Showing posts with label New pop culture books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New pop culture books. Show all posts

New Pop Culture Books: Rocketeer Art of Dave Stevens! DC Book of Lists! Marvel Fun and Games! More!

Click the links to order items from Amazon.

In April of 1982, The Rocketeer debuted as a backup feature from Pacific Comics. From those humble beginnings the artistry of Dave Stevens caught the imaginations of countless readers and became a worldwide sensation, even being turned into a big-budget feature film! And in 2009 when IDW launched its award-winning Artist’s Edition series, The Rocketeer was the inaugural release, even winning a coveted Eisner Award that year. The book quickly sold out and went into a second printing. Now, more than 10 years later, The Rocketeer is soaring back with a new 40th anniversary printing.
    As with all Artist’s Editions, the art reproduced in this book has been meticulously scanned from the original art. Readers will be able to peruse these pages and see all the quirks and nuances that make original art so unique—blue pencil notations, white out, gradients in the ink, and so much more. Unless you were looking over Dave’s shoulder as he painstakingly drew these pages, this is your best chance to see the art of The Rocketeer as close to the originals as possible!

A weave of biography, criticism, and memoir, Shine Bright is Danyel Smith’s intimate history of Black women’s music as the foundational story of American pop. Smith has been writing this history for more than five years. But as a music fan, and then as an essayist, editor (Vibe, Billboard), and podcast host (Black Girl Songbook), she has been living this history since she was a latchkey kid listening to “Midnight Train to Georgia” on the family stereo. 
    Smith’s detailed narrative begins with Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved woman who sang her poems, and continues through the stories of Mahalia Jackson, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, and Mariah Carey, as well as the under-considered careers of Marilyn McCoo, Deniece Williams, and Jody Watley. 
    Shine Bright is an overdue paean to musical masters whose true stories and genius have been hidden in plain sight—and the book Danyel Smith was born to write.

Ronnie Spector's first collaboration with producer Phil Spector, "Be My Baby," stunned the world and shot girl group the Ronettes to stardom. No one could sing as clearly, as emotively as Ronnie. But her voice was soon drowned out in Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, and lost in Ronnie and Phil's ensuing romance and marriage.
    Ronnie had to fight tooth and nail to wrest back control of her life, her music, and her legacy. And while she regained her footing, Ronnie found herself recording with Stevie Van Zandt, partying with David Bowie, and touring with Bruce Springsteen.
    Smart, humorous, and self-possessed, Be My Baby is a whirlwind account of the twists and turns in the life of an artist. More than anything, Be My Baby is a testament to the fact that it is possible to stand up to a powerful abuser and start on a second―or third, or fifth―act. In fact, almost six decades into her career, Ronnie Spector is still touring.

Take a tour behind the scenes at the NBC television special that relaunched Elvis Presley’s career as a stage musician. Author Steve Binder—who directed the TV special—provides exclusive content that gives fans even more insight into the performance that many see as a high point in the King of Rock’s reign of American music. Elvis ’68 Comeback includes full-color photographs and detailed commentary on the show’s development and production, making this an excellent addition to the shelf of every Elvis fan. Foreword by film director Baz Luhrmann.

Each entry in this book celebrates another corner of DC's past, present, and future. It revels in the rich tapestry of DC's characters and history. Or histories, for that matter. Each first meeting of Batman and Superman is listed, as are highlights of Hawkman's many reincarnations and Jimmy Olsen's transformations. Harley Quinn’s most peculiar career choices? They make quite a resume. The DC Comics Book of Lists also has a chronological list of artificial intelligence, from the 2nd century to the 823rd—with Metal Men, Brother Eye, and Computo along the way—and a Mount Olympus family tree presents Wonder Woman’s expansive list of relatives. Legacy characters like the Flash and Green Lantern are highlighted, profiling each character to don the mantle, and Suicide Squad members are memorialized in a breakdown of who was killed on each mission. From superheroes and villains with tattoos to the many cats prowling around the DC multiverse, you’ll find a surprise or two on every page.
    Illustrated with full-color comic book art throughout, each page of The DC Comics Book of Lists presents a new discovery or way of looking at cherished characters.

Mike Mignola has been (and remains!) one of the preeminent comics creators of the past several decades. His career was already firmly established for his outstanding work on characters like Batman, Wolverine, a myriad of beautiful covers and more… And then came Hellboy. Mignola’s iconic creation struck a meteoric chord with fans from the very start and has not abated in the 25-plus years since the character’s debut.
    This Artisan Edition features the first five issues of Hellboy in Hell as well as a wealth of historic supplementary material: the first three Hellboy stories–the two initial four-pagers, produced for promotional purposes, and the 10-page story from John Byrne’s Nextmen #21–plus The Corpse, and two other tales selected by Mignola for inclusion. Nearly every page has been scanned from Mignola’s original art and showcases the artist's gorgeous work as closely as possible to the physical page–this is a book for fans of great storytelling and students of the craft.
    An Artisan Edition endeavors to mimic as closely as possible the experience of viewing the actual original art–for instance, corrections, blue pencils, paste-overs, all the little nuances that make original art unique. Unless you are holding Mike’s art in your hands, there is no way to better experience his original art.

Can you solve riddles with the genius of Iron Man? Spot the Invisible Woman before she disappears? Crack Nick Fury’s secret codes?
    Hulk-smash through every challenge and help your favorite Marvel characters conquer the most head-scratching, pulse-pounding puzzles and games in the Multiverse. Journey through Doctor Strange’s mystic maze, unscramble Spider-Man’s word webs, weather Storm’s seek-and-find, fly through word searches faster than Falcon, and learn to conjure the Scarlet Witch—all you need is a pencil. Featuring crosswords, mazes, word searches, trivia, drawing tutorials, connect-the-dots, and more from Marvel’s Fun and Games magazine, this a-maze-ing compendium is a throwback to classic comics and an activity-packed adventure perfect for Marvel fans young and old.

From 1968 to 1976 Martin L. Greim's COMIC CRUSADER was one of the most highly respected comics fanzines in the country. This volume collects all 17 issues, complete and uncut.

Just as his Rock 'n' Roll oldies album hit the market, Morris Levy, the Mob-connected owner of Roulette Records, released Roots, an unauthorized version of the same record. Levy had used rough mixes of John's unfinished Rock 'n' Roll recordings-and claimed the former Beatle had verbally agreed to the arrangement. The clash led to a lawsuit and countersuit between Levy and Lennon.
    Attorney Jay Bergen, a partner in a prestigious New York City law firm, represented John in this epic battle over the rights to his own recordings. Millions of dollars were at stake.
    Jay tells the intimate story of how he worked closely with John to rebut Levy's outrageous claims. He also recounts how John explained his recording process in poetic, exacting terms before a judge who knew little about the Beatles and John's solo career.
    Lennon, the Mobster & the Lawyer catches the high drama of the courtroom skirmishes in this previously untold story. It also paints a detailed personal picture of John and his world in 1975-76, when he was soon to have a new son and went into happy seclusion to be a husband and father.

Between 1966 and 1967, "the Monkees sold more records than the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined!" Whether this is true or not, they had a revolutionary TV series and they raised the bar of rock concerts. As songwriters and musicians, their musical diversity ranged from the pioneering use of the banjo and the Moog synthesizer in pop music to becoming one of the forerunners in the creation of country rock. This creative unity won admirers like the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and Timothy Leary. However, when they exposed the modus operandi of the American record industry, they paid the consequences, and public opinion designated the Monkees as just a prefabricated group at the height of the counterculture. After the band broke up, its members were relegated to brutal ostracism. Peter Tork was the most affected. Though he was a scholar, a classical musician capable of playing seven musical instruments, and an excellent actor and songwriter, for some Peter was simply "the dummy." This book seeks to do justice to the Monkees' extraordinary legacy in pop culture, revealing the ups and downs of the band's backstory and tracing Peter's dramatic trajectory and pilgrimage through life. A true rock and roll survivor, but, above all, a brilliant artist. "

New Pop Culture Books: Batman! Buscema! The BBC and more!

Our picks this month. Click the links to order from Amazon.

THE ART OF THE BATMAN is the official behind-the-scenes illustrated tie-in book to the highly anticipated film The Batman by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, War for the Planet of the Apes), coming to theaters March 4, 2022. The Batman stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/The Batman, Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Paul Dano as Edward Nashton/ The Riddler, Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin, Jeffrey Wright as Lieutenant James Gordon, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, and John Turturro as Carmine Falcone.

The year is 1888 and Louis Le Prince is finally testing his “taker” or “receiver” device for his family on their front lawn. The device is meant to capture ten to twelve images per second on film, creating a reproduction of reality that can be replayed as many times as desired. In an otherwise separate and detached world, occurrences from one end of the globe could now be viewable with only a few days delay on the other side of the world. No human experience—from the most mundane to the most momentous—would need to be lost to history.
    In 1890, Le Prince was granted patents in four countries ahead of other inventors who were rushing to accomplish the same task. But just weeks before unveiling his invention to the world, he mysteriously disappeared and was never seen or heard from again. Three and a half years later, Thomas Edison, Le Prince’s rival, made the device public, claiming to have invented it himself. And the man who had dedicated his life to preserving memories was himself lost to history—until now.
    The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures pulls back the curtain and reveals the riveting story of both Louis Le Prince’s life and work, dispelling the secrets that shroud each. This captivating, impeccably researched work presents the never before told history of the motion picture and sheds light on the unsolved mystery of Le Prince’s disappearance.

Doctor Who; tennis from Wimbledon; the Beatles and the Stones; the coronation of Queen Elizabeth and the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales: for one hundred years, the British Broadcasting Corporation has been the preeminent broadcaster in the UK and around the world, a constant source of information, comfort, and entertainment through both war and peace, feast and famine.
    The BBC has broadcast to over two hundred countries and in more than forty languages. Its history is a broad cultural panorama of the twentieth century itself, often, although not always, delivered in a mellifluous Oxford accent. With special access to the BBC’s archives, historian David Hendy presents a dazzling portrait of a unique institution whose cultural influence is greater than any other media organization. 
    Mixing politics, espionage, the arts, social change, and everyday life, The BBC is a vivid social history of the organization that has provided both background commentary and screen-grabbing headlines—woven so deeply into the culture and politics of the past century that almost none of us has been left untouched by it. 

Glamour Road: Color, Fashion, Style, and the Midcentury Automobile
This highly visual book explores the seldom-told story of how glamour, fashion, design, and styling became the main focus of automotive marketing from the postwar 1940s through the 1970s. With the expansion of the American suburbs after WWII, women suddenly needed cars of their own. By adopting the fashion industry’s yearly model changes, as well as hiring many designers and stylists from the fashion industry, the automobile industry made a direct appeal to the rising sophistication and influence of women. By perfecting the fashion-centric concept of planned obsolescence, it became the dominant economic engine of American postwar prosperity. The dramatic photography, elegant fashion, and use of color and materials in midcentury automotive marketing created a groundswell of demand for new cars. Much of the marketing imagery of the period hasn’t been published since it first came out, and this book features some of the best.

They were a generation all their own, the army of children who ran home from school to watch Dark Shadows, TV’s very first supernatural soap. A breed apart, they set aside the worship of mundane pop stars to follow vampires, witches, and werewolves. From 1966 to 1971, they were daytime Monster Kids…and today they have stories to tell.

The director Michael Cimino (1939–2016) is famous for two films: the intense, powerful, and enduring Vietnam movie The Deer Hunter, which won Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 1979 and also won Cimino Best Director, and Heaven’s Gate, the most notorious bomb of all time. Originally budgeted at $11 million, Cimino’s sprawling western went off the rails in Montana. The picture grew longer and longer, and the budget ballooned to over $40 million. When it was finally released, Heaven’s Gate failed so completely with reviewers and at the box office that it put legendary studio United Artists out of business and marked the end of Hollywood's auteur era.
    Or so the conventional wisdom goes. Charles Elton delves deeply into the making and aftermath of the movie and presents a surprisingly different view to that of Steven Bach, one of the executives responsible for Heaven’s Gate, who wrote a scathing book about the film and solidified the widely held view that Cimino wounded the movie industry beyond repair. Elton’s Cimino is a richly detailed biography that offers a revisionist history of a lightning rod filmmaker. Based on extensive interviews with Cimino’s peers and collaborators and enemies and friends, most of whom have never spoken before, it unravels the enigmas and falsehoods, many perpetrated by the director himself, which surround his life, and sheds new light on his extraordinary career. This is a story of the making of art, the business of Hollywood, and the costs of ambition, both financial and personal.

An utterly charming book by beloved Parisian artist Pierre Le-Tan, filled with dazzling illustrations and intriguing tales about often eccentric art collectors. Le-Tan, known for designing New Yorker magazine covers and collaborations with fashion houses, summons up memories of inveterate collectors in this lavishly illustrated volume. He evokes fascinating, sometimes troubled figures through insightful and curious portraits. With seventy of his distinctive pen and ink drawings―in vibrant color with meticulous cross-hatching―A Few Collectors opens a window onto the vast or minuscule world created by collectors out of a mix of extravagance and obstinacy. It recounts encounters in Paris, the Côte d’Azur, North Africa, London and New York, where Le-Tan’s subjects have amassed a range of treasures. Some involve famed figures like former Louvre Museum director Pierre Rosenberg. Others are insolvent aristocrats, princes of film and fashion, expatriate dandies, and flat-out obsessive eccentrics. Le-Tan devotes perhaps his finest chapter to himself.

John Buscema’s innovative drawing on Marvel’s Silver Surfer is presented in IDW’s Artisan Edition format. Collecting three complete issues (issues #5, #6, and #8) from the acclaimed original run written by Stan Lee. As a special bonus—this book will have four foldouts featuring eight oversized covers.
    An essential component of The House of Ideas, John Buscema’s talented hand graced the pages of Marvel’s most iconic characters for over four decades, working on The Avengers, Thor, The Fantastic Four, and The Amazing Spider-Man just to name a few.
     As with all Artisan Edition books, nearly every page in this volume has been scanned from the original art, enabling the reader to clearly see all the little nuances that make original art unique and fascinating—blue pencil notations, margin notes, whiteout, and so much more. This will be a must-have for all fans and students of classic comic art!

DC’s Dark Knight first emerged from the shadows in the pages of Detective Comics in 1939, when young Bruce Waye vowed to avenge his parents’ murder and fight for justice in crime-ridden, corrupt Gotham City. 
    Packed with information on the Dark Knight, including how he was created and evolved over the decades, this in-world celebration of DC’s most popular Super Hero explores his motives and drives, his incredible array of weapons and vehicles, his “family” of allies, and his formidable rogues gallery, including The Joker, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, The Riddler, Penguin, Bane, Scarecrow, Killer Croc, and many more. 
    This definitive volume brings Batman’s thrilling story right up to date with full details of his exploits in recent DC storylines such as Rebirth, Dark Nights: Metal and Dark Nights: Death Metal. Featuring a detailed timeline of key events in the life of Bruce Wayne aka Batman, Batman: The Ultimate Guide is packed with spectacular full-color artwork from the original comics and is a dream purchase for the Dark Knight’s legion of fans all over the world.

In 1976, champion player Roger Sharpe stepped up to a pinball machine in a Manhattan courtroom. The New York City Council had convened to consider lifting the city’s ban on pinball―a game that had been outlawed since 1942 for its supposed connections to gambling and organized crime. Sharpe was there to prove that, unlike a slot machine, pinball wasn’t a game of chance designed to fleece its players―it was a game of skill that required a measure of patience, coordination, and control. To prove his point, he proclaimed that he would launch his ball into the center lane at the far end of the playfield―much like Babe Ruth famously pointing to the fences. Sharpe pulled back the plunger and released, and the fate of this industry and art form hung in the balance.
    Thus opens Jon Chad’s comprehensive graphic novel to the history of the captivating, capricious―and at times infuriating!―game of pinball. Tracing pinball’s roots back to the Court of King Louis XIV, through the immigrant experience of early 20th century America, the post-War boom and bust, right up to the present day, Chad charmingly ushers readers through the myriad facets of this most American of pursuits―capturing not just the history but also the artistry, cultural significance, and even the physics of the game.
 
In one of the most well-known and well-loved fantasy epics of the 20th century, Elric is the brooding, albino emperor of the dying Kingdom of Melnibone. After defeating his nefarious cousin and gaining control over the epic sword, Stormbringer, Elric, prince of ruins, must decide what he’s willing to sacrifice in a fight against Armageddon.
    Stormbringer is the second in Michael Moorcock’s incredible series, which has transformed the fantasy genre for generations. Perfect for fans new and old, this book is brought to life once more with stunning illustrations from the most lauded artists in fantasy.

New Pop Culture Books: Buffy! Batman! Wandavision! More!

Our picks. Click the links to order from Amazon.

Over the course of its seven-year run, Buffy the Vampire Slayer cultivated a loyal fandom and featured a strong, complex female lead, at a time when such a character was a rarity. Evan Ross Katz explores the show’s cultural relevance through a book that is part oral history, part celebration, and part memoir of a personal fandom that has universal resonance still, decades later.
    Katz—with the help of the show’s cast, creators, and crew—reveals that although Buffy contributed to important conversations about gender, sexuality, and feminism, it was not free of internal strife, controversy, and shortcomings. Men—both on screen and off—would taint the show’s reputation as a feminist masterpiece, and changing networks, amongst other factors, would drastically alter the show’s tone.
    Katz addresses these issues and more, including interviews with stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Charisma Carpenter, Emma Caulfield, Amber Benson, James Marsters, Anthony Stewart Head, Seth Green, Marc Blucas, Nicholas Brendon, Danny Strong, Tom Lenk, Bianca Lawson, Julie Benz, Clare Kramer, K. Todd Freeman, Sharon Ferguson; and writers Douglas Petrie, Jane Espenson, and Drew Z. Greenberg; as well as conversations with Buffy fanatics and friends of the cast including Stacey Abrams, Cynthia Erivo, Lee Pace, Claire Saffitz, Tavi Gevinson, and Selma Blair.
    Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born engages with the very notion of fandom, and the ways a show like Buffy can influence not only how we see the world but how we exist within it.

In 1934, a friend brought fledgling actress Vivien Leigh to see Theatre Royal, where she would first lay eyes on Laurence Olivier in his brilliant performance as Anthony Cavendish. That night, she confided to a friend, he was the man she was going to marry. There was just one problem: she was already married—and so was he.
    TRULY, MADLY is the biography of a marriage, a love affair that still captivates millions, even decades after both actors' deaths. Vivien and Larry were two of the first truly global celebrities – their fame fueled by the explosive growth of tabloids and television, which helped and hurt them in equal measure. They seemed to have it all and yet, in their own minds, they were doomed, blighted by her long-undiagnosed mental-illness, which transformed their relationship from the stuff of dreams into a living nightmare.
    Through new research, including exclusive access to previously unpublished correspondence and interviews with their friends and family, author Stephen Galloway takes readers on a bewitching journey. He brilliantly studies their tempestuous liaison, one that took place against the backdrop of two world wars, the Golden Age of Hollywood and the upheavals of the 1960s — as they struggled with love, loss and the ultimate agony of their parting.

Bob Odenkirk’s career is inexplicable. And yet he will try like hell to explicate it for you. Charting a “Homeric” decades-long “odyssey” from his origins in the seedy comedy clubs of Chicago to a dramatic career full of award nominations—with a side-trip into the action-man world that is baffling to all who know him—it’s almost like there are many Bob Odenkirks! But there is just one and one is plenty.
    Bob embraced a life in comedy after a chance meeting with Second City’s legendary Del Close. He somehow made his way to a job as a writer at Saturday Night Live. While surviving that legendary gauntlet by the skin of his gnashing teeth, he stashed away the secrets of comedy writing—eventually employing them in the immortal “Motivational Speaker” sketch for Chris Farley, honing them on The Ben Stiller Show, and perfecting them on Mr. Show with Bob and David.
    In Hollywood, Bob demonstrated a bullheadedness that would shame Sisyphus himself, and when all hope was lost for the umpteenth time, the phone rang with an offer to appear on Breaking Bad—a show about how boring it is to be a high school chemistry teacher. His embrace of this strange new world of dramatic acting led him to working with Steven Spielberg, Alexander Payne, and Greta Gerwig, and then, in a twist that will confound you, he re-re-invented himself as a bona fide action star. Why? Read this and do your own psychoanalysis—it’s fun!
    Featuring humorous tangents, never-before-seen photos, wild characters, and Bob’s trademark unflinching drive, Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama is a classic showbiz tale told by a determined idiot. 

The British TV Streaming Guide includes more than 2400 British shows from 23 US-based streaming services (both premium and free). For each streaming service, we tell you which shows are available, when they came out, and what they’re about.
    Looking for a specific title? Flip to the index in back and you’ll find all the shows and their streaming services in alphabetical order.
    Each quarterly guide also includes bonus sections - a “movie night” section with curated recommendations, a section on Scottish TV shows, lists of recent cancellations and renewals, and a few lined pages for your own notes.
    Whether you’re a loyal Doctor Who fan, an IT Crowd and Friday Night Dinner addict, or a lover of period dramas like Outlander and Bridgerton, you’re sure to find more to love in the British TV Streaming Guide.
    Streaming services covered in the guide are: Acorn TV, BritBox, PBS Masterpiece, BBC Select, Inside Outside, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, Sundance Now, AMC+, HBO Max, Starz, Peacock, Epix, Showtime, Topic, Apple TV+, Pluto, Tubi, IMDb TV, Crackle, Vudu, and the Roku Channel.

The cult classic science fiction series Space: 1999 has legions of fans around the world and has been researched and documented in comprehensive books and documentaries, so fans can be forgiven for thinking there’s nothing new under the ‘Black Sun’ … But they’d be wrong.
    Did you know …
- That actors on casting lists for Commander Koenig included Larry Hagman, Doug McClure, Robert Culp, and even William Shatner?
- The first title for the pilot episode was ‘The Last of the Earth Men’?
- The Chief Medical Officer was going to be male, and Professor Bergman could have been Professor Danilo Sabatini?
- That life on the Moon was intended to be a powder keg of fear and dissatisfaction, with Moon City constantly at war with alien races?
- That there were indeed discussions about a possible spin-off series?
    This book takes you back to the beginning, to the genesis of the series, and to early themes, characters, and story outlines. It uncovers a treasure trove of previously unknown information, correspondence, casting lists, production information, and long-lost documents charting alternative realities of what might have been had the series taken any multitude of different forks in the road. And throughout, this book features extensive input from series story consultant and scriptwriter Christopher Penfold.

Wanda Maximoff and the Vision, two of the world-famous Avengers, find themselves living a charmed existence in a sleepy suburb. But although their new life has lots of love and plenty of humor, it also comes with vintage outfits, a laugh track and a live studio audience! What is going on? And when the cracks in Wanda and Vision’s too-perfect world start to widen, it will soon become undeniable that that not all is as it seems. Now, go behind the scenes of this tale of magic, love and sitcoms with this collectible volume — packed with exclusive concept art and interviews with the creators behind Marvel’s first Disney+ TV show!

'The Hollies: Riding The Carousel' is the first full biography of the British music legends. This extensive project, researched in detail, covers the story from their early 1960s formation, playing the small clubs and coffee houses in and around Manchester, right up to the current day. 

A Concise Dictionary of Comics provides clear and informative definitions for each term. It includes twenty-five witty illustrations and pairs most defined terms with references to books, articles, book chapters, and other relevant critical sources. All references are dated and listed in an extensive, up-to-date bibliography of comics scholarship. Each term is also categorized according to type in an index of thematic groupings. This organization serves as a pedagogical aid for teachers and students learning about a specific facet of comics studies and as a research tool for scholars who are unfamiliar with a particular term but know what category it falls into. These features make A Concise Dictionary of Comics especially useful for critics, students, teachers, and researchers, and a vital reference to anyone else who wants to learn more about comics.

It’s 1975 and the comic book industry is struggling, but Carmen Valdez doesn’t care. She’s an assistant at Triumph Comics, which doesn’t have the creative zeal of Marvel nor the buttoned-up efficiency of DC, but it doesn’t matter. Carmen is tantalizingly close to fulfilling her dream of writing a superhero book.
    That dream is nearly a reality when one of the Triumph writers enlists her help to create a new character, which they call “The Lethal Lynx,” Triumph's first female hero. But her colleague is acting strangely and asking to keep her involvement a secret. And then he’s found dead, with all of their scripts turned into the publisher without her name. Carmen is desperate to piece together what happened to him, to hang on to her piece of the Lynx, which turns out to be a runaway hit. But that’s complicated by a surprise visitor from her home in Miami, a tenacious cop who is piecing everything together too quickly for Carmen, and the tangled web of secrets and resentments among the passionate eccentrics who write comics for a living.
    Alex Segura uses his expertise as a comics creator as well as his unabashed love of noir fiction to create a truly one-of-a-kind novel--hard-edged and bright-eyed, gritty and dangerous, and utterly absorbing.

In Batman's Batman, Michael E. Uslan, executive producer of the Batman movie franchise, offers an insider's look at Hollywood and the process of how movies and television shows go from the drawing board to your screens.
    Continuing the delightful tale of his adventures begun in The Boy Who Loved Batman, Uslan draws on both his successful and less successful attempts to bring ideas to the screen, offering a helpful, honest, and breezily told guide to producing films. From passion to promotion, from the initial pitch to selecting the best partners and packaging, Uslan reveals the 13 qualities essential to would-be producers.
    A lively memoir and a valuable glimpse inside Hollywood rarely seen by the public, Batman's Batman is sure to please fans of Michael Uslan and the Batman franchise, but will also prove to be an invaluable resource for any aspiring producers, as he guides readers through the Land of Bilk and Money.

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.

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) 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.

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.

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 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.

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!

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.

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.