multiple challenges, not least of all the onset of a pandemic that threatened to derail shooting, del Toro and his team give deep insights into the complex psychology of the film’s protagonists and the process of bringing them to life on set.

The Nefarious Villains of Sherlock Holmes Volume I

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson! The names of the world’s greatest detective and his stalwart friend conjure up images of Victorian London, gaslit streets, hansom cabs, and dense fogs.

But there was more to the story than these heroes. There were the villains who dared to stand against them, carrying out their vile plans and evil schemes.

    Who were these sinners, malefactors, and criminals? We only know the barest details, as provided to us from Watson’s pen in the very few sixty stories of the original Sherlockian Canon. Now, with this new volume from Belanger Books, we investigate further – into the lives and deeds and motivations of these Nefarious Villains of Sherlock Holmes.

    In these two volumes are twenty four stories examining the best known villains – Professor Moriarty, for instance, and Colonel Moran, and Dr. Grimesby Roylott – and some others who might not be quite as famous, but who were just as vexing to the Detective and Doctor . . . names like Culverton Smith, Baron Maupertuis, and Abe Slaney.

    Discover their histories and find out the events behind the stories that you think you know. Settle back for an exceptional Holmes anthology, and a walk along the Dark Side of the Canon . . . .

The game is afoot!

Observations by Gaslight: Stories from the World of Sherlock Holmes

One of PopSugar's Best New Mysteries and Thrillers of December 202

    A new collection of Sherlockian tales that shows the Great Detective and his partner, Watson, as their acquaintances saw them

    Lyndsay Faye―international bestseller, translated into fifteen languages, and a two-time Edgar Award nominee―first appeared on the literary scene with Dust and Shadow, her now-classic novel pitting Sherlock Holmes against Jack the Ripper, and later produced The Whole Art of Detection, her widely acclaimed collection of traditional Watsonian tales.  Now Faye is back with Observations by Gaslight, a thrilling volume of both new and previously published short stories and novellas narrated by those who knew the Great Detective.

    Beloved adventuress Irene Adler teams up with her former adversary in a near-deadly inquiry into a room full of eerily stopped grandfather clocks.  Learn of the case that cemented the lasting friendship between Holmes and Inspector Lestrade, and of the tragic crime which haunted the Yarder into joining the police force. And witness Stanley Hopkins’ first meeting with the remote logician he idolizes, who will one day become his devoted mentor.  

    From familiar faces like landlady Mrs. Hudson to minor characters like Lomax the sub-librarian, Observations by Gaslight―entirely epistolary, told through diaries, telegrams, and even grocery lists―paints a masterful portrait of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as you have never seen them before.

Coming up: Alan Moore story collection "Illuminations"

Out Oct. 11. Order now from Amazon.

Details:

In his first-ever short story collection, which spans forty years of work and features many never-before-published pieces, Alan Moore presents a series of wildly different and equally unforgettable characters who discover--and in some cases even make and unmake--the various uncharted parts of existence.

In "A Hypothetical Lizard," two concubines in a brothel for sorcerers fall in love with tragic ramifications. In "Not Even Legend," a paranormal study group is infiltrated by one of the otherworldly beings they seek to investigate. In "Illuminations," a nostalgic older man decides to visit a seaside resort from his youth and finds the past all too close at hand. And in the monumental novella "What We Can Know About Thunderman," which charts the surreal and Kafkaesque history of the comics industry over the last seventy-five years through several sometimes-naive and sometimes-maniacal people rising and falling on its career ladders, Moore reveals the dark, beating heart of the superhero business.

From ghosts and otherworldly creatures to the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and theoretical Boltzmann brains fashioning the universe at the big bang, Illuminations is exactly that--a series of bright, startling tales from a contemporary legend that reveal the full power of imagination and magic. 

New pop culture books: Garbo, Lego, Marvel, DC, Bond, Star Wars and more!

Click the links to order from Amazon. 

Garbo

“Wherever you look in the period between 1925 and 1941,” Robert Gottlieb writes in Garbo, “Greta Garbo is in people’s minds, hearts, and dreams.” Strikingly glamorous and famously inscrutable, she managed, in sixteen short years, to infiltrate the world’s subconscious; the end of her film career, when she was thirty-six, only made her more irresistible. Garbo appeared in just twenty-four Hollywood movies, yet her impact on the world―and that indescribable, transcendent presence she possessed―was rivaled only by Marilyn Monroe’s. She was looked on as a unique phenomenon, a sphinx, a myth, the most beautiful woman in the world, but in reality she was a Swedish peasant girl, uneducated, naïve, and always on her guard. When she arrived in Hollywood, aged nineteen, she spoke barely a word of English and was completely unprepared for the ferocious publicity that quickly adhered to her as, almost overnight, she became the world’s most famous actress.

    In Garbo, the acclaimed critic and editor Robert Gottlieb offers a vivid and thorough retelling of her life, beginning in the slums of Stockholm and proceeding through her years of struggling to elude the attention of the world―her desperate, futile striving to be “left alone.” He takes us through the films themselves, from M-G-M’s early presentation of her as a “vamp”―her overwhelming beauty drawing men to their doom, a formula she loathed―to the artistic heights of Camille and Ninotchka (“Garbo Laughs!”), by way of Anna Christie (“Garbo Talks!”), Mata Hari, and Grand Hotel. He examines her passive withdrawal from the movies, and the endless attempts to draw her back. And he sketches the life she led as a very wealthy woman in New York―“a hermit about town”―and the life she led in Europe among the Rothschilds and men like Onassis and Churchill. Her relationships with her famous co-star John Gilbert, with Cecil Beaton, with Leopold Stokowski, with Erich Maria Remarque, with George Schlee―were they consummated? Was she bisexual? Was she sexual at all? The whole world wanted to know―and still wants to know.

    In addition to offering his rich account of her life, Gottlieb, in what he calls “A Garbo Reader,” brings together a remarkable assembly of glimpses of Garbo from other people’s memoirs and interviews, ranging from Ingmar Bergman and Tallulah Bankhead to Roland Barthes; from literature (she turns up everywhere―in Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, in Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, and the letters of Marianne Moore and Alice B. Toklas); from countless songs and cartoons and articles of merchandise. Most extraordinary of all are the pictures―250 or so ravishing movie stills, formal portraits, and revealing snapshots―all reproduced here in superb duotone. She had no personal vanity, no interest in clothes and make-up, yet the story of Garbo is essentially the story of a face and the camera. Forty years after her career ended, she was still being tormented by unrelenting paparazzi wherever she went.

Star Wars Character Encyclopedia, 

Updated and Expanded Edition

The latest edition of this beloved title has been comprehensively updated to include new characters from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and both seasons of Star Wars: The Mandalorian.

    Want to learn more about the Knights of Ren? Curious as to where Padmé Amidala is from? Wonder how tall Grogu is? 

    To learn the answers to these questions and more, look no further than Star Wars: Character Encyclopedia Updated and Expanded Edition. Written by Star Wars experts, the book is full of fun facts and intriguing information that’s guaranteed to enthrall fans of all ages. 

    With plenty of lesser-known details, even die-hard fans will learn new facts about iconic characters.

The Big Book of Amazing LEGO Creations with Bricks You Already Have: 

75+ Brand-New Vehicles, Robots, Dragons, Castles, Games and 

Other Projects for Endless Creative Play

This huge collection of action-packed projects will bring fresh life to your tubs of bricks and get LEGO® lovers of all levels inspired to build for days. Dive into your own LEGO world filled with new and amazing creations―from sleek, aerodynamic race cars to fairytale creatures, secret spy headquarters and everything in between.

You've Got Red on You: 

How Shaun of the Dead Was Brought to Life

You’ve Got Red on You details the previously untold story of 2004’s Shaun of the Dead, the hilarious, terrifying horror-comedy whose fan base continues to grow and grow. After consulting dozens of the people involved in the creation of the film, author Clark Collis reveals how a group of friends overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to make a movie that would take bites out of both the UK and the US box office before ascending to the status of bona fide comedy classic.

    Featuring in-depth interviews with director Edgar Wright, producer Nira Park, and cast members Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Bill Nighy, Lucy Davis, and Coldplay singer Chris Martin, the book also boasts a treasure trove of storyboards, rare behind-the-scenes photos, and commentary from famous fans of the movie, including filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth.

The James Bond Film Guide: 

The Official Guide to All 25 007 Films

The James Bond Film Guide has it all: facts on the stories, characters, vehicles, gadgets, and locations of each 007 movie. This authorized guide takes fans through six decades of one of the entertainment industry’s greatest, most-enduring film franchises ever, and it boasts nearly 1,000 photographs, posters, and movie images from the filmmakers’ extensive archives.

    007 expert Will Lawrence, author of Blood, Sweat and Bond: Behind the Scenes of Spectre, delivers an indispensable guide to what happened in which film – and when – providing everything new and longtime fans alike could ever want to know about the world of James Bond. That phenomenal world has been at the center of EON Productions’ iconic film franchise, the long-running big screen series in history, since the release of Dr. No in 1962, and continuing later this year with No Time to Die.

Marvel By Design

As one of the most recognizable brands in the world, Marvel has spent the last 80-plus years inspiring generations of creatives through its approach to visual storytelling. Marvel’s comic books, in particular, established a distinct graphic language that has found its way into mainstream culture, including 1960s Pop Art, and present-day digital culture, gaming, advertising, and more. Marvel By Design will celebrate the company’s visual language with an in-depth exploration of the design process behind the brand’s most recognizable graphical elements including logos, covers, lettering, layout, and color palettes. Readers will learn how the renowned Marvel Method established a unique approach to the creative process and how that process can serve as a template for creatives working beyond comics. Throughout the book, Marvel by Design will connect the dots between comic culture and its undeniable influence in every creative field including the evolution of graphic design, editorial design, movies, and visual culture at large. 

The Essential Directors: 

The Art and Impact of Cinema's Most Influential Filmmakers

For well over a century, those who create motion pictures have touched our hearts and souls; they have transported and transformed our minds, intoxicated and entranced our senses. One artist's vision is the single most prominent force behind the scenes: the director. The Essential Directors illuminates the unseen forces behind some of the most notable screen triumphs from the aesthetic peak of silent cinema through the New Hollywood of the 1970s. Considering each artist's influence on the medium, cultural impact, and degree of achievement, Turner Classic Movies presents a compendium of Hollywood's most influential filmmakers, with profiles offering history and insight on the filmmaker's narrative style, unique touches, contributions to the medium, key films, and distinctive movie moments to watch for. The work of these game-changing artists is illustrated throughout by more than 200 full-color and black-and-white photographs.

    In The Essential Directors you’ll read how Cecil B. DeMille revamped religion to define an era, and how Oscar Micheaux broke barriers to become the most influential Black filmmaker of the 1920s. You’ll marvel at the efficient artistry of “One-Take Woody” Van Dyke and fall in love again with the sophisticated studio-era classics of George Cukor. You’ll gain insight into how women like Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino built thriving careers in an industry ruled by men and discover what drove Mike Nichols to mix comedy with tragedy, becoming the highest-paid director of his day in the the process. The Essential Directors  presents the work of these game-changing artists and dozens more in this stunning volume.

Rotten Tomatoes: The Ultimate Binge Guide: 

296 Must-See Shows That Changed the Way We Watch TV

For the completist, The Ultimate Binge Guide is a challenge: a bingeable bucket list of all the shows you need to see before you die (or just to be super-informed at your next dinner party). For all readers, it's a fascinating look at the evolution of TV.

    The guide is broken down into several sections that speak to each series' place in TV history, including:

    Classics That Made the Molds (And Those That Broke Them):​  The Jeffersons, All in the Family, Sanford and Son, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Get Smart, Cheers, Golden Girls, Happy Days...

Tony, Walt, Don, and the Antiheroes We Loved and Hated​:  Oz, Mad Men, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, The Americans, Peaky Blinders, Ozark, The Shield, Boardwalk Empire, How To Get Away With Murder...

    Game-Changing Sitcoms and the Kings and Queens of Cringe:  Insecure, Community, 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Fleabag, Black-ish, Party Down, Veep, Catastrophe, Fresh Off the Boat, Tim and Eric, Schitt's Creek, Better Things, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Pen15, Freaks and Geeks, Broad City, Black Lady Sketch Show...

    Grown-Up Genre:  Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, Battlestar Galactica, The Expanse, Supernatural, The Walking Dead, American Horror Story, Star Trek, Watchmen, The Witcher, Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, Westworld, Doctor Who...

    Mysteries and Mindf--ks:  Twin Peaks, Lost, Sense8, Mr. Robot, Broadchurch, The Leftovers, Fargo, Top of the Lake, Killing Eve, Wilfred, True Detective, Hannibal, Mindhunter...

    Reality TV and Docuseries That Captured the Zeitgeist: The Last Dance, Making A Murderer, Tiger King, Planet Earth, RuPaul's Drag Race, Wild Wild Country, Queer Eye, The Jinx, Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown...

    In this punchy full-color guide, the editors of Rotten Tomatoes complement series write-ups with engaging infographics; fun sidebars (like a battle between the US and UK editions of The Office); and deep-dive essays on the streaming wars, superproducers to know, and the evolution of our collective viewing habits.

Profusely Illustrated: A Memoir

The fabulous life and times of one of our wittiest, most endearing and enduring caricaturists—in his own words and inimitable art. Sorel has given us "some of the best pictorial satire of our time ... [his] pen can slash as well as any sword” (The Washington Post).

    Alongside more than 172 of his drawings, cartoons, and caricatures—and in prose as spirited and wickedly pointed as his artwork—Edward Sorel gives us an unforgettable self-portrait: his poor Depression-era childhood in the Bronx (surrounded by loving Romanian immigrant grandparents and a clan of mostly left-leaning aunts and uncles); his first stabs at drawing when pneumonia kept him out of school at age eight; his time as a student at New York’s famed High School of Music and Art; the scrappy early days of Push Pin Studios, founded with fellow Cooper Union alums Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast, which became the hottest design group of the 1960s; his two marriages and four children; and his many friends in New York’s art and literary circles.

    As the “young lefty” becomes an “old lefty,” Sorel charts the highlights of his remarkable life, by both telling us and showing us how in magazines and newspapers, books, murals, cartoons, and comic strips, he steadily lampooned—and celebrated—American cultural and political life. He sets his story in the parallel trajectory of American presidents, from FDR’s time to the present day—with the candor and depth of insight that could come only from someone who lived through it all.

    In Profusely Illustrated, Sorel reveals the kaleidoscopic ways in which the personal and political collide in art—a collision that is simultaneously brilliant in concept and uproarious and beautiful in its representation.

Marvel Universe Map By Map

Chart a journey across Marvel Comics’ vast and vibrant universe, from its Earthbound mean streets and hidden lands, to its mythic realms and cosmic outer reaches. This Marvel-approved compendium of specially curated essays features stunning, newly commissioned cartography, illustrations, and diagrams to help readers navigate their way around iconic locales such as Asgard, Wakanda, Atlantis, Olympus, Hell’s Kitchen, Latveria, Knowhere, The Savage Land, Battleworld, and many more.

    Marvel Universe: Map by Map delineates the contours of the ever-expanding, complex, and interconnected Marvel Universe, illuminating the incredible locations, epic events, and extraordinary characters that have shaped it. Boasting dazzling new artwork, gorgeous comic book visuals, and insightful, authoritative text, this is a premium, indispensable way finder for any armchair explorer. 

Doctor Strange: The Book of the Vishanti: 

A Magical Exploration of the Marvel Universe

One of the most formidable and powerful items in the Marvel Universe, the sacred Book of the Vishanti contains an infinite number of potent spells, incantations, and lore from fantastic realms. Created thousands of years ago in the ancient city of Babylon to combat demons and those who wield dark magic, this tome has been passed down by the greatest sorcerers of the ages, each adding their own discoveries into its ever-expanding pages. Now in the possession of Doctor Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme and Earth’s foremost protector against mystical threats, the Book of the Vishanti acts as his first line of defense.

    The greatest source of magical knowledge in our dimension, the Book of the Vishanti is the ultimate collection of spells, history, and personal accounts recorded by practitioners over centuries, including notes from Doctor Strange himself. Featuring detailed inscriptions, mind-bending illustrations, and everything you need to know about the heroes, villains, artifacts, creatures, and worlds that make up the mystical and supernatural side of the Multiverse, this book is a must-have for all Marvel fans.

Saga of the Swamp Thing Box Set

Before Watchmen, Alan Moore made his debut in the U.S. comic book industry with the revitalization of the horror comic book The Swamp Thing. His deconstruction of the classic monster stretched the creative boundaries of the medium and became one of the most spectacular series in comic book history. With modern-day issues explored against a backdrop of horror, The Swamp Thing stories became commentaries on environmental, political, and social issues, unflinching in their relevance. 

    Created out of the Swamp by a freak accident, Swamp Thing is an elemental creature who uses the forces of nature and wisdom of the plant kingdom to fight the polluted world's self-destruction. Alan Moore took the Swamp Thing to new heights in the 1980s with his unique narrative approach. His provocative and groundbreaking writing, combined with masterly artwork by some of the medium's top artists, made Swamp Thing one of the great comics of the late twentieth century.

The DC Book: A Vast and Vibrant Multiverse Simply Explained

If you want to truly understand DC Comics, The DC Book is your one-stop guide to the DC Multiverse. It is a unique and insightful examination of this mind-boggling comics universe that takes readers on a compelling journey from the dawn of Super Heroes to the formation of the Dark Multiverse... and beyond.

    Meticulously researched and expertly written, The DC Book is packed with stunning, painstakingly selected artwork, illuminating infographics, and incisive, specially curated essays that shed new light on the ever-evolving DC Multiverse. From the world's finest Super Heroes such as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, to iconic villains like the Joker, Lex Luthor, and Darkseid, to mythic realms like Apokolips and Themyscira, to cosmic energies like The Source and The Speed Force, The DC Book explores the key concepts, characters, and events that have defined and shaped DC Comics over the past 80 years.

    The book's content is divided into key subject areas--The Multiverse, Dark Multiverse, and Metaverse; Weird Science and Super Tech; Down to Earth; Mysteries from Space; Mystic Realms and Dream Worlds; and Time Warps and Other Earths--that form the foundations of DC Comics. The DC Book is an invaluable roadmap to DC Comics that no fan will want to miss!

Entertainment Weekly The Ultimate Guide to Spiderman: 

The Comics, The Movies, The Multiverse

Look out! Here comes the Spider-Man. Ahead of the December 2021 release of Spider-Man: No Way Home comes the ultimate guide to the teen superhero with radioactive blood, presented by the editors of Entertainment Weekly and featuring every actor who’s worn the mask. It includes an exclusive interview with the current Peter Parker, Marvel’s Tom Holland; a definitive timeline of every Spider-event, including that Broadway show; a ranking of all Parker’s foes on the big screen; an update on the animated Into the Spider-Verse sequel; and much more. Please note that this product is an authorized edition published by the Meredith Corporation and sold by Amazon. This edition is printed using a high quality matte interior paper and printed on demand for immediate fulfillment.