Rural nostalgia

Charles Wysocki, like Norman Rockwell, are not names you'll find in books about American Art but both were incredibly popular with the public. Wysocki said he was influenced by the paintings of Joseph Pickett (1848-1918) and there is a distinct similarity, though Pickett's work would be called fine art.

The book is a handsome production with excellent design and printed on a semi-matt gloss paper for the two hundred works by Wysocki. Having developed his style (the bird's-eye view of buildings with very little perspective and smoke from chimneys always a quarter of a circle: nine o'clock to twelve) he stuck with it but away from the rural small town paintngs there are several really impressive still-life compositions that I prefer to the dozens of landscapes. This is probably the only worthwhile book of Wysocki's paintings.

 

Follow the wise fertiliser of Chairman Miaow's thoughts

 

I was having a book purge and I came across this title, here's a review I wrote in 2007. 

One of those fun books that publishers love to put out and it could have been printed at any time since Chairman Mao's death. We've all seen those Chinese propaganda posters showing the Chairman exhorting the masses to strive forward (and don't forget to wave your little red book, or else) so why not replace his head with that of an earnest-looking moggy and slightly adjust the poster's words of wisdom to feline ends: 'Political power grows out of a barrel of fish'. Or how about 'Let's sing a new song about bank nationalization and rabbit flavor chunks.'

The replacing of one head with another has been done rather well; appropriate snarling or passive pussies, depending on the original posters, have been used but I thought the joke wore rather thin too quickly. Several posters just have a switched head and some bland copy instead of developing the theme a bit more by adding extra catty-related items to the background, though still keeping the flavor of the original. Still, for the price, feline fans will enjoy the fun and don't forget 'We must have faith in the Party and we must have faith in moist pouches'.

Just in case you love cats and propaganda posters (unlikely, I know) have a look at Chinese Propaganda Posters by Micheal Wolf (ISBN 3822826197) a sumptuous book with hundreds of examples of the real thing.

US 

The Thoughts of Chairman Miaow: Hopkinson, Frank: 9780517225998: Amazon.com: Books

Consumer seduction

The book is a good example of how Taschen manages to get an extra bite of their publishing cherry. The ads for alcohol and tobacco have all appeared in their ten-volume All American Ads series. Another book, Toys with 528 pages, reproduces a hundred years of toy ads which are all in the All American Ads titles.

Of course, if you don't have the Taschen ads series, this book is worth having. Each decade from 1900 to 1999 reveals how Mad Ave folk sold booze and smokes to the public and as these products are very much discretionary buys, the copy goes to pretty much outlandish lengths to persuade buyers that a product is vastly superior to their competitor's version.

 

Looney Tunes Treasury

If you liked the look of the LT Treasury, check out The Hanna-Barbera Treasury, much more ambitious and full of extras. See some of them here:

Westread Book Reviews: 'toon nostalgia (5/5) (westreadreviews.blogspot.com) 

A worthwhile overview of Looney Tunes animation. I think the book is really aimed at a young market because of the rather flamboyant page design and youngsters will enjoy the various stuck-in additions throughout the title (it's worth saying that if you are buying a pre-used copy you'll need to check with the seller that all the loose items are in their envelopes).

Writer Andy Farago had the clever idea of having the cartoon characters write about themselves so they become much more friendly.

Fans of animation will also enjoy a book from the same publisher: The Hanna-Barbera Treasury (ISBN 978-1933784281) a much more ambitious work that, again, is stuffed with amazing extras.