The monthly diary for Black America (5/5)

Publisher John Johnson (1918-2005) had a vision for a magazine for the Black market, his first effort was the Negro Digest in 1942, the next was the highly successful monthly Ebony in 1946 (and also the weekly Jet in November 1951). This sumptuous coffee-table book celebrates the magazine with all the print edition covers up to June 2020, though it had been reduced to bi-monthly editions from October 2016.

The book is really in two parts, firstly, 273 pages have whole page and smaller covers looking at civil rights, family, man, woman and music, second, the remaining pages show all the covers as large thumbnails (so all the previous section covers are repeated). I wish the publishers had gone the extra mile and included a selection of inside pages as the Ebony obviously covered significant events for Black Americans over the decades. The only spreads from the inside are sixteen pages of the August 1968 March on Washington that appeared in the November issue. Fortunately, the reproductions allow the text to be read.

Obviously, all the covers feature various Black personalities from the world of politics, sports and entertainment, a curiosity is the June 1972 cover showing white actor Carroll O'connor with the headline 'Is Archie Bunker the real white America?'

For those who remember the monthly Ebony, this excellent book will give some instant nostalgia as you look at the covers.

Build your own, brick by brick (5/5)

 

The book came out in 2015 which is you can pick up a copy really cheaply. The essence of the title is ten buildings with step-by-step visual instructions, just like the real LEGO instructions. There are a couple of other instructions to show a load-bearing structure and a curtain-wall building that could be part of your own building. Of the ten models, I loved the Art Deco movie theater.

For best results, I think you should have the LEGO Architecture Studio box though I don't think the company sells this anymore. All the how-to-make models are shown as mono photos and the Architectural box only has white pieces (but with clear acrylic window pieces).

The book is also a sort of primer about architecture but very superficial I thought the color photos of the building were rather well chosen and they are all captioned. Many of the buildings are also LEGO models made by professionals and using thousands of pieces.

I think it's well worth getting if you can find a cheap, good copy, say, less than eight dollars.

The frog never looked more interesting (5/5)

 

Illustrator Sybille Schenker has created another wonderful graphic storybook. This is her third Brothers Grimm book and uses plastic pages with a gold, silver and black ink with other paper pages printed with black and gold. Like the other books, the title is laser cut out of the cover (obviously fragile so the book has a clear plastic jacket).

It's the book's production that makes the story come alive for me. The illustrations printed on the plastic pages and gold type on the paper pages give this traditional story a contemporary feel. Graphic designers will love it. 

Schenker's previous Brothers Grimm books include Hansel and Gretel (2011) printed with some pages using tracing paper, Little Red Riding Hood (2014) used laser cut shapes on several pages. Her three books are a joy to look through.