Picked up a copy of the beautifully illustrated Beastly Verse by JooHee Yoon. It's a lovely collection of rhymes and poems about animals by various authors. Each has one of Yoon's wonderful, layered and rich illustrations supporting it. Incredibly rich and sumptuous colour.
The wonderful illustrations of Ian Phillips
I first discovered Ian Phillips via his Instagram account and I totally fell in love with his style, and his wonderful sensitivity for print and colour. When I checked out his Etsy shop and couldn't resist these little gems. The Fireflies print is extra special as it's printed with glow in the dark ink. The post cards are wonderful too and are a great set of illustrations reflecting my recently adopted home town of San Francisco.
Ian's web site: http://www.ianphillipsillustration.com/
His Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/pasdechance
Gorgeous Fairy Tales from Sybille Schenker
I spotted these over on the always inspiring Brain Pickings. They looked utterly stunning, so had to see if I could get hold of them. Thankfully Amazon has them and considering the UV spot gloss, special papers and laser cutting they are a bargain!
First up is Little Red Riding Hood. It's a beautifully crafted edition published by Michael Neugebauer, driven by the fantastic cut paper illustrations of Sybille Schenker. But it's more than the delicate laser cut pages, it's the overall attention to detail and quality that makes this a wonderful object. From the matte black, board covers with their laser cut titles and spot gloss motifs, to the colour themed binding, it's beautiful. The use of the laser cutting to show off Sybille's illustration is done superbly, adding pace and intrigue to the reading. The graphic design is also particularly good. The sumptuous use of colour and typography work perfectly to enhance the theatre of the reading.
Next up is Hansel and Gretel. I must admit I was slightly disappointed when I opened this as it lacks the laser cut paperwork, making do with the odd die cut window. Instead it uses transparent trace paper to achieve a similar effect and show off the paper cut illustrations. It's still very effective and works wonderfully to reveal the story, especially as the children walk through the wood to the witches house. In some ways it works better as it's not just hide and show. The layering adds a subtlety to the depth and allows for a different use of the 'shadowy' imagery.
The two books are wonderful examples of what print can be, embracing all the theatre that makes for a great fairy tale. They arrived safely packaged in hard transparent slips to protect the board covers and Little Red Riding Hood had tissue paper inserts between the laser cut pages. Yet another example of how much this publisher cares about the objects they release into the world - wonderful craft.
Check out more work from Sybille Schenker over on her portfolio site.
More from the publisher Michael Neugebauer over at Minedition.
Nate Denver's poems and songs
Recently I visited McSweeney's in their office on Valencia in San Francisco. They share a space in the building that used to be home to the rather magical little book/art store Little Otsu. They have since moved to Portland, but it reminded me of this lovely little book I purchased there about 6 years ago. It's a book of 50 50 word poems by Nate Denver called Wait You're Not a Centaur. It's full of quirky imagery and thoughts, all accompanied by fun illustrations. What makes this extra special is the accompanying CD of songs. These follow the same fantastical themes as the book and are wonderful.
Three stand out tracks are Snuggle Tummy about a vengeful stuffed toy, 4 Horsemen about Slayer (mp3 here on Nate's site) and The Prince, the Queen and the Corpse about a ballet dancer who does a deal with a demon to get revenge.
Great stuff.
Lots more from Nate Denver here: http://www.natedenver.com/
Tove Jansson's Wonderland
Over Christmas I've been rummaging through several boxes of books and paper ephemera stored in the cellar. One of my finds is this edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, beautifully illustrated by Tove Jansson (the Moomins). It's from the Delacorte Press in 1978, however the illustrations were first published by Albert Bonniers Förlag in Sweden in 1966.
The main colour plates are great, but the small detailing for chapter ends and in the margins supporting the text are truly wonderful.
