Another Wordless Book Reviews episode. Here I review four books using only sound effects and facial expressions. The books: Invisible Monsters: Remix by Chuck Palahniuk, Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo, Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee, and Flashover by Gordon Highland.
A few episodes back I presented some book covers that, through the twisted lens of perversion (is that redundant?), were made to appear more depraved than perhaps they were meant to be. Here, I present three more perverted covers that you won’t be able to unsee. Hey, I didn’t make these book covers to be easily perverted; don’t blame me.
Here I manipulate the intentions of Gordon Highland’s Flashover, Rob Roberge’s Working Backwards from the Worst Moment of My Life, and Paul Bowels’ The Sheltering Sky.
The last few book orders that came direct from me included quick doodles on the envelopes. Why? Mainly because I was packaging them while watching TV and then got fidgety after sealing them. Fidgety lead to grabbing a Sharpie (luckily within reaching distance) which lead to doodling.
Why the name lowercase art? From my lowercase art Flickr album:
I feel that Art (with a capital ‘A’) is given the distinction of proper noun-dom because of the artistic intent backing its creation. In other words, true Art has to have some sort of meaning, otherwise it is merely decoration. And that’s just what these pieces are. Aesthetic only; no treatise or manifesto necessary. If you see a message in these pieces, put down the pot.
For as long as I remain bored, orders from my website should remain doodled. If you feel so moved, simply click on a PayPal button on a book page to order. Also, books ordered from me will be signed.
Here’s an example from the I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin page:
[nicepaypallite name=”I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin (paperback)” amount=”12.95″ shipping=”2.00″shipping2=”1.00″]$12.95 USD
(part of my ongoing Unexpected Literary References series)
Stephen King work makes as many cartoon appearances it seems as Stephen King books do bookshelves. This reference, from the Wizard of Oz spoof segment of the Futurama episode Anthology of Interest II (Season 3, episode 21) occurs when Fry, portraying the Scarecrow, attempts to scare a crow by reading a section from Stephen King’s novel, Christine.
Fry: OK, crow, prepare to be scared.
A quick thanks to Jennifer over at Donnie Dark Girl for nominating this blog for the Versatile Blogger Award. It means a lot when I learn that people actually read this blog.
Frequent readers will know that I’m a bit of a Ben Tanzer fan. He simply doesn’t disappoint. So when I was asked to make this World’s First Author Blog a stop on his recent blog tour for his New York Stories collection from CCLaP, I jumped at the chance. Equally, I’m jumping at the chance to host a stop for New York Stories illustrator Laura Szumowski.
Laura has a style that pairs perfectly with the domestic, somewhat detached characters of Ben Tanzer’s work. Smooth lines, intense borders, unabashedly cartoonish, Laura’s work elicits a simple nostalgia, the type of times-remembered that Tanzer’s characters seem to always be chasing.
New York Stories isn’t the first book illustrated by Szumowski. She’s the author/illustrator of a lot of cool looking books, my favorite of which is Cycling: A Guide to Menstruation. Though I haven’t read it, I can’t imagine it disappointing.
Head over to Laura Szumowski’s site, take in her offerings, then be sure to swing by CCLaP to pick up a copy of the very limited, very handmade New York Stories.
The guys at Solarcide do wonderful work. One could argue that I say this only because they’ve been kind enough to interview me about, among other things, my penchant for domestic grotesque fiction. That One doing the arguing would be wrong, however, as Solarcide has been a refuge for great literary content for long before I tainted them with my talk of familial morbidity.
Solarcide extends their great work into the world of anthologies with the publication of Nova Parade, a FREE .pdf download collection of stories from some fantastic writers, many of whom I shared space with in the Warmed and Bound anthology, in addition to Nova Parade (my story “Vertigo Unbalanced” appears in Nova Parade).
Here’s a table of contents for you. Click over to Solarcide to download the free collection.