The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The True Story

Last night I watched a very interesting documentary about L Frank Baum the famous author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz on BBC 4.

The documentary follows the writing of the iconic American story that was written in 1900 by L Frank Baum, a Chicago businessman, journalist, chicken breeder, actor, boutique owner, Hollywood movie director and lifelong fan of all things innovative and technological. His life spanned an era of remarkable invention and achievement in America and many of these developments helped to fuel this great storyteller's imagination.

His ambition was to create the first genuine American fairytale and the story continues to fascinate, inspire and engage millions of fans of all ages from all over the world. This documentary explored how The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has come to symbolise the American Dream and includes previously unseen footage from the Baum family archives, still photographs and clips from the early Oz films, as well as interviews with family members, literary experts and American historians as it tells the story of one man's life in parallel to the development of modern America.

I highly recommend this documentary and you can view it here on BBC iPlayer

Graphic USA – an alternative guide book

Graphic USA: An Alternative Guide To 25 US Cities (£19.95, Cicada Books) is a guide book with a difference. Rather than being put together by journalists and specialist researchers, the suggestions of where to go and what to see.  Each of the 25 cities covered in the book are provided by an image maker who lives there, who also illustrates his or her city's chapter....

The book has been designed by Joana Niemeyer at design studio April and edited by Ziggy Hanaor at Cicada. 

"The concept behind the book is that people who work in the graphic arts, and who have an offbeat aesthetic to their work will often seek out the unexpected and inspirational elements in their environments that one wouldn't find in most travel guides," explains Hanaor in her introduction. "The recommendations in this book are the personal favourites of the individual contributors... For the most part they do not include the bucket list recommendations that most tourists feel they have to tick off. They tend to reflect the alternative, independent culture that is bubbling underneath the city, feeding into its public persona, but not immediately apparent to the visiting outsider. Not all the suggestions may be your cup of tea, but hopefully for those who are part of an alternative scene themselves, they will tap into a common urban approach and will open up a different view of the city that you can dip in and out of as you desire. It's kind of like a friend writing down their hot tips for each place."

The Chapter on Denver, Colorado is by illustrator and designer Gwenda Kaczor

Alex Harrison (also known as Alex Warble) provides the illustration and the insight to Memphis, Tennessee (above and below)

Five tiny illustrated comics from B.ü.L.b Comix

B.ü.L.b Comix in Switzerland newest creation is a set of five tiny concertina comics (each measuring just 35x45mm) - by Andy Rementer, Lloyd Dangle, Rutu Modan, Chihoi and Alexandre Joly – housed in a suitably tiny box...

B.ü.L.b Comix has actually been producing tiny format (as well as larger format) comix since 1996 - with each set being printed in just two spot colours with 22 pages or panels. Each of its  Box Set releases is stamped with a letter of the alphabet. This new one is W – box set A was published back in 1997. "Only 3 letters to go, a countdown to the end of our publishing adventure," says B.ü.L.b's Mathieu. "Yes, we've been running B.ü.L.b comix since 1996, without any grants and supporting the local printers. B.ü.L.b comix is non-profit making, we don't get paid, we give books to authors and all money is reused to release new books. DIY freedom!"

Here's a look at the comics in the new W box set:

New from Nobrow

These lovely new publications are from Nobrow. Each little book contains a story that is accompanied by beautiful illustrations.

First up is The Wolf's Whistle by Bjorn Rune Lie - a 32 page hardback which represents Nobrow's first foray into children's books. The book tells the story of a young Wolf called Albert who grows up with a dream of working for his favourite comic book publishers. Albert grows up and fulfils his dreams but is heartbroken when his three best friends from school suffer at the hands of local gangsters, the Honeyroast brothers.

The book ends with Albert on the cusp of reaping sweet revenge (in the name of justice, of course) as he reaches under his bed for the costume of the superhero he's been drawing all his life: Lone Wolf... This is surely the first of a series that charts the heroics of Albert / Lone Wolf as he does battle with the forces of evil and the dastardly Honeyroast brothers. Here are some spreads:

The Wolf's Whistle, £12 from nobrow.net

The Bento Bestiary is illustrated by Ben Newman and written by Scott Donaldson. This is an updated, hardback version which features no less than 14 illustrated  Yokai - a particular type of ancient Japanese beast and demon that were the forefathers of such famous Kaiju as Godzilla or Mothra. Each beast is accompanied by a description of what the beast is like, and also the consequences of eating it...

You probably wouldn't guess it from perusing Hildafolk – the latest in Nobrow's 17x23 series of illustrated short story publications – but its author, Luke Pearson, only graduated this year. This is a really accomplished comic story of a young girl that goes exploring the mountain on which she lives, discovering trolls and giants along the way...

I think I'm correct in the assumption that this is Nobrow's heftiest volume to date at 24.5cm x 19cm with 176 pages and a hardback cover and a rather nice cloth spine..

A Graphic Cosmogony is an anthology of comic stories about the "creation of everything". The 24 artists whose work features in it are thus: Stuart Kolakovic, Mikkel Sommers, Brecht Vandenbroucke, Luke Best, Rob Hunter, Jon McNaught, Ben Newman, Andrew Rae, Luke Pearson, Jack Teagle, Jon Boam, Jakob Hindrichs, Clayton Junior, Daniel Locke, Isabel Greenberg, Mike Bertino, Nick White, Rui Tenreiro, Sean Hudson, Luc Melanson, Katia Fouquet, Yeji Yun, Matthew Lyons, and Liesbeth De Stercke.

A Graphic Cosmogony, £24 from nobrow.net

And last but not least is Nobrow 4 - the latest issue of Nobrow's regular, 60 page, oversize A4, compendium of artwork by various artists on a particular theme. This ssue's theme is Night and Day and the cover (above) is by mcbess. Here are some spreads:

Nobrow 4 has been printed in an edition of 3000. £11 from nobrow.net

Penguin Classics - Coralie Bickford-Smith

F. Scott Fitzgerald Series

       

    






   Wonderful book cover designs by Penguin. I have seen them floating around in book shops for a while now and they are simply beautiful. The brains behind the wonderful artwork is senior cover designer at Penguin Books, Coralie Bickford-Smith. She has a wonderful portfolio check it out here

Cloth Bound Series 1

               

       

Cloth Bound Series 2