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Provocative Graphics: The Power of the Unexpected in Graphic Design
Laurel Harper
Manufacturer: Rockport Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Drawing
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Graphic Arts
| Graphic Design
| Design & Decorative Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1564967255 |
Book Description
Provocative Graphics is a unique swipe file book focused on sexy, bold, daring, innovative, playful, quirky, and thought provoking design work that pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable, taking the viewer places they do not expect to go. Famous examples of provocative graphics are Bennetton's controversial identity campaigns and Calvin Klein's head-turning clothing advertisements. Consumer's are bombarded with an overwhelming amount of choices, as a result designer's resort to the shock factor or an in your face style. Provocative graphics turn heads. The author discusses how the design firms and their clients conceived and developed these projects and focuses on why these designs work and what elements in them (both conceptual and technical) make the consumer respond.
Average customer rating:
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Un Siecle D'elegance Francaise (chene)
Nicole Vedres
Manufacturer: French & European Pubns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Fashion
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
French
| Foreign Language Nonfiction
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Arts & Photography
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All French Books
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0320050688 |
Book Description
TOP COW is proud to bring you issues 1-8 of the critically acclaimed series RISING STARS. This is the first story arc written by J. Michael Straczynski and tells the tale of the beginnings of the Specials. With new cover by MIDNIGHT NATION artist Gary Frank. This collection is the perfect way to revisit the earlier issues of RISING STARS in one sitting or to discover fro the first time the mose realistic superhero epic since Alan Moore's Watchmen.
Customer Reviews:
What if Oliver Stone Had Super Powers?.......2007-04-12
***SPOILERS BELOW!!!***
Actually the above demeans Oliver Stone - imagine instead Oliver Stone lobotomized and heavily dosed on psychedelic drugs with super powers and you'll end up with something like this series. Straczynski evidently has some sort of goofy leftist utopian side to him which Top Cow was unable or unwilling to check in this series. As a result, we get some interesting ideas which mutate into a laughably foolish global civics lesson that would have seemed hokey in junior high.
The specials empowered by the energy burst in the 60s are generally an interesting lot, and are well characterized. The unfortunate thing though is we eventually find out that all of them are virtual saints and even the nasty ones turn out to have been controlled by other villains and those who survive reform and perform altruistic acts of heroism. Conversely every normal person in the series is portrayed as either blandly inert or villainously evil (save for the saintly doctor). This dichotomy of "all the mutants are good, and all the humans are bad" would have seemed out of place in X Men plots of 30 years ago, let alone in the modern allegedly adult world of graphic novels.
We also have a peculiar liberal boogeyman appear, the evil religious folks conspiring to shut down abortion clinics. Not by bombing them or killing doctors, simply by protesting in front of them with the aid of a glowing angelic Star being manipulated by his evil televangelist dad. Huh, how dare those villains shut down abortion clinics by exercising their right to free assembly! Fortunately the religious Star eventually sees the light, admits his secular humanist sympathies, begins cross-dressing, and sacrifices himself to save the lives of a bunch of Stars and normal humans in Chicago (see below). Sounds silly? Ah, this is but the tip of the iceberg!
The general moral superiority of the Stars is shown irritatingly and unimaginatively by many Stone-like pictures of illuminated heros in crucifixion style poses getting riddled with gunfire, blown up with cruise missiles, etc. This becomes endemic in the third volume, as if someone has the DVD of "Platoon" set in a repeat loop at the scene where Willem Dafoe gets killed in the rice paddy. The art and coloring throughout is not exceptional, and the occasional loss of detail in the faces and expressions of characters is alarming. We also see immense artistic laziness, as the exact same scene is repeated over and over (e.g. Jason picking up big nuclear warheads and flying away while various human soldiers fire a variety of useless weapons at him...)
"Watchmen" had generally leftist politics that nonetheless allowed the series to develop in a mature, believable, and thought-provoking manner. In comparison, the leftist politics here are juvenile, naïve, and clichéd to the point of campiness. When the Stars eventually begin to "reform" the world, they do so unerringly and with only the best of motives. The mean ol U.S. is disarmed along with every other nation, cocaine crops are vaporized, large corporations exposed as villainous, Middle East problems solved by fairly allocating resources (How reassuring to see that religious differences play no role in the Mid-East Crisis!).
Societal problems go away when the US simply stops spending money on defense and instead throws all its money at various sociological problems. A Star President is elected because he has communed with the spirits of the dead and knows all the Dark Secrets of the US, like Who Killed Kennedy. (Not to give anything away, but it turns out to have been.... the CIA!!! Huh!!!)
To offend those on the libertarian Left, we have terrorism and crime solved by super-powered vigilantism where the Stars break down doors and beat up / kill the bad guys. None of the plans go awry, all of the bad guys are correctly and discretely eliminated, and none of the Stars abuses their powers in the least.
This of course provokes a counter-reaction from the Evil Military Industrial Complex, shown by caricatures of chain-smoking mean old white guy generals, who nuke the President, most of Congress, and thousands of innocent civilians in order to eliminate the few dozen Stars left by the end of the series. Fortunately though the energy released from all the dead Stars permeates the world and makes everybody nice and cooperative, shown in a poorly drawn big panel that may have come from a "WatchTower" magazine, with various ethnic caricatures being nice to each other shown on a crude map of the continents. It is a surreal moment, but not in a good sort of way.
Straczynski is a pretty good writer. Babylon 5 showed none of this weirdness, and his other comics like Supreme Power are far more restrained and subtle. It looks like he was either scripting this on cocktail napkins while drunk at various Al Gore fundraisers, or was simply preoccupied with other projects and giving this less than maximal effort. Top Cow evidently did not notice or care (or at least couldn't do much about it if they did) and as a result we have a saccharine cartoon of a civics lesson that makes Ralph Nader's worldview seem like Machiavelli's.
The first volume in the series is a good setup, maybe too derivative of the mask-killer plot of "Watchmen" and the "normal persecution" plotting of the X Men movies. The second volume is probably the best one, with a good intermediate stage setting and plotting, but it ends too quickly and then Volume Three, aka Howard Dean's Fantasia begins. Begins kind of dull and shaky, develops nicely, then gets preachy / trite / just plain weird at the end.
Straczynski can write decent characters when he tries, and the plot is certainly ambitious and complex. It looks like he simply needed more editorial guidance from his publisher here, and the resulting failure has made a dog's breakfast which has the potential to irritate the literal minded, or amaze the voyeuristic with what a fabulous disaster it all turns into. The worldview and plotting of Volume 3 would seem unsophisticated and unlikely to a high school Intro to Government class, and the spectacle of Straczynski presenting this to an adult audience with a straight face is both stunning and ghoulishly appealing, like a huge traffic accident involving cotton candy. If you like campy misfires that turn into earnest fairy tales loosely based on reality, stick with this series, but if you want a truly transcendent super hero series, get "Watchmen" instead.
Great Graphic Novel.......2005-12-27
This is Rising Stars Vol. 1 Chapters 1-8
This is the 1st of a 3 part series.
Great graphic novel. What would the world do if suddenly there were 113 people with special powers. Will the world love them, fear them or hate them.
What would you do if suddenly you found out you have special powers. Will that automatically make you a good person? Will you help the world or only use it for personal gain?
I highly recommend the series.
Brilliant.......2005-07-26
J. Michael Straczynski continues to impress me. This little-known book (Rising Stars: Vol. 1) is a storytelling gem. His character development is top-notch. He's one of just a handful of writers that can take a super hero story and make it feel real.
Volumes 2 and 3 are also well crafted. My only complaint is the constant change of artists. All of the artists are good, it just disturbs the flow of the books a bit. Straczynski's masterful writing makes up for this minor gripe.
Check out J.M.S.'s "Supreme Power" books, and also "Midnight Nation," both are stunning titles. These books are for older audiences, not that they're overly sexual or violent, I just don't think they are intended for kids.
Happy reading!
Amazing!.......2005-01-26
Think of XMen, then add a writer who is GREAT! Each of the characters has depth and seems like a real person (unlike other comic book heros who are 'A' typical ect.) and their are a tons of different story lines running congruently that add a whole extra level of depth to the book.
I like XMen, and I apologize to Hardcore XMen fans, but I think XMen has met it's match, and that's J. Michael Straczynski. (Good thing he freelances for Marvel, LOL!)
Weak and cheaply done art hampers a good story........2004-12-10
How many guys can you put in trenchcoats with long hair in a panel? Enough to not know who is talking.
Top Cow cheaped their way through a number of artists to bring us a less than stellar tale. Chronic lateness, long term hiatus, dreadful art, cliche and insulting character design, the fact that we are given better writing and better art in Supreme Power and mostly the same story means don't bother.
By the time a regular and decent artist was given the job it was to late and people were leaving this monthly title like rats leaving a sinking ship. I'd like to see Gary Frank start the whole series over at #1 so we can forget completely the first few issues. You will notice in the Amazon listing there is no mention of the artists on the first TP, only that there is a new cover by Gary Frank, the only highlight for Born in Fire.
Dollar for dollar your payoff is Supreme Power.
Product Description
Compiles 1-8 of the series. This is the special leatherbound edition SIGNED by Straczynski (but not numbered) from a limited print run of 1500 copies.
Product Description
Collection of humorous tales in Persian (Farsi).
Customer Reviews:
Mulla Nasreddin.......2004-01-24
I grew up with Mulla's stories. You can not find an Iranian who does not know a few stories of Mulla. Even though his storues are very funny, still they have a philosophical value too. A must read for anybody and everybody.
Funny Stories for Speakers.......2000-06-15
I read Molla's stories in English not being fortunate to know enough Persian. I hope they translate more of these stories to English, because just mentioning Molla's name brings smile to the people who know him.
In the present times, in the US we have Woody Allen, and in the East the impaccable Aziz Nassin of Turkey whose very name make you smile.
Molla's Character is popular in the Middle East as well as the Indian subcontinent, the same way as another Persian storyteller, Scheherazade is. Molla, in the Persian culture is title for the learned men or teachers. When people saw someone with beard and turban, they already assumed he is a molla so they would throw their questions.
For instance, Once Molla was hammering the nail at the end of his donkey's bridle, as he was going to a teahouse. Someone asked him: "Molla, where is the center of the world." Molla said," The center of the world is where I just hammered the nail to my donkey's bridle." Someone said, " I don't believe this." Molla took a sip of his tea and said, " If you don't believe it, go measure it."
In the forties and fifties Molla became popular among British. Some English speakers, in the hight of tension, during Nationalization of Oil, used to quote Molla when they wanted to break the ice with their Persian counterparts.
The funny stories did not solve the problem, but opened the door for many translations in English, Franch, German and many other languages. I have seen the book translated in Arabic, Turkish, Ordu and Hindu. In each of these countries they have, in years, added more stories to the old ones, giving the character a native identity. I am sure the Arabic Molla has some particular stories and the Turkish one some other. Molla now belongs to every country in Asia, as Sheharazade does.
This book is, however, in Persian. As the English version was a lot of fun for me to read, I'm sure Persians, who have a great sense of humor, will find this book much funnier than the English translation. Enjoy it.--Khandeh dareh!
The man of additional shocks.......1999-09-29
It's not the point that Hoca is a character of Turkey nor Iran. Hoca is one of the wisest man of all times. He makes us remember things everyone else has forgotten for ever and always. His sayings -jokes- guide us to the objective and practical knowledge of All.
Nasreddin Hoca is not an Iranian character!!!!.......1999-02-25
Nasreddin Hoca is not an Iranian character!!!! He had lived in Aksehir,which is a small city in Anatolia(Turkey).I am a very surprised to see that an Iranian writer try to show Nasreddin Hoca as an Iranian character.Let's not forget that 2 or 3 years ago it was celebrated as the Nasreddin Hoca year in Turkey!
A great Iranian joke book in Farsi........1998-12-13
I have bought this book and read it, it's a great great book. I recomand everyone else to buy it also. (Az Khande Roode Bor Khahid Shod).
Book Description
Between his birth in 1925 and death from a heart attack in 1980, Peter Sellers left an indelible mark on the history of comedy. Peter Sellers: A Life in Character details his extraordinary career from his first stage appearance as a babe in arms, his early days in show business and the classic radio era, to the heights of Hollywood stardom. It is packed with stories and anecdotes from those who knew and admired him, as well as interviews with Sellers himself.
Fully illustrated with a unique collection of photographs, Peter Sellers - A Life in Character is an affectionate tribute to this great man, recapturing all those wonderful characters he brought to life. Above all it is intended to do what he did best – make you laugh.
- Packed with a unique collection of photographs
- Interviews with Sellers himself, as well as those closest to him
- Sellers is a legendary for The Goon Show, Dr Strangelove, and as Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther
- Recaptures the wonderful characters he brought to life
Customer Reviews:
Food for thought.......2003-07-21
This book is the result of a study.
It is about the expierence women had after getting back a flagged test or after getting a routine amniocentesis based on age or history. It is not a book about whether or not you should have an amnio it is about what your choices are and how women dealt with their results.
This books will make you think about the abuse that routine prenatal tests can cause a woman and hopefully it will help you deciede whether or not you want the test done.
I think this is a well writen book.
Amniocentesis . . . The Road To Abortion.......2000-03-01
While not exactly what I expected I found this book to be rather eye opening. The premise of the author, while she wrote about 100 or so women she interviewed, was that amniocentesis is a test that, if the results are bad, leads to abortion. In other words, this test gives women the opportunity to selectively abort children who are seen as otherwise imperfect in today's society. Whether or not you support the test, this book gives you much food for thought. A word of caution though, this may not be the right book to read if you are looking for the right answers to an amniocentis you are contemplating right now. It may be better read while you are not pregnant.
A social commentary, not a reassurance.......2000-02-04
I bought this book in the middle of some very difficult decisions whether to have an amniocentisis following a positive MSAFP. The premise, that for many women pregnancy is tentative for the first trimester because of fear of miscarriage and for the second trimester because of fear of negative results from the amnio really fits my experience. I was hoping this book would provide some validation and reassurance. It didn't. It is very much a social commentary which subtly criticizes women for wanting to control whether or not to bear a child with a disability or fatal deformity. I was hoping to have some validation of my experience, and instead I felt judged and criticized.
Book Description
This annual collection of 50 Sunday-size puzzles from The Washington Post is in a category all its own. Representing some of the best constructors in the business, these meticulously crafted creations will appeal to fans of all generations. Neither too liberal nor too conservative, they're just right for the middle-of-the-road solver.
Book Description
A carefully created next step guide that helps you put Godly principles of finance in motion.
Customer Reviews:
An Easy Read.......2007-05-14
Easy to read, easy to understand. His simplified approach takes away the mystery of the investment world and enables you to invest confidently and knowledgably. To my surprise, the section on biblical principles turned out to be my favorite part of the book.
Finally, an Investment Book That Makes Sense.......2007-03-29
This is a great book for looking at and finally understanding the "big picture" of investing. The author provides enough background to understand stocks, bonds, and mutual funds without overwhelming the reader. More important, it has a step-by-step method to design the best portfolio mix for the individual "wanna-be" investor.
The author looks at the importance of investing from a Christian perspective, and for me, it removed most of the stress and anxiety of investing.
I've read many, many books on investing, and this was the first to give me a real understanding of the whole process. More importantly, the author stresses how to control the risk that actually is controllable, and to not worry about the risks that are NOT controllable. It really does result in a "Sound Mind" philosophy for investing.
I have given this book to many of my friends, and have recommended it to many more.
Great & easy to follow & implement.......2007-02-28
This book is very easy to read, and gives a good basic understanding of the stock market, bond funds, mutual funds, etc. Things to think about and watch out for. Step by step instructions for setting up accounts, and references for more information if you want it.
Great Book!.......2006-02-26
Well, I'm not actually finished with this book yet, I've gone to chapter 10, which is all I was ready for. Getting debt free is the focus of the first part of the book, and now I've charted the course and it is already in sight! As the author states, "there is no better investment than a debt paid." I'm anxious to get to that level, and then work on the other aspects of investing. Until then, I may order one of the recommended books in SMIH to gain better control of my finances as I press toward my goal in being a better steward of all God has blessed me with.
So excited about this book!.......2005-09-26
This is a fantastic book, it's great for the beginner who is clueless about investing, saving, etc. But, it's also great for the more experienced investor as well. It gives you steps for your financial goals and future, from Step 1, getting out of debt, all the way up to the step of your retirement, and all the steps in between teach you how to get to the point where you actually have a retirement fund. The biblical perspective is what really ties it all together. He speaks in such easy to understand terms, and you will learn so much, it has been a God send for me.
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- Religious Folk Art in America: Reflections of Faith
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- Society of Illustrators 46: The 46th Annual of American Illustration
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- Splendors of Qur'an Calligraphy and Illumination
- Stealing the Mona Lisa: What Art Stops Us From Seeing
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