Halloween

The Taschen Icons books certainly have their place in the world of art books, although they aren't really my favorites. If you are looking for something special, look elsewhere. But if you are looking for a compilation book for a good price, Taschen has got you covered. Their books are widely available, very affordable (especially the 25th Anniversary editions), full of color images, and cover just about every visual topic you could want. From food packaging to home design to vintage erotica to butterflies to impressionist painters... they got it all compiled and printed and ready to buy. The NY Times Book Review called them "... a fast-food, high-energy fix on the topic at hand."
These books are great for reference and for overviews of a certain topic, but they generally lack depth. I'd say they are the epitome of a mainstream art book, which isn't really a bad thing.

There are a few of these in my collection, mostly for reference purposes, but some just to look at. One of my favorites of these is the Halloween Vintage Holiday Graphics book. I love Halloween. The cartoony evil, the pagan-ness, the general celebration of devils and gore. Why else would you dress your children up as zombies? When else does the convenience store sell miniature blood fountains? What other event is decorated with skulls and spiders? From the orange and black to the witches and cats, Halloween is for me. And the candy!

You combine this holiday love with my fondness for vintage illustrations and ephemera (see Junk Pirate) and this book is a winner. It is 190 colorful pages of costumes, trick-or-treat bags, party decorations, advertisements, home photos, lanterns, and various illustrations. The images are what you would expect and demand from a Halloween book: skeletons, witches, devils, black cats, jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, candy, children in costumes, and lots of orange and black graphics.

You can pick up this book for $9.99 direct from the Taschen website.

Michael Sieben - zines 2003-2005

I was introduced to Texas artist and illustrator Michael Sieben quite a few years back from various internet surfings. I found his skull-and-skateboard drawings immediately accessible. His work showed a sense of humility, humor, and wit that I totally identified with. His drawing talents were plentiful, but it was the simplicity and playfulness of his work that spoke to me.

Not long after my initial exposure to his artwork I began to see it popping up here and there in Thrasher skateboarding magazine. His work perfectly suits skateboarding illustration with plenty of humor, bold outlines, violence, monsters, beer, sarcasm, and anthropomorphic animals. To put it simply, he was making the art I wanted to make but lacked the talent to.

Sieben's artwork has grown more popular and wide-spread with every passing season. His characters adorn products from the likes of Toy Machine, Volcom, Crownfarmer, Bueno Skateboards (which he also is somehow invested in), Vox footwear, SxSW propaganda, and Thrasher (whom he writes articles for as well). I don't know how long he'll be able to hold out against mainstream apparel brands, but you know it's coming. He also co-owns Okay Mountain gallery in Austin, the sequel to Camp Fig.

Anyways, a few years back I did some zine swaps with Sieben and let it be known that he hooked a brother up. Let's take a look:

First up is 2003's From the Cubicle. This is a mini black-and-white xerox zine of Sieben's demented doodlings during his office job which, I assume, took place in a cubicle. It features his usuall assortment of misfit monsters and sins-against-nature, plus clever jabs at the executive working environment. I really love this zine. It is simple in content and style yet accurately encapsulates the need to secretly unleash artistic creativity in an unsupportive environment. Dare I say it is heroic.

Next up is Black and White Don't Pay the Bills. This zine features a smattering of Sieben's illustrations for various skate-related ventures in their original pen-and-ink form. All this work was published after being painstakingly colored with digital methods, so this zine shows the power of the original artwork. The drawings are bold and beautiful, looking almost like woodcut prints. They are the kind of drawings that make you want to start drawing. It is also a nice glimpse at some illustrations for local newspapers or limited run t-shirts that you weren't likely to come across on your own.

Sieben has created a boat-load of work in other collaborative publications like Hitten Switches, Pretty Deece, or the recent debut of Volcomics. He probably has lots of other self-published zines from this era as well, but these are the two I have. He is a pretty friendly guy so if you email him I bet he will write you back.

So, these are zines from my personal stash so you aren't going to be able to have 'em for yourself. But, if you stay tuned, the next Rowan Morrison blog will feature two new, deluxe Michael Sieben zines (one of them which you still have the possibility of owning)! In the meanwhile, you can procure your own copies of Hitten Switches (with Sieben and Travis Millard) here and the Pretty Deece collabo-zine here.

Links: Thrasher interview - mail-Michael-Sieben-sent-me website!!! - interview on fecalface.com - bloggity blog-blog with lots of photos by Sieben himself

Downy Bird Art Kingdom

Downy Bird Art Kingdom falls firmly within the art book sub genre of "the Group Show book". What you get are 96 color pages featuring the work of 21 contemporary west coast artists. Each artist gets a 50-or-so word write-up from editor Matthew Bowers to go with 4 pages of images, both whole works and details. This book is the first of several future volumes.

In an opening essay by the editor, Downy Bird proclaims itself to be a look at the generation of artists following the "post-postmodern, neo-graffiti, Mission School, low-brow surrealism movements" of the 1990s. It also presents itself as a survey of these artists before art writers and art historians simplify and consolidate this movement into "tidy, exclusive piles" (like, say, neo-graffiti and low-brow surrealism).

Almost all the artwork is strictly from the "illustration as art" school of thought. You can call it Hipster art of Juxtapoz art or Postmodern Mixed-Media or whatever... If you find yourself checking fecalface.com more than once a week, you will love this book. As far as I know, the artists are all from only 3 cities: Oakland, San Francisco, and Portland. While this hardly makes the book a diverse survey, it still gives a solid look into the work of 21 emerging artists that are (almost) all worthy of getting familiar with.

With that in mind, Downy Bird benefits from the strengths and is hurt by the liabilities of all group shows (printed or otherwise): with so much work, you are bound to connect with something - yet - the overall show risks being dragged down by a few weak links. This book shows some real bright spots coming up from the emerging art horizon. Most notable are Catherine Ryan, Ferris Plock, and photographer Katy Zaugg. It also features several artists that help to emphasize the talent of those bright spots by means of comparison (if you get my drift).

All in all, Downy Bird is a great guide into an ever-emerging arts community. When I take into account the prospect of many future volumes, I can see a valuable document of young, contemporary, Bay Area (and Portland) artists. Kind of like New American Paintings, but with more focus. The printing quality (from Endeavor Printing) is very good, and the size (7.5"x7.5") and thickness (96 pages) are perfect for an ongoing series. The price, $20, is a bargain.

You can order Downy Bird Art Kingdom from downybird.com (which also features a complete list of artists with links) or get it direct from us here at the Rowan Morrison fine arts bookstore by hitting the button:

Teen Power

Otsu began 5 years ago as a vegan-themed store in San Francisco. They sold animal free products like shoes and clothing along with papergoods, books, records, accessories, bags, and snack treats. In 2004 they launched their own publishing company, Little Otsu, with a line of calendars-planners and journals made with recycled or tree-free papers and soy inks. Soon they moved to a new space (which they share with the McSweeney's offices) with a new papergoods store (no more shoes) and a new focus on unique publishing collaborations with their favorite artists. They are constantly releasing new and original designs of stationery, greeting cards, journals, planners, datebooks, wall calendars, posters, and other paper goods.

Teen Power, by Joe Sayers, is Little Otsu's first step into a world of non-interactive art books. This book reproduces the hilarious self-published mini-comics Passing Periods and Absolute Power as a softcover edition. The book quality is exactly what you expect from Otsu: 100% recycled paper stock, high quality cover and binding with animal-free glue. Plus, the little touches, like the wide format and the blue-ink interior printing, come from L. Otsu's design experience and add the to quality of the publication.

The book's content features the fucked-up and awesome comic strips of Oakland cartoonist Joe Sayers. Each comic was conceived and drawn in under 5-minutes. The first half of the book is a collections of strips about teen issues entitled Passing Periods: Tackling Tough Topics for Today's Troubled Teens. These are, bar-none, the funniest comics I've read since Gary Larson retired the Far Side in 1995. Centered around drugs, sex, authority figures, and popularity, some of these comics are instant classics.

The second half of Teen Power is called Absolute Power and features Sayers' take on super heroes. These comics, which are mostly one-panel splash pages of various useless, yet super-human abilities, a silly and and funny but just not a raw as the ones in Passing Periods. Still, they are funnier than anything found in the New Yorker, and are all created in under 5 minutes, so I'm still impressed.

The drawing style is very simple and that only enhances the unexpected punchlines and clever twists in the work. Sometimes it is the drawings that make the work extra hilarious. This is a perfect book to keep you company in the bathroom, and I hope more work of Sayers gets compiled and published.

Check out Joe Sayers' regular comic strip, Thingpart, and his website and blog. It will make you chuckle.
Check out the full line of Little Otsu's projects at littleotsu.com.
Own your own copy of Teen Power by checking the online bookstore at Rowan Morrison or hitting this book-buyin'-button right here.