 |
   |
Visit min's sister site:  |
|
|
|
|
BREAKING NEWS & VIEWS
Top 5 Gift Books for Magazine LoversMonday, November 21, 2011 Even as the periodical medium faces challenges to its cultural dominance of the last century, nostalgia for the golden age of magazines seems to mount. And so this year’s crop of gift books includes many examples of great magazine writing and art collected in lush volumes that demand to be thumbed and stroked, not swiped and tapped. Over the next weeks at minonline we will highlight some of the best examples of our favorite books this season that make the case for the enduring qualities of print. Today we look at the best archival and historical titles. Vogue: The Covers, by Dodie Kazanjean (Abrams, $50). From December 1892 to March 2009 every imaginable style over more than a century is captured in this straightforward compendium of Vogue covers. The spare introduction by Kazanjean gives the .jpg) lightest overview of the magazine’s history, and the entire volume is devoted to reproducing the covers in a fairly pedestrian format of four to one page interspersed with full page renderings throughout. But they are gorgeous cover, especially the hand-painted work of the early 20th Century that helped underscore modern change with its minimalist and stylish takes on the fashion-forward American female. You can fall into the full page reprints of select covers at this scale. You will slip through a century of change in minutes. One wishes for some more depth of content or diversity of design. But if you want to thumb through a century of styles, both for fashion and for magazines, this is a treat.Masters of American Illustration: 41 Illustrators and How They Worked, by Fred Taraba ($44.95, The Illustrated Press). No aficionado of  magazine illustration can miss this rare coffee table book that is as beautiful as it is thoughtful. Taraba collects and revises essays on individual magazine artists from his regular columns in Step-By-Step Graphics through much of the 1990s. From the familiar Americana of James Montgomery Flagg to the distressed women and eroticism of Margaret Brundage in Weird Tales magazine, this volume shows a broad embrace of all styles. Tarabe tends to explain through biography and background on the artist’s technique, a more workmanlike perspective than academic and interpretive. Which is fine, because the essays bring forward lives, training and sensibilities of so many artists we know only on sight. There is no better way to understand the subtle difference in style of illustration than to see so many individual artists put into relation to one another.Harper’s Bazaar Greatest Hits, by Glenda Bailey (Abrams, $65). Less ambitious in chronology than the Vogue covers catalog but more visually .jpg) absorbing, editor-in-chief Bailey walks us through the decade of her leadership (2001 – Current). The beautifully designed volume recreates some of the most striking layouts, photo projects and uses of celebrity in this young 21st Century. It is interesting to see this editor reflect on her work year-by year, discussing both the evolution of the magazine as well as its relation to the times. The oversized pages reproduce some of the best work at about twice the original magazine scale, reminding us how dramatic and involving a full page rendering of just the right pose can be. The book is a great testimonial to the achievement of Harper’s Bazaar in this decade and the relevance of print sensibilities in the digital age.MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic, Maus, by Art Spiegelman (Pantheon, $35). The Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about  Spiegelman, his father and the ways in which the Holocaust haunted both was serialized in the pages of RAW magazine throughout the 1980s and helped legitimize and accelerate the graphic novel form. Here, the making of the book is dissected in unprecedented detail. The print book includes lengthy exposition by Spiegelman and interviews about the making of the book and his relationship with his father. Even more comprehensive is the included DVD, which includes a digital reproduction of Maus along with layers of sketches, roughs of frames and audio commentary by Siegelman and tapes of his interviews with his father. You can see the creative progeny of many single frames of illustration across many iterations. The creative process behind an artistic work rarely gets this kind of detailed exegesis and it will seem overdone for all but the most devoted fan/historian. Nevertheless, you can dip into any piece of the this trove and get a rare glimpse into the creative process, the minute decisions an artist makes to realize a story in its full power. Dirty, Dirty, Dirty: Of Playboys, Pigs and Penthouse Paupers – An American Tale of Sex and Wonder, by Mike Edison ($15.95, Soft Skull Press) No coffee table book this, Edison is former publisher of High Times and former editor-in-chief of Screw magazine. He has a no-holds-barred writing style with  which he goes at the bad boys of men’s magazines in the 50s, 60s and 70s, from Hef to Bob to Larry. Along the way he digs into the history of modern porn, censorship battles, social change, and the chicanery and false public personae of these would-be crusader publishers. The principals likely will not be amused, but Edison remains sympathetic to the larger cause of sexual and cultural; liberation that touched these magazines obliquely or not. Lively and illuminating, to say the least. Raucously written. If you have breaking news to share please contact Steve Smith at ssmith@accessintel.com
Take min's fun quiz and find out how magazine-savvy you are! COMMENTS
|
min's Digital Media Summit
App Central min's App Central (for min subscribers only): Stay on top of mobile app developments with exclusive app reviews, analysis and data. 
Please enter the following information to have a link to The Skinny emailed to your iPhone:
White Papers
min Contests
min Press
 Events Calendar
min's Integrated Marketing Awards |
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
| Copyright © 2012 Access Intelligence, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Access Intelligence, LLC is prohibited. For more details please see Terms and Conditions. |
