Product Description

Customer Reviews (7)

Very good structure!
The author did a very good job for introducing this big and diffuclt topic within simple paragraphs.
Here I'll try to figure out the main points which are hidden in the structure of the book.
In the beginning, the author started to talk about several concepts such as
1.Clocks
2.Psychological time
3.Time scenarios
4.Relationalism and absolute time
5.Relative and non-relative
6.Tenseless and tensed
7.Dimensions
8.Motion and change
These conceptions can help us to rethink our world in several different ways.

Then, he introduced special relativity--to explain Time Travel is logical possible(under the classical logic: A=A).It means that we can not violate the rule "A=A" when we think about Time travel.

Further, he continued to discuss General relativity to explain--is it possible for phyical Time Travel?

After that,he used a very good,in my opinion,method- Thermodynamics- to explain:
1.where and how did the universe come from?
2.what possible will the universe be in the future?

According to a great German philosopher-Kant,we human beings carry a piror facualty-Time,Space,Cause,Effect-
when we were born. We percept our surrounding under this framework. Hence,to understand these categories (Time,Space,Cause,Effect) are important. Physics has devoted a big part to Time and Space(or Timespace). In history, many great thinkers-such as Newton, Einstein-proposed thier unique worldview of space and time to promote human beings' intellection. The book included their conceptions and discussed two of categories well.
I do not have any background of physics. However, I bet that even you are in lack of fundemental knowledge of physics, you still can learn about "Time(Space)" through this book.
Finally, I have to say again that the author introduced the difficult topic very well.
By the way, I think my review may be more suitable for someone who has finished the book than those who don't.
p.s.Sorry for my poor English.

Destined to be a timeless classic
Introducing Time is one of the Introducing series most popular selections. For an Introducing book it is also one of the most detailed, thought provoking, wide-ranging and heady science volumes around. If you want to know anything about time then Introducing Time does just that and then some more, but be prepared for lots of difficult diverse thinking.

In most cases the first 100 pages will be more than enough for most people and the Introducing series could easily have made this book 200 pages long with that material alone but instead has condensed the opening philosophical thought on time into a shorter amount and goes straight into Einstein, relativity, lots on time travel and a great finish on entropy. Most of these topics are actually books in their own right such as Introducing Relativity and Introducing Einstein so Introducing Time really is good value for money.

If you are thinking about starting a collection of science titles from the Introducing series then you would do well to get this book or add it to your collection for two reasons. First of all, Introducing Time includes the best explanation of Boltzmann's statistical mechanics and entropy I have read anywhere. It could be worth it for that alone. You may not expect entropy to have such an impact on the topic of time and that can be a very nice surprise when reading that it does. The second is really just the breath of the coverage that time gets in this book. Even those who have read Stephen Hawking's `A brief history of time' will come away from this one with a whole lot more than thought possible.

Core material:
Clocks
Psychological time
Time scenarios
Relationalism and absolute time
Relative and non-relative
Tenseless and tensed
Dimensions
Motion and change
Time flows
Galilean relativity
Einstein's relativity
Simultaneity
Lightcones
Logic
Time travel
Impossibility
Causal loops
Physics and time travel
Spacetime curvature
Godel
Taub-NUT-Misner spacetime
Cosmic string theory
Wormholes
Mobius twist
Branching time
Space and limits
Geroch's theorem
Big bang
Closed and open time
The direction of time
Thermodynamics
Entropy
Statistical mechanics
Loschmidt paradox
Universe's statistical development
Boundary conditions
Temporal double-standard
Time reversal
Quantum gravity
Wheeler-DeWitt
Inexistence of time

This is far from an easy book but time is a detailed topic and should get the full treatment if it should be treated at all. For this reason Introducing Time is quite simply one of the most important and revealing books on something that people take for granted. It's the kind of book you come away with a mind full of awe. If Introducing Time doesn't change your worldview then nothing will.

a surprisingly in depth introduction to time
Introducing Time starts off with Aristotle's view on time then goes on to talk about many philosophical and scientific views of time. It includes Newton's absolute time, Einstein's special and general relativity as they relate to time, including Godel Universes, and also Boltzman's statistical mechanics based view of time. All in all a lot of information in such a short book.

A highlight of the series
Great book.By the time you get to the end, you'll know quite a lot about this topic and the whole theory, but you'll be pretty confused.Why confused?Because it's a hard topic to understand or interpret.And the book explains that as well as it can.But it sure will make you think.

Time is easy to understand, until you start to think about it. These authors did that, they thought about it
Time is a concept that all humans have a fundamental grasp of. We all know that there is a direction to the events of our lives and that once an event happens, to the best of our knowledge it will always have happened. We break it down into units of years, days, hours, and minutes and in the last minute of some sporting events, tenths of seconds. However, when we really try to get a precise intellectual handle on it, time becomes fuzzy and it is very difficult to be precise. The passage of time is also relative to the situation; a few minutes in a dentist chair can appear to be much longer, yet a few hours with our true love can seem like minutes.
In this book, Callender and Edney describe some of the attempts by scientists and philosophers to precisely define what time is. Some argue that to be logically consistent, time cannot exist. That of course seems absurd, whatever else we may know, at least locally, time does have an existence and a direction. Newton, Einstein, Godel and others have refined the concept, Einstein in particular demonstrated that the passage of time is slowed when the objects are traveling at high rates of speed. Although the authors do an excellent job using cartoons and other visual devices, the true nature of time is a difficult topic. Like the apparent fate of the universe, in the end, time simply comes down to an overall increase in entropy, for that is the way we recognize the passage of time.
This is an excellent book about an apparently simple, yet very complex subject. Time is a subject that we all think we know, until we really start to think about it.
... Read more

Product Description
This book offers a novel overview of typeface design, exploring the most beautiful and remarkable examples of font catalogs from the history of publishing, with a special emphasis on the period from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, when color catalogs were at their height. Taken from a Dutch collection, this exuberant selection traverses the evolution of the printed letter in all its various incarnations via exquisitely designed catalogs displaying not only type specimens in roman, italic, bold, semi-bold, narrow, and broad, but also characters, borders, ornaments, initial letters and decorations as well as often spectacular examples of the use of the letters. The Victorian fonts, sumptuous and sometimes unbelievably outrageous, are accorded a prominent place in this book. In addition to lead letters, examples from lithography and letters by window-dressers, inscription carvers, and calligraphers are also displayed and described.

Featuring works by type designers including: William Caslon, Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke, Peter Behrens, Rudolf Koch, Eric Gill, Jan van Krimpen, Paul Renner, Jan Tschichold, A. M. Cassandre, Aldo Novarese, Adrian Frutiger

In order to include a vast amount of material, we have divided this text into two volumes. The first volume displays pre 20th Century type specimens, and the second covers the period from 1900 to the middle of the century. In the first volume, editor Cees de Jong and collector Jan Tholenaar write about single specimens and types; in the second, Alston Purvis outlines the history of types. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Lovely, Lovely Letters
Let us consider the letter A.We must take the simple, three-lined capital A, because the lowercase a is not only complicated by curvy lines but it also comes in two distinct popular forms, one with a straight line at the right of the loop and one in which the line curves over the loop like an umbrella.So, I say, consider the A.Three straight lines, two leaning together up to a point, and one horizontal connecting their midsections.This is the Platonic A, the essence, and you'd know it anywhere.But if you start looking at the huge number of examples of A (and every other letter) in _Type: A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles, Volume I, 1628-1900_ (Taschen), you may get the idea that that exemplar A can't really stand for much because there are too many variables.There are some letters A that have no straight lines (or are made up of flowers, or cartoons of heads), there are plenty that have no pointy top, there are lots that have more than three lines to them (it would take 20th century fonts to produce letters A with less than three lines), and so on.The book is edited by Cees W. de Jong, and it features examples of metal type specimens from the collection of the late Jan Tholenaar.Both these authors have written essays to provide a little context, but it is very little, compared to the 250 pages of print specimens, handsomely laid out in a big format on rich paper, between covers of canvas with the title and design stamped into it.This is a handsome object throughout.

Despite the subtitle, _Type_ is not really a history of type.It's bulk consists of beautifully reproduced pages of print catalogues from the specimen books Jan Tholenaar used to collect, and he concentrated on ones from the Victorian age.You know how Victorian décor for houses involved cramming lots of things into a room, things that had sometimes outrageous layers of decorative detail; it is fun to see that the same sort of exuberance is all over the pages here.After all, these are really only pages of catalogues, specialist catalogues for printers representing the narrowest of niche marketing, but they are astonishingly full of invention and brash showing-off.Such displays befit the period, and naturally the often anonymous artists who designed the decorative letters and flourishes shown here wanted to push limits.Besides letters, there are vignettes, a word which I know to mean "a little picture" or "a small description," but which before such meanings designated for the world of printers an ornamental design used to separate chapters or other divisions in a book, or a picture on the page unenclosed in a border.(The authors do not refer to "dingbats", which was a term of derision before printers began using it to mean a bit of ornamental type.)

The majority of letters here are display types, meant not for the ease of reading which Boldoni and Baskerville had in mind, but for amusement and show.Many would have been at home in circus posters, for instance.There are "black letter" faces that were used for things like newspaper mastheads, and even black letters that seem to be three dimensional.There are many experiments with three dimensions, with letters seemingly viewed from above, below, or to the side, sticking out from the page, or sticking into the page, or on long banners with one wave for each letter.There are calligraphic letters (and plenty of curlicue vignettes), and stencil forms, and letters that look as if they came from illuminated manuscripts, and many letters made of flowers.Some letters are populated by cupids, and some are held up by caryatids.There are letters of stripes vertical, horizontal, and diagonal, there is hatchwork, there are letters that seem to be puzzles that you have to work hard to understand.Sometimes full advertisements are reproduced, but often the letters are set in random words on a page.There are borders made out of flowers or abstract flourishes, or ones that look like bits of architecture, machinery, or draperies.There are pages of vignettes devoted to horses, to jesters, to clothing, to hands pointing left and to hands pointing right.Purchasers of this book might miss one of its most attractive assets.Sealed into the back cover is a "key card" with a password that will allow you to go to Taschen's website, where are archived over a thousand high-resolution scans of specimens in the book, and they are "downloadable for unrestricted use."The pages, and the website, ought to be particularly appreciated by those who work in printing and design, but are intoxicating even for those of us who just like seeing fancy letters beautifully presented.

good but dinged
The book came in time, in its original wrapping, etc. but had been damaged during the trip because the packaging was shotty.

my type of book
this is a huge book, both physically and contextually.It's beautiful, well designed and I can't wait to order Vol. 2.

dreaming back to the past of typography
Jan Tholenaar got for many years in the ban of the beuatiful typespecimenbooks particularely of the 19th century. He collected an unbelievable number of these books and know you can believe it after having seen a view in a number of items of his collection. I had the pleasure to meet him when he was in the middle of the creation of the visual history of typefaces and he enthousastically explained me how typesetters sometimes worked more than a month on one page! Recomended to everybody that loves old typography. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Farts ARE funny!
The great thing about the Grosse brothers is that they're not just all about the farts. They're intrepid problem-solvers, they face all the travails of kids their age (sibling rivalry, school competition) with courage and integrity, and they support and encourage each other. Who knew that a story about intestinal gas could have a moral backbone? But to the grouchy reviewer who didn't get it: it's not Proust, dude. It's a whimsical story set in a slapstick fantastical world, geared towards beginning readers (the comic book panel inserts are especially good).That the author manages to compress so much exciting plot and unusual characters into a short number of pages is a testament to her ability and vision.The Grosse brothers are not just a one-fart pony!

LOVE IT!!
This is my son's favorite book!He wants to read it almost every night, which is terrific, since he isn't much of a reader.We both really enjoy the funny situations those guys get into and the creative way they solve problems (use your strength - farting!).I can't wait for the next one to come out.Go Grosse!

It rings true for normal kids, and adults, since grossing people out is pretty much what guys do - it is a art form for some, especially Stan, our hero.I am glad we found a book and an author that can make us laugh.

Funny & clever - my nephew LOVES it
I don't understand not liking this book. It's a fun little tale about two brothers working together to defeat the snotty girl at school. Yeah, there's farting, but it's done in a funny way I hadn't seen before. It even teaches a little science (not that the average boy would realize it).

I bought this for my video-game-addicted nephew and he loves it. Reads it over and over. Can't wait for the next book to come out. Mixing in comics with text helps a lot, I think. His mom's thrilled - anything that gets him reading is gold to her.

I did a little research on the author, Annie Auerbach. Turns out she's written dozens of books and has been on the New York Times bestseller list. ... Read more

Product Description
Trish and Chris Meyer share fifteen years of real-world film and video production experience inside the critically acclaimed Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects. More than a step-by-step review of the features in After Effects, you will learn how the program thinks so that you can realize your own visions more quickly and efficiently. This full-color book is jammed full of tips, gotchas, and sage advice that will help you survive whatever your next project throws at you.

Creating Motion Graphics 4th Edition has been heavily revised, reuniting the previous two volumes plus adding detailed coverage of new features introduced in After Effects 7 and CS3 Professional to form one massive, essential reference. The enclosed DVD-ROM contains source footage and project files for the numerous exercises which help reinforce each concept. The DVD also includes over 180 pages of additional information, including lengthy Bonus Chapters on Expressions and Effects.

Authored in CS3, also included is access to a free web chapter written for CS4.

* Free CS4 web chapter included with the book

* Mastering animation through the use of keyframes, motion paths, and the Graph Editor

* Blending imagery using alpha channels, masks, mattes, modes, and stencils

* Building groups and hierarchies through parenting and nested comps

* Extended coverage of type animation, paint tools and 3D space

* Advanced subjects such as keying, motion tracking, expressions, and video issues

* Includes over 180 PDF pages of bonus content on the DVD

* Extensive coverage of the new CS3 features including the Shape and Puppet tools, Brainstorm, per-character 3D text, color management, and more! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

Just about everything you need to know about After Effects
Winter is coming to Chicago. Lots of evenings at home ahead, while the temperatures drop and snow falls outside. Good time to (at last) learn how to use he After Effects program included with Creative Suite 3 (CS3). Since Adobe no longer includes anything that could be considered as an actual user's manual, a person hoping to learn the program on his or her own needs to turn to the web where there is a lot of good, but disconnected, material or a book.

"Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects: Essential and Advanced Techniques, 4th Edition" is an absolute gem. In 671 densely packed pages, husband and wife team Chris and Trish Meyer walk you through After Effects from start to finish. It is quite a trip.

There isn't much warm-up, no cuddly language describing the history of After Effects or silly jokes: the Meyers dive right into the interface and never stop. The approach is one power users and, particularly, power learners will appreciate. The book moves at a very fast pace and assumes you are very familiar with your computer, operating system and at least passingly familiar with other pieces of the Adobe Creative Suite. The authors suggest that those wanting a "more structured, tutorial=oriented approach" look at their other book, "After Effects Apprentice.

"Creating Motion Graphics" is essentially a textbook intended for teaching. The chapters are arranged logically and move very quickly. From an introduction to the interface, you are plunked into the After Effects concept of a "composition", the essential working environment and then into basic animation. There are few wasted words in this book. The examples - and there are many of them - are well thought out and all the material you need is provided on the accompanying CD.

The Meyers' writing style is well suited to teaching. It is direct and unconvoluted. The design really adds to the usability of the book as a teaching aid. There are numerous call-outs for tips, warnings and the occasional factoid.

This is a fast-track teaching tool, but that doesn't mean you'll whiz through it in a few days. After Effects is a program very rich in features and to their credit, the Meyers describe what appear to be all of them. It will take weeks, if not a few months, to work your way through this book and that is with the assumption that you are devoting a couple of hours a day to it.


With another Chicago winter about to begin, I have a pretty good idea of what I'll be doing while the cold winds blow outside. Thank you, Trish and Chris for truly putting a classroom on Adobe After Effects into a book.

Jerry

Two Thumbs Up!
When I first wanted to learn how to use After Effects some years ago, I purchased an earlier edition of Creating Motion Graphics and went through the tutorials in the book.I could tell Trish and Chris Meyer take great care in pulling together the content for their books.

With the 4th Edition, I used it more as a reference book, just looking up the newer features and changes to the After Effects interface to get myself back up to speed.No matter how you decide to use Creating Motion Graphics, it is chock full of valuable tips and hints drawn from the Meyers' years of experience working in After Effects.I highly recommend this resource to anyone.

Review
I was required to get the book for a specific class, It was delivered on time, and has helped me learn After Effects much more efficiently than if I had not purchased the book. It is a good read if you are learning on your own.

Good book. Very cheap binding
Comprehensive companion book to AE. Binding is stupidly cheap. After little use, pages are fallingout of the book.

Awesome
This is an incredibly thorough book.I am new to After Effects and this book has been very helpful in teaching me this complex program.The DVD that comes with the book is great too as it allows you to practice the techniques as you read about them.And at almost 700 pages plus additional digital chapters, you are definitely getting your money's worth.

One caveat is that if you have no experience at all with motion graphics, effects and the like, this book may be a little complex for you.However these authors also have a book called "The After Effects Apprentice" which is supposedly more basic, although I have not used it. ... Read more

Product Description
Naïve documents the return of classical graphic design reminiscent of the 1940s to 1960s in contemporary
graphic design.
The naive is a childlikeness, where it is no longer expected. Friedrich von
Schiller
A minimalist design vocabulary is currently being reinvented by a troop of young
graphic designers who are rediscovering the stylistic elements reminiscent of
classic graphic design such as silkscreen printing, classical typography, hand
lettering, woodcutting and folk art and integrating them into their work. Naïve
documents this extraordinary renaissance of Classic Modernism, from the 1940s
to 1960s, in contemporary graphic design.
Inspired by twentieth century American legends such as Saul Bass, the undisputed
master of film title design and iconic logos as well as modernist graphic artist
Charley Harper and textile designer Alexander Girard, these burgeoning designers
are creating new and striking imagery using palettes of earthy and pastel shades,
reduced strokes, patterns and shapes with a strong folkloristic element.
Naïve illustrates this new development in graphic design, assembling a multitude
of vivid and inspiring examples ranging from illustrations, poster art, editorials,
book covers and record sleeves to stationery and textiles. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Beautiful Book
This is exactly what I was hoping for. Glad I bought it. It's a good source for color palette inspiration and the illustrations are beautiful. The cover is so striking, and the interior pages don't disappoint.

Greatreference book!
This is what I expected.

A wonderful collection of retro style work by today's designers and illustrators.
The mid-century approach is back in style and this book has hit the bulls eye.

Beautifully Done & Visually Inspiring!
It's 176 pages are loaded with beautiful and contemporary illustrations ranging from textiles and stationary to poster art and book covers. The editors did an impeccable job at selecting the artwork to go into this book because every page is inspiring, vibrant and shows a variety of modern artistic techniques. The artists chosen to be represented in this book are of high caliber, and their work speaks for itself. Some of the artists represented are: Helen Dardik, Matte Stephens, Jenn Ski, Hanna Werning, Public Domain & James Gulliver Hancock. The only text in this book are captions at the bottom of each page giving credit to the artist who's work is being shown. I highly recommend this book, as it's one of the most well done inspiration pieces I've seen in a long time. ... Read more

Product Description
After winning a decade-long war, Odysseus, captain of the Greek army, only has to guide his men back home across the sea.Yet the journey will prove more perilous than any battle. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Cool graphic novel
I teach students with learning disabilities.Some of my students struggle with reading, but are required to complete the same curriculum as their peers.This graphic novel is very helpful for students studying The Odyssey.The comic book style, colorful illustrations, and understandable text made it very appealing to my students.There is also a short index in the back that is helpful.I highly recommend this book!

A great story
I enjoyed this one, although Odysseus' story is enjoyable in any format. I hope this collection of Graphic Legends includes his arrival at Ithaca and his reclaiming of the throne. It is a story of courage, but it also has all the elements that we often find in the original Greek myths. ... Read more

Product Description
Technology has sent shockwaves of change through the world of commercial art.Digital illustration and design, online portfolio sites, and the proliferation of stock art have radically changed the way that illustrators and graphic designers work.What has not changed, however, is the wealth of illustrators and graphic designers hoping to turn their talent into freelance success.More than ever, artists face questions such as how to get started, how to sell their work, how to promote themselves, and what to do once they are working.For those embarking on freelance careers in illustration or graphic design, the answers have arrived.A twenty-five year veteran in the field, Michael Fleishman, has detailed every business aspect of commercial art in Starting Your Career as a Freelance Illustrator or Graphic Designer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Great Service
The seller was very responsible and courteous. I was notified that my book would be delayed because of the volcanic eruption (something that didn't cross my mind and I'll probably never hear again haha) well before the book was even shipped. And when I did receive it, I was expecting a much worse condition for what I had selected at check-out. Their standards must be very high, because this book is nearly pristine.

Very happy, will purchase again.

Not the best book I've read, but there is some useful information
Some useful information but a bit dated today. I expect an author about graphic design and illustration to have a better looking website and book cover, but hey that's just me. If you can get this book cheap I would snag it up. There are some good points Michael brings up.

A Good Reference, specific chapters applicable
I bought the book primarily for chapter 12, "What Goes in a Portfolio", because I am preparing to graduate.It is helpful and would benefit any graphic designer's library.

More for graphic artists than illustrators, but good inspiration
My interests are much more in illustration rather than graphic design, so I frequently had to scan past a lot of the material that a graphic designer could use.There is a lot of great information here on the real nuts and bolts of running a home business - especially an artistic one - but I think anyone who wants to run thier own business could use a lot of the information and tools in this book to manage their time, money, and goals in an effective way.I have benefitted greatly from the use of this book and would happily recommend it to others.

essential
so you want to go freelance... you really, REALLY want to go freelance?Tired of working for a boss?Want your own hours?Sleep late?Get this book, read it and then decide.It'll give you a well-rounded education of what they don't tell you in art school because what your professors were really interested in at that time wasn't your education, but getting a piece of co-ed you-know-what while they collected their paycheck. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

excellent
What a great reference of typology! I use a lot of these fonts today. What an amazing price as well. You can't go wrong. Any graphic designer or advertising agency should definitely have this on hand. Taschen produces such beautiful books!

Pix 10, Information 2
I ordered both of these volumes; when I first received them they looked so beautiful that I was seduced simply by flipping through the images. But when I settled down to read the accompanying text and captions, I was sorely disappointed. The written material is humdrum at best. The book does bear the words "Visual History" in its title, but one might still expect some expert explanatory material to place the images in context.

It is true that the images are generously proportioned, the books are handsomely produced, and the keycards inside the back covers provide access to all of the hi-res images. However, these volumes should have provided text that did justice to the quality of the visuals. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

The Book of 1000 Thoughts
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2OEN9JHIG8YFV The structure of the book represents a list of short and capturing practical advices "tips" by 100 graphic designers about their daily work. In this way the book is more about designing than design. Each conversation is provided with a short bio and a link to personal web page of featured designer.

So what really makes a book valuable?

First of all, what I like about this type of book is that you can look through it long after it has been read. In search of inspiration you can open it at a random page and catch your self a good thought or two.

Secondly, a curious reader will get him self a list of great books for further reading not only on graphic design but on philosophy, sociology and marketing recommended by professional design community. To mind comes such titles as "The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher","Interaction of Color by Josef Albers", "This Means This, This Means That by Sean Hall" and many more.

Thirdly, this book has a strong graphical identity that gives you a sneak preview of 100 unique graphic styles. Designers were asked to provide 10 images to go along with every 10 tips. Featured in the book you'll see hand-drawn sketches, low fidelity post-it art, vector graphic and rough typographic visuals.

In the end, I would like to bring a word from the book editor Matteo Cossu: "Knowledge is strength, and freedom is strength. But freedom can only come from the transmission of what we know, from teaching and from passing on the skills that we got from others".
... Read more

Product Description
Dramatized sequential illustrations with dialogue—an art form once confined to production of comic strips and comic books—has recently graduated into the popular, fast-growing, and often financially rewarding genre of the graphic novel. Writing and Illustrating the Graphic Novel is an authoritative instruction manual suitable for formal art class or for self teaching on the part of ambitious self-starters. Beginners who have artistic and storytelling aptitudes learn the basics of graphic novel creation, from first conception of a story idea to publication of a professionally produced book.An introductory chapter describes the widely differing graphic novel sub-genres and the appropriate styles for each. They include superhero, gothic tale, adventure/action story, sci-fi, crime story, and literary fiction. A succeeding chapter discusses and shows examples of picture panels, speech bubbles, layout, and characterization of works in progress. Subsequent chapters offer advice on finding inspiration for stories and explanation of the technique of writing for graphic novels. A variety of illustration and layout styles are shown with reference to ways in which each fits a different sub-genre. A final chapter presents practical tips on getting a graphic novel published. More than 400 illustrations take students step-by-step through the process of creating a graphic novel. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Okay
This book is helpful for composing scenes and writing a graphic novel, but has almost no helpful information on coloring, drawing, inking, or anything related to the illustration.The author describes styles and methods of coloring, but really doesn't help you at all if you are trying to illustrate your comic. You'll need a different book if you are troubleshooting your drawings or need help to draw.

However, it's very useful for pacing, dialogue, exposition, and layout.

How It's Done
What does it really take to create a good graphic novel?"Writing and Illustrating the Graphic Novel," by comic guru Mike Chinn, seems to have the answer.Using his own expertise and various comic books as examples, Chinn describes how to approach different genres, how to conduct research for your idea, how to put the idea in a script, how to use drawings and panels, and how to get your work published.While there are certain rules to follow (like drawing 5-7 panels on each page), Chinn understands that every writer/artist needs a little leeway.Just don't expect him to hold your hand through the whole thing.At least there's something for Amazon reviewers who get so wound up over what a graphic novel should be.

This book is unrated, but contains no offensive content.

Good Solid book
This book in not bad. It has a solid well written structure to it. The chapters are sequentialy based. But; you can dive into ANY chapter at a moments notice and glean LOTS of information.

American readers might get lost with British language & grammar but that is minor.

The ONLY drawback is the section on computer graphics. Its obvious this book was written about 4 years ago so the technology HAS changed.

Can't wait to read his NEW book on making comics digitally!!!

Best of the bunch
After reading several books on the subject, I honestly feel that this is the best when it comes to get a good feel for the industry and the genre.It is not too wordy, as some on the topic, but it is not too skimpy either.I really feel I learned something from this book.

Complete, Comprehensive with a Fantastic Design!!
A complete guide. A ride through the Graphic Novel concept and everything you need to know to meet face to face with every detail, including reading recommendation for every genre.

A must have for any creator or fan, and one of the few written recently specially devoted to the Graphic Novel ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (20)

A Real, like, Jumble, Maaaannnnnnnnnn
Ok...cool comics, but often the info given is wrong. Pekar needed a copy editor and fact checker badly. C'mon ALAN Ginsberg!? ALAN? Everyone knows it's ALLEN. The chronologies/time lines are all mixed up on many of the Beats featured. A real disappointment for a terrible perfectionist/sometime Beat aficionado like myself. C'mon Whalen wasn't in Japan until the 90s, he lived around the corner from me in S.F. The Burroughs caricature is ridiculous making him look like some hobo (the guy wore freakin suits, not t-shirts w/ holes, and he didn't hold anyone up w/ a gun--read the books and bios and interviews). Anyway...wish I felt I was being nitpicky but I'm not. I was particularly interested in the "Lamantia" section (why not "Philip Lamantia"?). Books on the shelf feature Ur-Vox and Faucheuse...wow. Nancy his wife wrote it, so you know it's factual. The other sections are terribly brief (Snyder's ends in 1974). Guess it can't be comprehensive, the book would be 10 times bigger (w/ ten times more factual mistakes).

I get the feeling the artists were not chosen for their personal knowledge of the Beat Generation, or its members.

A diverse and interesting portrayal of the Beats written by Pekar and others
This book is "by Harvey Pekar et al." with "art by Ed Piskor et al." While the majority of the text and art are by Pekar and Piskor, the book is actually 25 different pieces on various people and topics of the Beat Generation created by a diverse group of writers and artists.

In the first half of the book Pekar and Piskor tackle the lives of the three major figures: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs. This is followed by shorter pieces on other people associated with the movement: Kenneth Rexroth, Michael McClure, Philip Whalen, William Everson, Robert Duncan, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka, Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, Philip Lamantia, Gary Snyder, Diane di Prima, Slim Brundage, Jay DeFeo, d.a. levy, and my favorites Kenneth Patchen and Tuli Kupferberg.

To set these biographic pieces in context there are chapters on Jazz, Art, the City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, and women in the Beat movement.

All together Pekar writes 18 of the 25 chapters, giving the book a continuity yet allowing for diversity of views, while Piskor inks just over half the graphics which keeps the book visually interesting.
Highly recommended even if you only read the two chapters on Patchen and Kupferberg.

Not a satisfying survey
Pekar's text is ok.Nothing stands out in memory, though, after reading.I can't say I'm any more knowledgeable about this generation than I was before reading (which is to say: not knowledgeable at all).

That paired with the completely uninspired drawings makes this a 'not recommended' work.Most frames have no information... just a character standing in the center, sometimes with a vague expression, sometimes with an arm raised, sometimes talking to another character.No background scene worth noticing.Completely dead, in comic terms.

I appreciate the effort though.Hopefully a future artist and editor will give this the revamp it deserves.

For fans only...
This book is probably drastically improved if you're a big fan of the main Beat poets.But if you were, you'd probably have already known a lot of the stuff contained within.As it stood, I thought the book was dragged down by a number of visual tics that the main artist (Ed Piskor) relied heavily on to get through his 100+ pages of artwork (everyone smiles exactly the same, pointless portrait panels, and a sort of sunburst background image that was used excessively whenever there wasn't an obvious choice for a background - to the point where it was used in the exact same panel on two facing pages).On the bonus side, I really enjoyed the stories by Joyce Brabner/Summer McClinton (which answers the question of what these guys' partners/wives were doing while they were getting smashed and screwing everything in sight) and the story about the Fugs (of whom I am a fan).

So yeah.Read it if you like Kerouac/Ginsberg/Burroughs.Otherwise, I wouldn't really bother...

The Beats
OMFG, this book is boring.Pass on this dull and dry history of the Beat Generation. ... Read more

Product Description
When Jim Hawkins uncovers the key to a pirate’s treasure maphe sets out on a quest to find the buried treasure with the helpof pirate captain Long John Silver. Artist Tim Hamilton bringsthe pirates and villains to life in this graphic novel adaptation ofRobert Louis Stevenson’s classic. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Classic Renewed...
Robert Louis Stevenson's classic pirate adventure tale "Treasure Island" comes to life as a graphic novel by artist Tim Hamilton.Hamilton faithfully recreates the pacing and suspense of the original story, along with the well-remembered characters and much of the original dialogue, for an audience at the middle school level.

As in the original, an aging "Captain" Billy Bones settles in at the old Admiral Benbow Inn, where young Jim Hawkins helps him keep a "weather eye" out for a seafaring man with one leg.Trouble arrives in the form of the Captain's old shipmates Black Dog and Old Pew.Hawkins escapes with an old map, which his friends Squire Trelawney and Doctor Livesay identify as the treasure map of the fearsome pirate Captain Flint.

Hawkins accompanies an expedition to find the treasure, sailing on the "Hispaniola" as cabin boy.Once at "Treasure Island," Hawkins and his friends will face a mutiny, pirates, and the mysteries of the island itself while in search of buried treasure.

Hamilton's artwork is dramatically rendered in black and white, with lots of shadows and a variety of sight angles that heighten the suspense of the story.Included is a "making of" feature showing some of Hamilton's storyboard sketches and live models.This reviewer wishes the graphic novel had been printed in a full-size book, not the small paperback on offer here.However, "Treasure Island: The Graphic Novel" is highly recommended for young audiences and for parents hoping to coax their children into reading the original story.

Treasure Island Graphic Novel for teens/young adults
Perhaps we didn't read the age recommendations prior to purchasing.My 1st grader (4-5th grade reading level) is interested in Treasure Island. He has graphic novels about the Titanic, X-men, Hindenburg, etc... but the print in this book is small and dense and not really written for elementary school age kids.

Treasure Island comes alive!
Treasure Island is my favorite book. I look for things like this graphic novel variation. First the art is great. It captures the feel of the story. It's dark and erie. The story is well paced and stays true to the original source material. The characters come alive before the reader's eye's. This is great reading for youths or adults. ... Read more

Product Description
Strategy lessons with ready-to-use graphic organizers at three levels (introductory, intermediate, and challenging) help all students learn new vocabulary and save planning time. Covers 18 key word-study targets, including content area vocabulary, words with Greek and Latin roots, words with multiple meanings, affixes, and academic words.For use with Grades 4–8. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Nice resource for teachers
This book will provide teachers with numerous options for teaching vocabulary. In addition, there are three options for each type of vocabulary instruction.

Teaching Vocabulary
Great book for homework assignments and substitute folders.Differentiation makes it easy to use!

Graphic Organizers
This has been a great resources in collaboration with my Eld staff member and others to differentiate lessons.Teacher--Librarian

Great for 4th to 7th - MUST for Sp. Ed
This packet includes reproducible graphic organizers and a description/lesson ideas on how to use them (one section for each type).

What is nice about these is that they lay out what you want your kids to learn in a clear, easy to follow way. Some of the organizers are fairly free form, leaving lots of room for improvisation, and some are highly structured. These are absolutely excellent for struggling learners.

These are geared for teachers; however these can be easily adapted for home use. For example, my son comes home with vocabulary words that he must know each week. I use these organizers to help him 1) learn the spelling, 2) learn the meaning, and 3) use them in a sentence. Left to his own, he would feel lost; however several of these organizers easily adapt to helping him study this on his own.

Reading instructors will appreciate the organizers which place emphasis on writing down words that students don't know (like a log) or new vocab words from the text and inferring the meaning from the context clues.

In summary, these organizers teach important study skills that will translate into other areas of study. Highly recommended!

TEACHING VOCABULARY
A must have for instructors who want to provide a variety of differentiated strategies. I am a high school reading teacher and
I can meet the vocabulary needs of my individual students without spending an infinite amount of time creating activities. These organizers work with required lists or just exploring words in text further! ... Read more

Product Description
Nathaniel, an eleven-year-old magician-in-training, thinks he's ready to take on more challenging spells. With revenge against the proud and ambitious Simon Lovelace on his mind, he masters one of the toughest spells of all and summons Bartimaeus, a 5000-year-old djinni, to assist him. But summoning Bartimaeus and controlling him are two different things entirely, and when Nathaniel sends the djinni to steal Lovelace's greatest treasure, the Amulet of Samarkand, he finds himself caught in a whirlwind of magical espionage, murder, and rebellion.

Product Description

Customer Reviews (13)

Delivery could have been better
The Book came in new condition like I asked for. Everything went well except the delivery by the US Postal Service. First they came to my house and knocked although I had a doorbell in plain site, and so no one heard him/her. Then I called for it to be re-delivered and leave it on the porch; the next day, they didn't bother re-delivering it leading to me having to go pick it up at the post-office.
So what's the point of paying for delivery.

Graphic Design A New History--Well Done
This book is nicely set up very easy to read and quite informative. It is also a great value!!

Great Book!
I love design and I love this book! It is way more updated and comprehensive in its approach than others that I have read. Plus, it is an easy read that's never dull.

Great book! More then worth the money! :)
Got this book for a Graphic Design history class, wasn't too excited about the thickness of the book, but it's not that bad. It has a bunch of pictures to show you what he's talking about. This book has taught me soo much, my work has greatly improved and I know where to cite references, so I sound smarter. Goes into a more than just the work, but what's going on in the world at the time and why it's affecting it. The book jumps around at times when certain movements overlap, but overall I think it's a great book, and well worth the money, and when your done with it it'll make a nice coffee table piece.

Great textbook
This is the text book for my History of Graphic Design course...the pictures are great and the text is easy to follow, interesting to read.I've enjoyed it so far. ... Read more

Product Description
Engage students with this collection of creative reading response activities for both fiction and nonfiction. Open-ended prompts (such as, what books might Cinderella have on her bookshelf, or what might a pharaoh's to-do list include?) encourage students to explore and connect with the text in more meaningful ways than just searching for ""the right answer."" Use the reproducible activity pages in class or for homework.For use with Grades 3–5. ... Read more

Product Description
Retro Graphics makes it easy for DIY designers to mimic the most prominent styles of the past hundred years. A plethora of authentic design models from Art Deco and Gothic Revival to Pop Art and Post Modernism are presented and broken down into their component parts in this handy sourcebook. These entries include step-by-step techniques, color palettes, typefaces, illustration styles, and ornamentation to help anyone create the look of such diverse materials as Victorian advertisements and pulp fiction book jackets. History can't be revived, but it can be simulated with this richly illustrated and meticulously researched visual encyclopedia. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Your historical swipe file
Even in this digital age designers can't have too many reference books, probably the biggest number are type books then the yearly design annuals and probably least are titles to do with historical graphic styles.Retro Graphics comes into this last category and it could be a handy reminder of past styles but I felt the editorial was rather flawed.

The essence of the book are various style elements from past decades that might be useful if you need to create a period design.The seven decade chapters are keyed in with: alphabets; posters; ads; publications; graphic symbols and even colors (though I can't really see that a particular decade can be pinned down to certain colors).All of this visual material is well chosen but it goes off at a tangent by using the period styles to create contemporary designs using Photoshop and Illustrator.Maybe half the book is devoted to explaining how these designs were created from the historical examples.This seemed a rather pointless exercise.Either the book is collection of past graphic reference or it's a guide to using software.

There are much better user guides to graphic software (my faves are from the Peachpit Press) and I think better visual books on graphic design history.Three that I've found useful and interesting are: Graphic Design Source Book (1987) by McQuiston and Kitts; Design Source Book (1986) by Sparke, Hodges, Stone and Coad; Layout Source Book (1990) by Alan Swann.All three are crammed with reference material and nicely, if you search around the net, they can be picked up quite cheaply.

Retro Graphics was originally published in Britain and so plenty of the illustrative contents reflect a European perspective.The design and production are fine (using a 175 screen) but I thought it was a shame that overall the book didn't really achieve the promise of the cover sub-deck: 100 years of graphic design.

***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

A Guidebook to Graphic Design
This is a very useful book on several levels. First, it covers in a succinct and clear manner the major design trends that have influenced a century of print design. Second - and even better - the book a first-rate "how-to-do-it" manual that dissects these designs and demonstrates how they can be an inspiration (or merely cloned if you're lazy) for contemporary graphic designers. Each major trend is explored through fonts, color choices, and tips on mimicking the graphics using software programs like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. A useful addition to your graphic design reference library.

A Good Quick Reference
This is a must have for anyone who needs a quick reference in graphic design history. While the book doesn't go into great detail in the explanation of the different movements and style it does provide a good reference for font styles, color palettes and important elements that makes the style unique. The book also includes a color codedtime line at the beginning and each brief explanation is in chronological order.

Interesting and useful
I read some criticisms of this book by other reviewers stating that this book does not give any basic information on graphic design. I believe the title of the book describes exactly what this book was meant to provide, and in my opinion, it does just that. This is an overview of the various graphic design preferences throughout the decades, with color and layout choice examples from each time period. It was obviously not meant to be an extensive textbook on the history of graphic design, rather a sample book of the preferred styles throughout the 20th century, and basic information to recreate the "look" of a certain era.

In this regard, I believe this book succeeds in what it set out to do, and I've found it to be well organized and attractive in its presentation.

Good book to have!
I was looking forward to this book and after getting it, my first impression was not good. Then I sat down and read it. It is a great book to have, why?

A lot of information and research went into the book but it is brief and to the point. Examples are very good. However, the real value of this book for me is font references, spot color, and simple techniques to mimic period posters. That alone is worth the purchase.

However, the book is not a step-by-step tutorial on poster creation. ... Read more

Product Description
The broad acceptance and use of this book as one of the leading introductory computer graphics texts has enabled the original author and coauthors to update the chapters and contribute new material involving the most knowledgeable experts in different areas while maintaining a unified approach. This edition of "Fundamentals of Computer Graphics" adds four new contributed chapters and contains substantial reorganizations and improvements to the core material. The new chapters add coverage of implicit modeling and of two important graphics applications: games and information visualization. The fourth new contributed chapter is a major upgrade to the material on color science. As with the chapters added in the second edition, we have chosen the contributors both for their expertise and for their clear way of expressing ideas. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Very boring, written unclearly
I vehemently dislike this textbook.The math is unclear or not well explained, and it makes Graphics seem like a stale, formulaic, and unattractive subject. Note, however, that I have only read the first several chapters.I don't plan on reading any more.

An ideal textbook and highly recommended for computer course curriculums
Whether for purposes of business, gaming, seeking to develop an outstanding web site for any other purpose, computer graphics are a key factor in the highly competitive world of the internet. The collaborative work of Peter Shirley (Senior Research Scientist at NVIDIA - a world leader in visual computer technologies and the inventor of the GPU) and Steve Marschner (Associate professor of Computer Science, Cornell University), and an impressive roster of experts in the field, this newly updated and expanded third edition of "Fundamentals Of Computer Graphics" continues to be an outstanding and comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals of computer graphic technology. Of special note are the new chapters on implicit modeling, computer graphics, color, and information visualization. Superbly organized and thoroughly 'user friendly, this new edition "Fundamentals Of Computer Graphics" is an ideal textbook and highly recommended for computer course curriculums, as well as a personal and professional reference.

great graphics book
This book covers many different areas of computer graphics , and it's great starting point for it's exploring.

Terrible
I have an extensive background in CS, and decided to take an intro class in graphics to fulfill a graduate breadth requirement. This book was listed as a reference, so I borrowed it from a friend. I tried to use this throughout the class, only to be repeatedly confused and frustrated. There are two main flaws in this book:

1- In any chapter, the author insists on starting the narrative by immediately using terminology he has never defined or mentioned before. Peter Shirley must live on a different planet where you don't have to define your technical terminology before you use it. It is shocking that such drivel made it through the editing process.

2- The order of presentation in each chapter defies all stylistic guidelines for a technical publication. Instead of starting with a high level overview and slowly building up detail, Shirley jumps back and forth between technical and non-technical high level narrative. Sometimes the chapter begins with technical details (using undefined terminology) and ends with an overview. This is ridiculous.

I have no idea how this book could be getting positive reviews. It is terrible in every sense of the word.

focuses on algorithms, not hardware or animation
Shirley's book could be compared to the classic graphics text by Foley and van Dam. Shirley focuses more on the key algorithms for graphics. Whereas Foley also goes into describing some of the hardware. Shirley also stays away from some low level methods, that were first devised when the first raster and vector displays were coming on the market. For example, there's nothing here about Bresenham's algorithm, for drawing a circle without recourse to trig functions. The latter exact a heavy time penalty when the CPU is slow.

Other reviewers have remarked that the book really doesn't have good coverage of animation. Correct. Though Shirley might argue that the book's title does say "Fundamentals". Animation methods can be considered as an overlayer on the book's scope. For example, consider physics-based animation. Where you model the behaviour of an object by physical laws. The book just has a brief mention. But this type of behaviour is primarily about the physical response of an object. Displaying that response is secondary, and already covered by the methods of the book. ... Read more