Star Trek: The Art of Juan Ortiz Book Review

The Blot recently got to review the awesome new hardcover art book Star Trek: The Art of Juan Ortiz and it is seriously fantastic! Whether you’re a fan of Star Trek: The Original Series or just love a good movie/TV poster, you will definitely want to check out this beautiful oversized book published by Titan Books. Artist Juan Ortiz, an avid Star Trek fan, took on the challenge of creating a unique retro poster design for each one of the series original 80 episodes. The artwork embodies his passion for the series, the transformational Sixties, and the visceral reaction generated from each episode.

Each Star Trek: The Original Series poster is a little different, with each design embodying a variety of different styles like that of a ‘60s movie poster, comic book, pulp novel cover or advertisement. The common theme is their retro look and love of all things Star Trek: TOS. What’s wonderful about this art book is how Titan utilized every inch of this 14.4”x10.3” oversized book, with each poster taking up an entire page! It really allows the reader to appreciate each and every design.

For a while there it was all the rage on the internet to create fake retro and minimalistic movie posters for TV shows, super heroes and music albums. But Juan Ortiz definitely out did them all with this Star Trek series. It’s especially cool to see these posters become officially licensed. Ortiz didn’t just stop with this TOS poster series though, as he has continue to create all sorts of awesome Star Trek art since these designs have become so popular.

Star Trek: The Art of Juan Ortiz is available now in bookstores everywhere with a suggested retail price of $39.95! If you’re not able to find it at your local book store, you can order one from Amazon for just $26.76 here. It’s definitely worth it!

Book Review: Nick Cardy: The Artist At War

As a kid there was no bigger comic book than Marv Wolfman and George Pérez’ New Teen Titans. The Blot ate that series up and always wanted more from DC Comics. That led me to original Teen Titans series from the ‘60s and ‘70s, and the art of Nick Cardy. Cardy is a renowned commercial illustrator and comic book artist who worked on books such as Aquaman, Tomahawk, Bat Lash and the aforementioned Teen Titans for DC. Now in his 90s, Cardy has literally been drawing all of his life.

Nick Cardy: The Artist At War by Nick Cardy and Renee Witterstaetter transports us back to a period of time before Nick was a well known and successful illustrator. It shows us a different side of his artwork, from a time when Nick was one of the young Americans shipped overseas to fight in World War II. Throughout his time servicing the US during WWII, Nick carried a sketchbook to document his time in the conflict from beginning to end. Cardy was deployed with the 3rd Armored Spearhead Division, and fought through Europe (for which he received two Purple Hearts), ending up in Paris after VE Day. His sketches - in pencil, pen and watercolor - are extraordinarily vivid, and capture not only the humor and camaraderie, but also the horror of war.

What The Blot loves about this book is how it’s able to tell the vivid origin story of one of our cherished comic book creators in such a unique way. Rarely do we see this side of our comic book creators, and it shines a light on what I am sure played a huge influence on the artists and writers from golden age of comics: World War II. Besides some amazing artwork, Nick Cardy: The Artist At War also includes a really interesting interview Nick gave to Comic Book Resources and captions written by Nick explaining each piece. It’s truly fascinating to be able to travel back to the 1940s through one man’s artwork during a very frightful time in the world’s history. If you’re a fan of comic books, history or the WWII era, you should definitely check this book out.

Nick Cardy: The Artist At War presents the entire contents of Cardy's wartime sketchbook, alongside his own commentary. It's a chronicle of one man's journey, but one that speaks for millions. Nick Cardy: The Artist At War goes on sale in stores everywhere tomorrow, Tuesday, February 26th, but you can pre-order a copy now through Amazon for just $15.96 here.

Book Review: Silhouettes From Popular Culture by Olly Moss

On May 7th, 2011 the doors opened at Gallery 1988 for Olly Moss’ very first solo art show entitled “Paper Cuts.” This revolutionary art show featured over 200 silhouettes of popular characters from all areas of pop culture, including cartoons, movies, television, comic books and video games. So many different genres were included, and the show, like everything Olly touches, was a raging success! Before the show opened no one knew what Olly was working on, and I can remember being glued to my computer waiting for the first photos from the gallery to pop up on the internet. “Paper Cuts” quickly sold out and the art world couldn’t stop talking about Olly totally unexpected show.

The Blot’s been a huge fan of Olly’s work since his very first Threadless design, and I’m lucky to say I own a number of his limited edition screen prints. While I can’t really explain why his minimalistic style is so powerful, his “Paper Cuts” show is a perfect example of how he can do so much with so little! Thankfully, even those of us unable to attend the show can now relive the experience over and over again by reading Olly’s new hardcover book from Titan Books, Silhouettes From Popular Culture.

The minute I heard Silhouettes From Popular Culture was being published I knew I had to have a copy! This beautiful 144 page hardbound book includes most of the silhouettes from Moss’ first solo show and honestly, the cover alone is worth the purchase of the book! I love its textured feel and gold embossing. But the real fun comes in when you start flipping the pages and realizing you can identify each character in the book solely off of their all black (or white) silhouette.

Olly’s definitely turned the Victorian art of silhouette portraits on its head! The last time I saw a proper silhouette was probably when my parents had one made of me at the age of 4. Do they even still do that anymore? Even though I’m a diehard Olly Moss fan, I can honestly say this book is fun for anyone that’s a fan of pop culture. It’s exciting just to see what characters Olly chose to turn into a silhouette and from what genre they came.

Silhouettes From Popular Culture by Olly Moss goes on sale October 30, 2012. You can pre-order it through Amazon for just $10.71 here, but keep your eyes peeled on The Blot Says for a very special giveaway later today! One lucky reader will win the book before you can even buy it!

Book Review: The Great Showdowns by Scott Campbell

The Blot was pretty excited to get an opportunity to review Scott Campbell’s new book The Great Showdowns! Produced by Titan Books and Gallery 1988, The Great Showdowns is the first collection of Scott’s immensely popular showdown series, which chronicles some of the greatest confrontations in film history. This hardcover book is being released in conjunction with Scott’s solo art show of the same name at G1988, and should be hitting bookstores nationwide over the next two weeks.

With almost 150 showdown illustrations and a forward by Neil Patrick Harris (Suit Up!), this book is pretty much one of the greatest things The Blot has ever read! For some strange reason I can’t remember the first time I saw one of Scott C.’s amazing watercolor showdown paintings. It must have been in a Gallery 1988 show, but which one? I know I’ve been following his Great Showdowns website since the beginning, and I remember vividly looking at photos of Scott’s LOST series on opening night of G1988’s LOST group show. Regardless, his work has stayed with me over the years and has had a tremendous impact on me.

As a self-professed pop culture connoisseur, no artist captures everything The Blot loves about movies as perfectly as Scott C. While I’ll admit I can’t identify every movie in the book, the 95% I can pretty much sums up my childhood. From The Princess Bride and Aliens, to Lord of the Flies and Scott Pilgrim vs The World, The Great Showdowns has it all! Not only is ever genre covered, but I love seeing which confrontations Scott chose to include in his showdowns series. You probably didn’t expect E.T. vs. a Speak and Spell to make the cut!

The Great Showdowns is an amazing book that will not only take you on a walk down memory lane but leave you with a smile on your face. And you get all that for just $14.95! How can you pass up that kind of deal? And while Amazon states this hardcover book will not be released until October 30th, they’re pre-selling it for just $9.45 here! So now you really don’t have an excuse not to buy this awesome art book.

Book Review: The Art of Luke Chueh - Bearing The Unbearable

From the minute Luke Chueh first teased his new art book The Art of Luke Chueh: Bearing The Unbearable on Twitter a number of months ago, I knew I had to have it. So of course I jumped at the chance to review a promo copy of the book when the opportunity arose. The book is a retrospective of Luke’s carrier focusing on his first seven years of painting form 2003-2009, and I was blown away by how early into his career his vision seemed to fall into place. I seriously lost track of time as I flipped through all 160 pages, with each painting taking me back to the place where I first saw so many of these iconic images.

I have been a huge fan of Luke’s since well before I started blogging, and he’s quite possibly the only artist I’ve been too intimidated to talk to. I chalk that up to how impactful I find his art and the messages behind each piece. I can still remember heading over to Munky King’s San Diego Comic-Con booth back in 2009 (my only trip to SDCC so far) so I could meet him. Luke was there for the release of his Decapitated Bunny Head and all I could do was stand by and watch as he sketched and signed for fellow fans. Looking back on it now I guess you could say I was a little star struck.

Now I may be a bit biased, but this is one beautiful book. Luke teamed with Gallery 1988 and Titan Books to produce Bearing the Unbearable, and it’s really everything you’d want in a coffee table style art book. The cover is great, the binding is impeccable and each piece of Luke’s artwork pops off the page. I also really love that it's an oversized book (9.3"x12.5"), so that the paintings can be reproduced in a larger format. And fans will definitely want to read all of the quotes and interesting stories included throughout. Everyone involved did a fantastic job capturing the essence of Luke’s work.

I for one have never been able to understand some of the criticism that Luke is “just that emo bear guy.” Yes there are similar themes and images running throughout his art, but to focus solely on that seems to devalue Luke’s body of work. His ability to evoke emotion with such minimalistic imagery is amazing, and I love his use of empty space and thick black lines. If you’ve never taken the time to really study Luke’s art, here is the perfect opportunity. Pick up a copy of The Art of Luke Chueh: Bearing The Unbearable when it goes on sale next Tuesday, June 12th, in bookstores everywhere for $34.95 (or pre-order yourself a copy from Amazon for $22.83 here).

To celebrate this release of Luke’s new art book, he’ll be holding signings throughout Southern California over the next three weeks. The first is Saturday, June 9th, at Gallery 1988 (Melrose) from 1-4pm PST. For this signing, Gallery 1988 has put together a show featuring the original sketches for many of the paintings seen in the book from Luke’s first seven years of full time painting. Luke will also be at Nucleus Gallery (Alhambra) on Saturday, June 16th; Gallery 1988 (Venice) on Sunday, June 17th; and Giant Robot (West Los Angeles) on June 24th.