Fantasy of the 20th Century An Illustrated History-- Randy Broecker-- Review

Galligantus by Arthur Rackham

Fantasy of the 20th Century An Illustrated History by Randy Broecker is primarily about cover art for fantasy books. It contains over 400 color illustatrations of book and pulp magazine covers, and around 45 fantasy movie memorabilia pictures. This is an incredible amount of illustration for a book this size. It is an oversize quarto book 256 pages long.

This book is for those who love book covers. There are numerous people who collect books solely for their covers. They want samples of different fantasy artists work. It is the same mentality of those who collect comic books and put them in plastic bags permanently then never open them. They remember their comic books by the cover art. People do the same thing with pulp magazines and paperbacks.

If you have ever worked in a bookstore and you did any buying, you would know that every month, the publishers send many bookstores, paperback covers as well as hardcover book covers. It is a way of selling the books without giving an actual book to the store owner. I remember going through stacks of these which were kept in a big cardboard box to see if there was anything interesting to order.

Each picture contains the name of the book, the author, and the cover artist. The book runs through the complete history of fantasy books starting in the 1890s up through the 1990s. The covers are fantastic, beautifully illustrated, and very colorful.

The book showcases many of the best pulp artists, Virgil Finlay, J. Allen St. John, and Hannes Bok. Virgil Finlay was considered to be the best inside artist for pulp science fiction and fantasy. Hannes Bok had one of the most distinctive styles. J. Allen St. John was one of the most influential of the pulp artists. J. Allen St. John designed the logo for Weird Tales. He also was the predecessor, I think, of the style of Frank Frazetta and Roy Krenkel.

The book also documents who were the best writers of the different time periods. All of the great fantasy writers are mentioned starting with A. Merritt, H. Rider Haggard, H.P. Lovecraft, Lord Dunsany and moving to more modern fantasy writers like Patricia McKillip, Michael Moorcock, Ursula LeGuin, Marion Zimmer Bradley and others. It is more of a chronology than an attempt to criticize the actual work of the writers.

It smoothly transitions from the pulp form to the paperback and digest form of cover. Pulps died out around the 1950s. Science fiction was the major fantastic form in 1950s. Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague De Camp revived the swords and sorcery genre. L. Sprague De Camp was the major influence in bringing back Conan from the pulps. Also heading into the 1960s, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis revived heroic fantasy as well.

There is a very nice illustrated section on fantasy films. It includes classics movie posters like King Kong, Mighty Joe Young, The Thief of Baghdad, The 7th Voyage of Sindbad, as well as more contemporary films like Legend, Conan, The Lord of the Rings, and others. Included in this are some unique films like City of Lost Children, Fire and Ice, and Wizards by Ralph Bakshi.

There are very few surprise authors. The authors chosen to describe are all the central authors of fantasy. They are authors like Lin Carter, Mervyn Peake, Tim Powers, Jack Vance, Tanith Lee, Philip Jose Farmer, Andre Norton and other very mainstream popular authors. The book is not focused on award winning books.

The artists are for the most part very mainstream. The one artist who I did not see a lot of was Kelly Freas which was surprising. There were illustrations by Michael Whelan, Stephen Fabian, and other mainstream fantasy artists. There was also a brief section on fairytales which was interesting. This included some book cover illustrations by Edmund Dulac and Arthur Rackham. I consider Arthur Rackham to be one of the greatest fantasy artists who ever lived.

A surprising thing I found in the book was that there were several illustrations from the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series edited by Lin Carter. This is one of my favorite fantasy series because it focuses on high quality fantasy writing from the early 20th century.

If you want a beautifully illustrated book of fantasy art covers representing the best artists from each time period during the 20th century, you might be interested in this book. Also, if you want a chronology of who was popular and consistently well written in fantasy during the 20th century this book is an excellent read. However, it does not criticize the works of the authors, it illustrates them.

There are two other books in this series, Science Fiction of the 20th Century, and Horror of the 20th Century. The copy I bought was from the Strand bookstore, it was an oversize trade paperback. I bought it for $11.95 on sale, the cover price was $19,95. I enjoyed looking at all three of the books in this series. Unfortunately, the trade paperback is not listed on Amazon.

Series Books And Series Comics

I have been really enjoying the DC Vertigo Fables Comics series lately. I have five more of them which I have waiting for me to check out. I finished Storybook Love last night another book in the Fables series, this time it stars the Big Bad Wolf, or Bigby Wolf as he is called in modern Manhattan and Snow White, or Ms. White. The series keeps on pulling surprises out of its magical hat. The characters are truly tremendous, Bluebeard, John Barleycorn, and all of the characters from fairyland and old legends.

I was looking at Locus Magazine this morning and I came across an interesting article. It is about how they don't mark most adult series books with numbers, but they do mark most childrens series books with numbers. I found it quite informative and entertaining. Hopefully people will read it.
http://www.sfsite.com/01a/rl263.htm

I just received a whole slew of books from the library and I am sorting out what I will read and review next.

One of the patrons from our library showed me her new book, Lover's Quarrel. She didn't like the cover. Apparently, her publisher changed the cover from a picture of two black unicorns on a red background to a giant sword on top of a heart. The changed cover is very garrish, but it is also stands out like a spotlight and draws a lot of attention.

The cover she showed me was much more subdued and pretty. My opinion was that she would sell a lot more books with a garrish cover. Apparently her book is selling very well. She told me that her friend had it on the subway and people commented on the cover because it was so visible. Her book is already almost ready for a second run. She is selling the book on Amazon. I haven't read it yet, so I am not sure if it is good or not, but the cover certainly is interesting to look at. It is a science fiction romance. She is in negotiations to change the cover on the second print run.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/103-1063132-8179801?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=smith%2C+tonya&x=16&y=21

I was invited to the New York City Publishers Reception for the Information Industry Summit on January 29, 2008. It is one of those free events where you get to talk to different publishers about a variety of things. This came as a total surprise for me. It must have come from one of the various conferences I have attended. I'll probably end up running into a few people which I recognize from my wanderings in the book world.

One of the books which came in today from my reserves was Once Upon A Town: The Miracle of North Platte Canteen by Bob Greene. One of my commenters suggest I read and review it. I am enjoying reading it, it is a very patriotic book with a lot of nostalgia and pride in it.

A Book And Its Cover, A Trip to A Bookstore

A lot of people think "You cannot judge a book by its cover." This can be a very misleading statement. Many people collect books just for their covers. Most science fiction and pulp art comes from book and magazine covers. Many people collect hardcover and paperback books just for their cover art. Kelly Freas, J. Allen St. John, Donato Giancola, and Michael Whelan are a few of the artists who people buy just for the cover art. Also some people buy old pulp magazines just for the cover art as well, things like The Spider Master of Men, Famous Detective, the Shadow, Astounding and other magazines are often purcheased just to have the cover art.

A books cover is the most valuable part of a book for a collector. This is because it is the most ephemeral part of the book and the hardest part to preserve. Most very old books have long since lost their covers. It follows that people wrap the covers in plastic to protect them. There is an odd corollary. It seems that bookstores and collectible shops can charge a premium for things wrapped in plastic. This is true for both comic books, magazines, and even paperbacks.

If you find a book that is not wrapped in plastic, it is usually much cheaper.

The cover of a book is also the first thing which a person sees when they are going to buy a book. Usually, they have to select the book from a large variety of other books. This makes it very important for the cover to stand out from a bunch of other books. This means if you are attempting to sell a book take a minute and see how your book stands out from five or ten other books at five feet, at ten feet, and at twenty feet. You really want your titles to be visible in the bookstore and display window. If you can see a books cover in the window of a bookstore while you are driving by in a busy city, then you know your cover is visible.

Up close you should be able to read the title clearly and the author clearly of the book. There should be some blank space to put a label on the spine for libraries, also there should be a place where you can put a sale sticker on the cover without disrupting the cover art. The spine should have the title of the book and the author easily readable from the side. If the spine title is not very readable people will have trouble finding it in libraries and bookstores.

Something that bothers collectors and booksellers is false aging marks or pictures that include wrinkles and stains on the cover to make the book look old. Collectors want their books to look absolutely clean. Dealers want their books to appear new so they can sell them as new.

Some thoughts on displays. It is good to mix up the size of different books from regular to size to quarto. Putting larger books in the back makes sense. Also laying down some larger books to break up the pattern of the display is a good idea. Colored cloth or felt which is the opposite color of the books being displayed provides an excellent background. Also mixing media, adding in videos and audiobooks can make a dispaly more interesting.

These are just a few thoughts on cover art. People really do judge a book by its cover. They then usually read the inside blurb on the cover flaps which summarizes the book. This is often done as part of the first stage of editing. Sometimes the books blurbs don't exactly match the contents, because they are written too early in the editing process. Also, the photo of the author is usually retouched to make the author look better. I usually take the recommendation sentences with a grain of salt, they are usually marketing statements.

It is not until they have looked at the cover and the inside flaps that they look at the inside of the book. Most people like to read the first chapter of a book before they decide to buy the book. However, some of the more old fashioned bookstores won't let them. You can look, but you can't read. This makes the cover even more important. Also, some people are too rushed, so first impressions count.

Anyways, I am enjoying the Bonehunters by Steven Erickson. I am still reading it. My favorite part so far is when Leoman of the Flails leads the Malazan army into a fire trap with burning oil, collapsing buildings, and berserk warriors. The fire trap turns into a firestorm and some of the heros of the novel have to escape underground through the warrens to get out. Lots of action.

I am going to go to a bookstore today and look at books. Exciting for me, maybe not so exciting for you, but still probably an interesting experience.

I thought about visiting Macy's because they are giving away Shrek dolls with every $35 dollar purchase. Maybe I'll get some underwear and socks... Ah, the appeal of mass media.

Anyways, today, I went to the mall, had a bite to eat, then went to the local Barnes and Noble, like many places we do not have a local independent bookstores. The chains and the giant web merchants have killed most of them. I bought one paperback, A Feast for Crows, book four of the Song of Ice and Fire Series. This series is #1 on the Internet Top 100 SF/Fantasy list. http://gurge.com/amd/top100. The first three books of the series are really excelent. I look forward to reading the fourth.

I also took some notes and placed holds at the library on Heavens Net is Wide by Lian Hearn, Odyssey by Jack McDevitt, the graphic novel, part of Stephen King's Gunslinger series, the Gunslinger Born. Most of the time I don't buy a lot of books when I visit bookstores.