Archives de catégorie : Biography

THREE ROCKS: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller de Bill Griffith

From Bill Griffith, the acclaimed creator of Zippy the Pinhead, comes a history of comics as told through the life story of Ernie Bushmiller and his iconic comic strip Nancy.

THREE ROCKS:
The Story of Ernie Bushmiller – The Man Who Created Nancy
by Bill Griffith
Abrams ComicArts, August 2023

From Bill Griffith, creator of Zippy the Pinhead and Nobody’s Fool, comes THREE ROCKS, a biography of cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller, creator of the iconic comic strip Nancy. But this graphic novel is about more than a single comic book artist. It is the story of this American art form, tracing its inception in 1895 with the Yellow Kid, the creation of Nancy in 1933, and all the strips that followed, including Peanuts and The Far Side. When Bushmiller died in 1982, Nancy was running in almost 900 daily newspapers—a number few syndicated cartoonists ever achieve.
Nancy is hailed as the “perfect” comic strip by fans and cartoonists alike. The title Three Rocks refers to the trope of three hemispherical rocks often seen in a Bushmiller landscape—just enough to communicate environment to the reader. This distillation is exemplary of the iconic, diagrammatic look of Nancy, a comic strip about the nature of what it means to be a comic strip—the perfect avatar for Griffith to expand upon his philosophy of creating comics.

As the widest-ranging cartoon chronicler of American absurdity in our time, Bill Griffith has topped himself. This is an instant comic-strip classic!” —Matt Groening

For many years, I’ve devoured Bill Griffith’s work. It’s always inspiring and engrossing. As it never fails to do, Griffith’s brilliance and consummate drawing chops shine through. Three Rocks is amazing!” —Emil Ferris

A page-turning, standard-setting, must-have work of biographical art.” —Chris Ware

Bill Griffith is the creator of the syndicated daily comic strip Zippy and the author of Nobody’s Fool: The Life and Times of Schlitzie the Pinhead. Griffith’s prolific output has been included in such publications as the Village VoiceNational Lampoon, and The New Yorker. According to Bartlett, Griffith coined the popular phrase, “Are we having fun yet?” He lives in Hadlyme, Connecticut.

SUPREME SIRENS de Marcellas Reynolds

A stunning photography book that explores the power, rebellion, and resilience held within the voices of trailblazing Black female musicians.

SUPREME SIRENS:
Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Music
by Marcellas Reynolds
Abrams, Spring 2023

From the author of Supreme Models and Supreme Actresses comes the third installment of the celebrated series, SUPREME SIRENS: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Music. This will be the first-ever art book to honor the Black female singers and musicians who dominate the music industry.
SUPREME SIRENS
chronicles the most influential and successful Black performers—from legendary jazz chanteuse Billie Holiday to the queen of soul Aretha Franklin and from glamorous girl groups such as the Supremes to modern, iconic superstars including Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Janet Jackson. Through exquisite photographs, personal interviews, short biographies, and career milestones, Reynolds details how these women’s music and careers have become the soundtrack of our lives.
SUPREME SIRENS
shares the power and wisdom of women who are at the forefront of entertainment; women who have overcome racial prejudices and redefined contemporary notions of Black women by breaking glass ceilings and tearing down racial barriers in the recording studio and on stage and screen.

Marcellas Reynolds is a Los Angeles–based entertainment reporter and celebrity fashion stylist with editorials in British GQ, Grazia, InStyle, British Vogue, and more. Reynolds, the author of Supreme Models and Supreme Actresses, is also the executive producer of Supreme Models, the documentary airing on Vogue’s YouTube channel. He regularly appears on ABC, CBS, CNN, E!, NBC, and the UK’s ITV. His recent television appearances have included Access Hollywood, Soul of a Nation: Screen Queens Rising, the Tamron Hall Show, and Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live!

HALF DEAF, COMPLETELY MAD de Tony Cohen & John Olson

This exuberant, tragic memoir of master music producer-engineer Tony Cohen is an extraordinary cultural message in a bottle.

HALF DEAF, COMPLETELY MAD
by Tony Cohen & John Olson
Black Inc., November 2022

This is a book about making art and the transgressions that might occur in doing so. Tony helped define the sounds of innumerable Australian bands from the 1970s through to the 2000s, and his always entertaining stories are hilarious, incisive and self-deprecating. Tony’s work with Nick Cave and his three bands – The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party, The Bad Seeds – comprises a large part of this memoir. There are also indelible stories of: Chrissy Amphlett/Divinyls, Beasts of Bourbon, Blondie, Cold Chisel, The Cruel Sea, Dirty Three, The Go-Betweens, Hoodoo Gurus, Michael Hutchence, Paul Kelly, Men at Work, Mixed Relations, The Saints, Split Enz … This is vastly entertaining fly-on-the-wall account of a life lived LOUD.

Like many geniuses, [Tony] was a nightmare to work with. But you came back again and again because he was just so good, everything he did was so unique and bold and startling. He was a master at both what not to do in the studio and what to do in the studio. For example – don’t set fire to the studio, don’t sleep in the air-conditioning vents, don’t not show up to the sessions for days at a time, but conversely – do record music like your very life depended on it, do create sounds that no-one has ever heard before …” —Nick Cave

Tony Cohen was perhaps Australia’s most original and influential record producer. He helped define the sounds of innumerable Australian bands (many of whom went on to find new lives in the UK and Europe) from the 1970s through to the 2000s, until his untimely death in August 2017.
John Olson is a producer and engineer, who interviewed Tony Cohen and assembled this account of his life and times.

JOHNSON AT 10 d’Anthony Seldon

The definitive account of Boris Johnson’s turbulent time in office by one of Britain’s leading political and social commentators.

JOHNSON AT 10
by Anthony Seldon
Atlantic, Spring 2023
(via Northbank Talent Management)

After his sudden rise to power in the summer of 2019 amid the Brexit deadlock, Boris Johnson presided over the most dramatic period of British history in almost a century. From the controversial prorogation of Parliament in August 2019 to the Conservative party’s historic landslide victory later that year, the agonising upheaval of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic, the Afghanistan crisis, the conflict in Ukraine, and the series of devastating scandals that were ultimately Johnson’s undoing, his premiership has been more explosive than any other in living memory.
In this gripping work of contemporary history, Anthony Seldon, one of Britain’s leading political and social commentators, and co-author Raymond Newell give the first full account of Johnson’s seismic time in office from the summer of 2019 to the autumn of 2022. Based on major interviews with key aides and allies, and full of new revelations, Johnson at 10 is the definitive portrait of the most divisive prime minister since Margaret Thatcher and the latest instalment in Anthony’s bestselling ‘Prime Ministers at 10’ series.

Anthony Seldon is a British educator and historian. He is the author or editor of more than 35 books on contemporary history, politics and education, and is best known for his biographies of recent prime ministers from John Major to Theresa May. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham from 2015 to 2020. He is honorary historical adviser to 10 Downing Street, and chairs The Times Education Commission.

LION OF JUDAH (Graphic Novel) de M. Menelik Makhar

An immersive graphic novel detailing Bob Marley’s moving personal history and foundation as a musical, cultural, spiritual, and political legend.

LION OF JUDAH: A Graphic Novel
by M. Menelik Makhar
Ten Speed Press, March 2023

LION OF JUDAH is the graphic novel story of Bob Marley’s early life and origins as an artist and musical prophet. The book juxtaposes Marley’s personal history with stories of H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, the former emperor of Ethiopia and Marley’s self-proclaimed « Spiritual Father, » and Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of an independent Ghana, the country of Marley’s family ancestry. LION OF JUDAH—named for the prominent symbol of the Rastafari movement—weaves together the seminal moments of these three timelines through an anthology-style artistic collaboration of an international all-star team of comic artists including Damien Hill, Massimiliano Veltri, Will Rosado, N. Steven Harris, Christopher « ChrisCross » Williams, and Eric Battle among others.
This full-color, immersive visual reading experience is the untold story of Bob Marley, a comprehensive history of Reggae music, and an insightful examination of music, spirituality, and politics. LION OF JUDAH depicts the enduring lessons of struggles, triumph, and tragedy that connect us all.

M. Menelik Makhar is an acclaimed activist, songwriter/ghostwriter, and musician.