Exquisite Pain

Book Description

A poignant visual record of the obsessive nature of failed love by a leading French contemporary artist.

Over the last two decades, Sophie Calle has made it her business to follow, peek into, and illuminate the lives of people she barely knows. In Exquisite Pain, Calle turns her attention to a life-changing experience from her own past.

This book is a visual record of the time in 1985 when a lover failed to meet Calle as promised in a hotel in New Delhi. Calle was devastated. As always, she kept everything from that journey—photographs, ticket stubs, visas, and letters—each image rubber-stamped to mark the countdown to the fateful day of her heartbreak.

On her return to Paris, she asked a group of friends to answer the question, "When did you most suffer?" Their stories of pain, each of them accompanied by a photograph, interplay with Calle's own story and daily reflections—"It is now seventy-five days since the man I love left me"—creating a testament to the heartache of romantic rejection. 130 illustrations, 71 in color.

Customer Reviews:

Exquisite Pain.......2006-03-20

I saw her photo installation of Exquisite Pain in NYC summer 2005, and this is the whole show beautifully captured in book format. Sophie Calle is by far my favorite artist. She triggers your emotions pulling you into her own story of a lost love and others shared moments of exquisite pain. Perfect for your art book collection.

Prepare to peer into the meaningless void that is your existence and revel in misery. .......2005-07-15

This is not a book for sunny afternoons in park gardens; the backdrop for this book should be bleak unforgiving concrete cityscapes, silhouetted against dark and brooding winter skies. At least that's what it was like when read it (I live in Birmingham, you see bleak is what it does best).

If you've ever been in love and lost that person; though careless words, deeds or just through circumstances outside of your control. Then you'll know all about that feeling of emptiness, like a hole in you guts can never fill.

In away no other book ever has, this book touched me and funny enough it felt great. It's like, it's OK to be upset when you've been dumped and yes it is the end of the bloody world and no there aren't plenty of sodding fish in the sea. Of course we all know, it isn't and there are.

As you read this book you can't help but project yourself into the stories of desperation and despair and there is the beauty of it, it's like a hit of misery to cheer you up. Reach in and read about someone who's had it worse (I found myself discreetly shedding the odd tear on the rush hour train) and all of a sudden it's not so bad out here, in the real world.

Lift your self out of the humdrum of modern life and sink into despair, there you will find the most `Exquisite Pain'.

FOR WRITERS ONLY, INSPIRING THOUGHTS ON THE EXQUISITE PAIN & HEADY JOY OF THE WRITING LIFE

Average customer rating:

FOR WRITERS ONLY, INSPIRING THOUGHTS ON THE EXQUISITE PAIN & HEADY JOY OF THE WRITING LIFE
SOPHY BURNHAM
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OVQBGM

Customer Reviews:

Mediocre.......2006-11-22

Christopher Hart is practically a one-man publishing industry. He has written a variety of books about how to draw comic book superheroes, as well as books about how to draw funny cartoon animals. He does a fairly good job of explaining how to draw, but his own art is mediocre. There are a lot of other books on the market that are very similar to this one. I recommend Drawing Dynamic Comics by Andy Smith.

Too tittilating for the kiddies. Rate this one PG-17........2004-12-03

I bought this book for my 9-year-old nephew and quickly realized it wasn't suitable for young audiences. Like almost all comic book heroines, these gals are soft porn (C'mon: if the girls in this book were walking around in real life they would tip over from the heft of their pointy boobs alone!). I can actually live with that; it seems to be some sort of right of passage for boys, and so be it. However, in the author's process of teaching the reader to be anatomically correct in their drawings, and to build the comics from the ground up, he presents lots of topless ladies that are inappropriate for kids my nephew's age. I shipped it back and am getting the book on cartoon animals instead. Just wish I had known before I ordered it.

Not much help!.......2001-08-31

This book is pretty pathetic. The instruction is minimal and the art is just so average it's not even funny. You would at least hope that someone telling you "how to" could do it themselves. Get drawing the marvel way it's not perfect but it beats this hands down.

decent for beginers.......2001-08-23

If you have little to no cartooning talent what so ever the go for this book. If you're halfway decent all ready dont bother. The writer/artist is an obvious amature and to my knowledge has never worked on a major comic. It does have a few good points but not many. I personaly found this book to be a waste of my time, if you are looking for a good instructional book for creating comics i suggest "HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE MARVEL WAY" which is much more in depth than Mr. Hart's book.

Cool Book.......2001-02-26

I loved this Book. ithought it was amazing. I love how he gives u all those pages on heads. It's rea;l cool

Cartoon Heroes & Villains (How to Draw and Paint series #262)

Average customer rating:

Cool

Cartoon Heroes & Villains (How to Draw and Paint series #262)
Mia Tavonatti
Manufacturer: Walter Foster Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Drawing | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Painting | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Cartooning | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1560103620

Book Description

Walter Foster's classic How to Draw and Paint series provides aspiring artists with an exceptional array of art instruction books featuring all subject areas and media. Each title includes easy step-by-step exercises as well as finished illustrations or paintings that will inspire artistic talent in anyone.

Packed with practical information, helpful tips, and fundamental techniques, the How to Draw and Paint series offers a complete library of resources to which artists of all skill levels can refer again and again.

What you'll learn from this book ...

• A step-by-step process for drawing cartoon heroes and villains, from basic sketches to finished illustrations

• Which tools and materials are needed to render your own exciting action figures

• Detailed tips for constructing full figures, plus specifics for drawing heads and hands

• The basic rules of one-, two-, and three-point perspective

• Drawing techniques such as foreshortening and drawing through

Customer Reviews:

Cool.......1999-07-03

Coo

Average customer rating:

Esponage and Friends
Hyperman and Jester
Great read for comics and mystery fans
An Excellent Mystery

Of Heroes and Villains (Misfits, Inc.)
Mark Delaney
Manufacturer: Tandem Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: School & Library Binding

Mysteries | Teens | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0613852931

Book Description

Meet Misfits, Inc. Investigations Peter, the genius Jake, the athlete Byte, the computer whiz Mattie, the "magician" T HESE FOUR TEENAGE SUPER-SLEUTHS have a knack for uncovering and solving unsolvable crimes. In their second case, Of Heroes and Villains, the team is mysteriously summoned to a comic book convention, where they anticipate the premiere of the exclusive new Hyperman super-hero movie. At the convention, the Jester (a comic book villain come-to-life) terrorizes the audience and commits a daring crime. When the Misfits attempt to solve the Jester's riddle, they discover that someone close to them may be involved in the heist. As they draw dangerously close to unmasking the villain, the Misfits uncover a longtime wrong that only they can right.

Customer Reviews:

Esponage and Friends.......2002-06-29

This epic tale of friend ship and myserty, is a wonderful next book form the series. This book has the same characters as the first book and then has one more characters that is olny in this bookbut, is also mention in the next book. All to gather this book is a great summer reading novel.

Hyperman and Jester.......2000-12-19

misfits,inc, a serect society of high school outcasts dedicated to solving mysteries that no one else can... When the Misfits are mysteriously summoned to a comic book convention, they see a daring crime comitted by a comic book character come-to-life. As Peter, Byte, Jake and Mattie try to solve the Jester's riddle and unmask the villain, they uncover a longtime wrong that only they can right. As they probed further into the msytery, danger befell them. Peter and Robin Sutter were trapped in a room with two dangerous armed men. Will they escape? This story was smartly written, the chracters are believable and the action is heart-pounding.

Great read for comics and mystery fans.......2000-06-13

An intelligent and clever mystery. And, if you are interested in comic books at all this will be a great read! The four Misfits (introduced in The Vanishing Chip) are given free passes to a comic book convention where the new Hyperman movie is going to be premiered. There they witness a daring crime committed by the Jester, Hyperman's greatest enemy. With the help of Robin Sutter, the granddaughter of the man who drew the original Hyperman comics back in the 1930's, the Misfits must find a way to unmask the Jester, and right an old wrong.

An Excellent Mystery.......2000-03-25

This book has been one of the best mysteries I have ever read. Most mysteries written for young adults involve a retro blond girl or two brothers. (who will remain anonymous) But 'Of Heroes and Villians' was an excellent book, the plot twisted, the characters developed, and an old man came to a truth he had been searching for for years. I started it skeptically, perhaps I was judging a book by its cover. I still had that reader-intuition that it would be good. I was right. I praise this book for being the most creatively written, brilliantly woven, dare I say intellectual, mystery I have read in all of my twelve years. I will be eagerly awaiting for 'Misfits, Inc. No. 3'

Average customer rating:

Disorganized, Disjointed and Disappointing
Bad Spelling!
Interesting and Rich

500 Manga Heroes and Villains
Helen McCarthy
Manufacturer: Barron''s Educational Series
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

History & Price Guides | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

General | Manga | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Antiques & Collectibles | Encyclopedias | Reference | Subjects | Books

Art | Encyclopedias | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Encyclopedias | Reference | Subjects | Books

Humor | Encyclopedias | Reference | Subjects | Books

Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics

ASIN: 0764132016

Book Description

Fans of the Japanese cartoon art genre called manga, and of its sister genre anime—or manga-style films—will treasure this survey of an art form currently sweeping the world. The book is an illustrated history of Japanese comics, with separate chapters devoted to male and female heroes and villains, non-humanoid characters, and even manga depictions of historical and literary characters. Brief descriptive sketches of all characters accompany colorful illustrations of heroes and villains caught in moments of dramatic action. Key figures include Astro Boy, Akira, Lupin III, Pokemon, and many others. Just as fascinating are biographical sketches of several of the world's most successful manga artists including Motoko Kusanagi, as well as Astro Boy's creator Osamu Tezuka, and many others. As the first illustrated book to show and evaluate sucha wide range of manga characters, 500 Manga Heroes and Villains is an essential basic reference source for both manga fans and popular-culture historians. Approximately 200 memorable color illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Disorganized, Disjointed and Disappointing.......2007-06-08

I alway enjoy checking out new points of view on Japanese manga criticism, so I ordered this book to see what the author had to add to the work done by Fred Schodt and other manga scholars.

While this book has its merits, I found it difficult to read, appreciate and use as a reference. By titling it "500 heroes and villains," it gives the illusion that it provides lot of content, or at least a lot of manga reviewed in this volume. But really, the author just dissected several characters from a few manga and split them up into 'groups' based on their roles in the various series.

Splitting up the heroes and villains for each series and talking about them in separate sections of the book makes it harder to understand the relationship dynamic between these 'good' and 'bad' characters' and how they drive the plot of the various series. The result is a disjointed critique that is difficult to cross-reference or refer to as a resource for discovering new manga series or understanding the history of manga.

Also, there are a lot of listings and descriptions of characters without illustrations to accompany them. I would rather that the author had concentrated on fewer series and provided illustrations for each entry rather than jamming in a lot of entries w/o accompanying artwork. Without artwork to illustrate the various points she's making about each character, it's like a cookbook without pictures of food. it does the job, but does it really entice you to cook the dish, much less think its worthwhile to do so?

Entries jump from decade to decade, describing a character from a series from the 1970's next to one introduced in 2002. This is because the author opted to list characters alphabetically by name.

Again, this is a bizarre way to organize this book. Most readers relate to a manga series by its title, not by its individual characters' names. For example, most fans of "Bleach" by Tite Kubo would look for "Bleach" vs. looking up Ichigo Kurosaki, the name of the lead character, much less try to find him in the "Heroes" section.

I'm tempted to sell this book back -- but there are things in here that aren't available in other similar books. I'll just gnash my teeth anytime I try to refer to it -- but I wouldn't recommend it for either the casual manga fan or the reader looking for insight into the evolution of manga and why it's so special and unique compared to Western comics.

Bad Spelling!.......2007-01-03

Now when I first picked up this book I thought it would be an interesting read. When I started to read through information on my favourite heroes and villians I was shocked to see the misspellings. Helen McCarthy couldn't even spell Ikumi right, I suppose it could be a typo but should have been checked before published. Sohma wrong put it as Soma, she should have checked these things out.

I was very disappointed.

Interesting and Rich.......2006-05-15

When I saw it today in my favorite bookshop I did not imagine how interesting this book could be. It's updted and treat almost equally shoujo and shounen. Find in there some characters such as Hiromi Oka from Ace Wo Nerae shows how the author research was good.

Great acquisition for anime and manga fans.

How to Draw Superheroes and Supervillains

Average customer rating:

How to Draw Superheroes and Supervillains

Manufacturer: Kidsbooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 156156222X

Book Description

This book is not only hilarious but also raises issues of identity and self, questioning the whole notion of the photographic portrait. Whenever travelling on assignment Parr has had his picture taken by a local studio photographer, street photographer or in a photo booth. The result is a wonderfully varied portfolio of portraits-how different can one man look?

Customer Reviews:

Parr's a genius.......2000-06-25

For those of you - like me - gnashing your teeth trying to get your hands on all those out-of-print Martin Parr books, this one's a gem, and, thankfully, totally available. The 50 or so portraits of Parr, taken by studio photographers in exotic locales, are dripping with irony and loaded with critical comment on the role of the image in the early 21st. Parr achieves this impact in such a simple, straightforward manner, all you can say - through your uproarious laughter - is: this guy's a genius.

Average customer rating:

Sexually Revealing the Self!

Robert Mapplethorpe: Autoportrait:
Richard Marshall
Manufacturer: Arena Editions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Photo Essays | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Portraits | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1892041413

Book Description

Robert Mapplethorpe is best known for his intentionally shocking, often sculptural erotica and his exquisite minimalist floral images. His earliest and most frequent subject was himself, in various guises that celebrated his ego, his body, and his sexual preferences. Taken in the early 1970s, these 65 self-portraits, most previously unpublished, create a window into the soul of a complex artist, and present Mapplethorpe's singular vision that helped shift the direction of late-20th-century art. As with all Arena Editions publications, this book features top-of-the-line production values, with beautiful papers, printing, and binding.

Customer Reviews:

Sexually Revealing the Self!.......2002-03-27

Robert Mapplethorpe was never afraid of revealing his true self and personal sexuality to the world. He shocked many people with his "in your face" attitude. He wanted the world to realize that we're all sexual beings who shouldn't be ashamed of our bodies or sexual desires. Life is for living, and he lived it to the fullest. There have been many books published about Mapplethorpe, but this volume is a very personal collection of his black and white Polaroid photographs he took of himself in the early 1970's. They reveal the many moods of Mapplethorpe, whether he was being erotic, sexy, dark & sinister, or very innocent. It's a valuable collection of photos that verge on the edge of excitement. There are about 65 black & white self-portraits here. Some are not as clear as others due to the technology of the period.

There is a very informative essay by Richard Marshall which is an invaluable addition to this book. A nicely produced book by Arena Editions, with quality paper, printing, and design. Robert Mapplethorpe was a man who's personal beauty and good looks, only enhanced his talented life as one of our most famous photographers. A handsome addition for anyone's collection.

Book Description

A collection of classic comic strips from a master of American comics and art.

Out of print for a decade, this new edition (with newly designed covers) of The Comic Strip Art of Lyonel Feininger features one of the ten cartooning greats featured in the historic "Masters of American Comics" show produced by the Los Angeles Hammer Museum and Museum of Contemporary Art and currently traveling across the country. It is the only complete collection of the legendary comic strips of one of the medium's all-time greatest artists. Known worldwide for his accomplishments as a painter, Feininger began his career as a cartoonist, producing—all too briefly—two beautifully ambitious comic strips for the Chicago Sunday Tribune in 1906: The Kin-Der-Kids and Wee Willie Winkie's World, both of which remain high points in the history of strip cartooning. The Kin-Der-Kids is a rollicking comic opera of the ludicrous exploits of a group of young adventurers as they set off around the world in their bathtub with the oppressive Auntie Jim-Jam in hot pursuit. Wee Willie Winkie's World is a Little Nemo-esque visual tour-de-force of a little boy's charming fantasy world. Long considered an equal of Winsor McCay and George Herriman, Feininger's place in strip history is cemented with this beautiful, full-color, oversized collection, edited and featuring an introduction by historian Bill Blackbeard (Krazy & Ignatz).

Customer Reviews:

A magical world in comics.......2000-05-15

This is a charming collection of early 20th century comics by Lionel Feininger. His colorful drawings are enrapturing: he has a great sense of design and ability to create characters. The Kinder Kids escape their elders and embark on fantastical adventures, Wee Willie Winkie sees the world through the imaginitive eyes of a child. These comics are very funny and magical.

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