Winsor McCay : His Life and Art

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A beautiful book

Great framing of McCay's work and life

An in-depth look at one of America's premier Cartoonists

Winsor McCay : His Life and Art
John Canemaker
Manufacturer: "Harry N. Abrams, Inc."
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Cartooning | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
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Little Nemo in Slumberland: So Many Splendid Sundays!

Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend

Winsor McCay - The Master Edition

Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries 1900-1969

ASIN: 0810959410

Book Description

This volume is the only existing biography of one of America's greatest and most influential cartoonists. Winsor McCay (1867-1934) is universally acknowledged as the first master of both the comic strip and the animated cartoon. Although invented by others, both genres were developed into enduring popular art of the highest imagination through McCay's innovative genius. Originally published in 1987, it is now back in print in a newly expanded and revised edition on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Little Nemo in Slumberland. Included are new materials found since the previous publication of the book such as new comic strips of Little Nemo in Slumberland, and new sketches of Gertie the Dinosaur

In the book the author reviews and fully analyzes McCay's achievements in print and film while examining his work in relation to his life, family, and to American culture and values of the period. This painstakingly thorough biography begins with McCay's childhood in Michigan to his seat as one of the greatest of the early animators.

Customer Reviews:

A beautiful book.......2006-02-23

If you don't know McCay's work, check out "Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend" and "Little Nemo in Slumberland" (not the movie). His art was visually compelling and psychologically savvy. Nemo was the more elaborate, with plenty of grand vistas and architectural wonders while Rarebit was visually spare, but more adult in content. All his work has a marvelously surreal sense about it, heightened by the detailed realism of his style - characters exit the confines of the strip or discuss the cartoonist's failings with the reader, landscapes and characters metamorphose into new configurations in ways that are perhaps best described as psychedelic.

This book presents a biography of this strange and gentle man as well as a generous sampling of his better work, including more obscure feaures and his stunning editorial cartoons (more sweeping panoramas and vast architectural wonders). Also recommended is the Fantagraphics volume "Daydreams and Nightmares" which offers up another good cross-section of his work (except Nemo, which is collected elsewhere).

A true American original, it's a shame more people don't know and appreciate his work.

Great framing of McCay's work and life.......2005-12-05

It amazes me how little information and awareness there is of Windsor McCay and his work now when he was so well known during his lifetime. While thanks to the DVD collection of animation and the recently self-published (and now sold out) large scale book of Little Nemo strips, Little Nemo in Slumberland - So Many Splendid Sundays, more people are discovering him. All contemporary cartoonist are greatly indebted to him. John Canemaker has thankfully republished and updated the only biography of McCay.
Throughout the book there are rare photographs, posters and excellent reproductions of his Sunday comics pages. Canemaker does an excellent job of setting the context under which McCay traveled through his life and created his art. While the book does an excellent job of illuminating McCay's surroundings and events in his life it is unfortunately is not able to cast much light on the man himself. For whatever reasons Canemaker cannot or will not go out on a limb to discuss interior motives and thoughts of McCay. l finished the book knowing a lot about McCay's work but very little about what made him tick. With access to personal letters and other items of the estate I was hoping for more. Why did he allow Hurst to relegate him to an editorial cartoonist and give up his strips? How did he feel about it?
If fleshing out the character of McCay is the book's weak point, it's strength is the discussion of McCay's work. Canemaker pulls on his impressive knowledge of not only McCay's work but the history of comics and animation to provide some truly insightful commentary. His sometimes panel-by-panel discussion of some of McCay's more striking work was a pleasure to read and at times like taking a course on comic appreciation.
If you're looking for a riveting character biography, look elsewhere. But if your looking to find out more about Windsor McCay's contributions to comics and animation this volume is an excellent resourse.

An in-depth look at one of America's premier Cartoonists.......1998-12-07

A debt of gratitude is owed to John Cannemaker for his comprehensive book on Winsor McCay, and his many artistic endeavors. McCay, whose vivid perception has inspired artists and animators for decades, is captured in this exhaustive study. A rich range of his art complements many personal photos of McCay and his family, most notably perhaps, his son Robert, who was the inspiration for Little Nemo.

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Winsor McCay: His Life and Art.
John CANEMAKER
Manufacturer: See notes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WHTF3E

Book Description

Thoughts with Love For Mothers and Thoughts With Love For New Babies bring Anne Geddes' extraordinary images of babies to a traditional gift-book format for the first time. With stunning photos taken from Geddes' larger volume Little Thoughts With Love, these special collections are sure to become treasured keepsakes. Each features inspirational quotes and homilies from writers as diverse as William Shakespeare and H. Jackson Brown Jr., combined with Geddes' distinctive award-winning images. A wide-eyed tot peeks out from inside a dewy rose opposite Shakespeare's quotation "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." H. Jackson Brown Jr., reminds us, "Kiss your children good night, even if they are already asleep," beside a pair of winged angelic infants slumbering on a cloud. These special collections are the perfect size to give to a mother-to-be, a new mom, or anyone who enjoys beautiful, timeless images of children.

Book Description

The finite-difference time-domain (FTDT) method has revolutionized antenna design and electromagnetics engineering. This book raises the FDTD method to the next level by empowering it with the vast capabilities of parallel computing. It shows engineers how to exploit the natural parallel properties of FDTD to improve the existing FDTD method and to efficiently solve more complex and large problem sets. Professionals learn how to apply open source software to develop parallel software and hardware to run FDTD in parallel for their projects. The book features hands-on examples that illustrate the power of parallel FDTD and presents practical strategies for carrying out parallel FDTD. This detailed resource provides instructions on downloading, installing, and setting up the required open source software on either Windows or Linux systems, and includes a handy tutorial on parallel programming.

Average customer rating:

Light reading and funny content
listen to the master
Don't waste your money and time
Need patience to understand the true meaning.
a mainstay

The Tao of Programming
Geoffrey James
Manufacturer: Infobooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0931137071

Customer Reviews:

Light reading and funny content.......2006-08-01

Be aware not to expect this book to be serious or to contain deep thougths; but instead, if you read it with an open mind, knowing that it tries to be humorous+smart more than it tries to be wise, you will find it a pleasant reading. Probably no experienced programmer will see anything he doesn't already know, but this won't prevent him from having a joyful reading - and a quick one, the book is very thin with just a few phrases per page.

BUT if you seek real deep knowledge or enligtenment, you should definitely look for another book.

listen to the master.......2005-08-27

This little book is full of things you either know because you are the master, or are figuring out because you are the novice. All presented in a tongue-in-cheek style that I found very funny (and enlightening).

Some people may not find value in this book. Truly they are not at one with the Tao: "Master, it repeats things that are obvious and we all know, therefore it is of no value" "My young programmer, do you not appreciate fine paintings of landscapes, gardens and people? These have worth on many levels. So too with this author's teachings of the Tao. Are you not supposed to be in a code review right now?"

Get this book and enjoy it.

Don't waste your money and time.......2005-04-30

I returned this book. It's a piece of junk to waste your time and money. I bought this and the Zen of programming. There is chinese words on one left page and the right is some annoying stories about things you already know. Nothing you won't know after doing just some programming in your lifetime. I give a bad review for the Zen of programming too. I returned this book and the Zen of programmming.

Need patience to understand the true meaning........2004-11-24

Found this book interesting....it is so small that i read it start to finish just before sleeping.

The Good:
Pretty straightforward....nicely explained principles with simpl examples

The Bad:
Falls short of completion. Too small a book.

Food for thought:
This book..however small it really is...should be read more than once to understand the deeper essence the author is trying to convey to you. If u just hover through it...you will certainly find it a "READ ONCE" material.

a mainstay .......2004-08-21

This book is a nice little read for programmers and philosophers. Not to be taken too seriously but a great buy at this price. Good bathrooom reading. Its like a "chicken soup for the soul book" for nerds.

Average customer rating:

Good on ideas, bad on implementation
Mostly misses the point
Best Used as a Bad Example
Excellent introduction to OOPL for anyone.
An excellent book on Object Oriented theory

The Tao of Objects
Gary Entsminger
Manufacturer: M & T Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1558514120

Customer Reviews:

Good on ideas, bad on implementation.......2005-05-17

Basically, one can easily break this book down into two main parts: a discussion of object-orientedness and an introductory how-to on OO programming techniques. Within the first area, this book is pretty good. All the basics of OO are covered: objects, methods, encapsulation, polymorphism, late-binding, etc. However, there are some/several assertions one could argue with - mostly boiling down to what REALLY constitutes an OO language. Perhaps part of the problem here is that the book focuses on what Entsminger calls hybrid languages - that is, non-pure OO - specifically C++ and Turbo Pascal. This question ties into the second main thrust of the text, however. Before moving into the other area, I would like to mention my main criticism of the author's discussion of OO, and that is that the attempt to relate the concept(s) to Taoism fail - indeed are perhaps distracting.

Aside from discussing OO, the author attempts to demonstrate a methodology for implementing it. There are several problems, and perhaps no real benefits, here. First, the book is 15 years old and a lot has changed. No real fault of the author there, and something that a new edition would resolve. Second, the choice of languages are perhaps poor for a variety of reasons. Today, most readers would likely consider C# and Java to be the best examples to use in the text. Again, this is tied to the age of the book. Yet there is another issue in the choice of languages, and here we see the author contradict himself: the languages are not pure-OO, and how they are implemented is even further from pure-OO. The author encourages using these languages as hybrids, even using them as base C and Pascal. This is an argument that rages on, but many contend that if you are going to use C++, for example, use it in OO fashion. This is where the contradiction emerges since Entsminger recommnends, when learning a language, to choose a new problem instead of one you have already solved in non-OO fashion. So how does one learn these new ways of thinking using a (relatively) familiar language, if that familiarity will tend to lead one down familiar paths?

Further, I found the examples to be less than helpful. If I was wanting to learn "how to write (half) procedural programs in an OO environment," then perhaps my ears would perk up a bit. As it stands, the snippets are generally too terse to be useful, and the longer examples are too long (and without real explanation) and poorly constructed to lend any real value. Moreover, they aren't very portable (the C++ examples use conio.h - argh!).

If you are looking for a basic introduction to OO, then this book may be worth perusing - at least the first few chapters. In terms of suggestions, I would say that if the code samples were dropped, the emphasis on hybridity eliminated, and the Taoist metaphor explored further in a book of about 120 pages, then this could be a worthwhile reading. As it stands, there are much better reads.

Mostly misses the point.......2004-03-26

This is a terrible introduction to Object-Oriented programming. As mentioned, many of the examples won't even compile. But worse is that the examples show bad design decisions, confuse inheritance and composition, and aren't developed enough.
The author spends so much time on polymorphism (deservedly) but so little on how to use it well. If you used this book to improve your C structures and modules, then you also miss the point of OO (and polymorphism).

Best Used as a Bad Example.......2000-08-19

I keep this one in my library as an example of how bad programming books can be. I felt like I got taken halfway through it. When I read it, I was learning object oriented programming with Delphi and C++. Although "examples" were given in both languages, many of them were so full of errors that they would not compile. Amazon's rating system requires that I award at least one star, but this book deserves none. NOT RECOMMENDED.

Excellent introduction to OOPL for anyone........1999-07-07

This is an excellent book for anyone just starting out in programming, but as programmer who started out in the late 70's, I found it particularly useful to make the mind-shift towards object orientation. I regularly lend the book to colleagues needing to travel the same path, but intend to reclaim it soon so my 11yo can read it. It's written in a laid-back style reminiscent of "Zen and art of motor-cycle maintenance" and so is quite approachable. There are plenty of worked examples, with each presented in both C++ and Borland Pascal (the predecessor to Delphi). I thoroughly recommend this book.

An excellent book on Object Oriented theory.......1997-10-21

I learned Object Oriented programing theory from this book when I was 17. I had been reading every book I could on C programming and this book made me realize what I could do with simple structures.

Today, almost 7 years later, I'm still impressed with this book. It's a must own for OO programmers. I would recommend this book even to non-OO programmers; It has helped me make my C programming style much more modular and easy to document and understand.

This book doesn't assume you know anything, so it's a good book for beginners, but since the theories and ideas explained are presented very broadly.

Book Description

In the human language system there are two grammatical centers, nouns and verbs. A noun is described as the name of any person, place, or thing; while a verb is a word that shows any form of action. Human beings use words to express their own thoughts and to interpret the intentions of others. Natural languages play a very important role in human intelligence. To build intelligent machines, we need to bridge machines and human brains with a communication interface-a language system. However, we still need a paradigm to implement dynamic verbs in machines. This book explains how computational verb systems were developed in this context, and "living" verbs are embedded into machines. By using these computational verb systems, "dynamic" knowledge and experience can be embedded into machine intelligence. It also explains the unique role played by computational verb systems in information and sciences, and how we need to know different knowledge representing paradigms used in informational systems. In this book, not only the machine models of verbs, but also a complete artificial language studied from the dynamic model of human perception.

Cots-Based Software Systems: Second International Conference, Iccbss 2003, Ottawa, Ont., February 10-12, 2003 : Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)

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Cots-Based Software Systems: Second International Conference, Iccbss 2003, Ottawa, Ont., February 10-12, 2003 : Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 3540005625

Software Process Quality (Mcgraw-Hill Systems Design & Implementation)

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Software Process Quality (Mcgraw-Hill Systems Design & Implementation)
Hsiang-Tao Yeh
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Companies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

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The Tao of AppleScript
Derrick Schneider , Tim Holmes , and Hans Hansen
Manufacturer: Hayden Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Macs | Hardware | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Applescript | Apple | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1568300751

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Tao Of Programming
Geoffrey James
Manufacturer: Infobooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000W63TCI

Average customer rating:

TAO Developer's Guide Verison 1.1a

Manufacturer: Object Computing Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000FEUQ96

Product Description

Developer's guide for version 1.1a TAO, covering programming, compiling, errors, design and COBRA for TAO 1.1a.

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Tao of Objects

Manufacturer: Hungry Minds, Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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