Ripping off the covers with Harlequin in Vegas

There's something happening in Vegas right now that we can talk about -- the art exhibit of Harlequin Romance covers on exhibit at Paris Las Vegas. The Times wrote about  'The Heart of a Woman: Harlequin Cover Art 1949-2009" this weekend:

Visitors walk through a doorway next to one of Paris' signature advertising photos: a couple lustily embracing on an elevator, the man reaching for the "stop" button. It could be mistaken for a Harlequin cover.

Inside a small room is a chronology of representations of desire.

The earliest covers draw from film noir and are rife with -- in hindsight -- unintentional comedy.

"Virgin With Butterflies" (1949) shows a brunet in thigh-high stockings encircled by five male heads sprouting butterfly wings. "Men Cast a Net for Her," the cover promises....

There is a kind of goodness -- if sometimes awful goodness -- in Harlequin covers like those in the exhibit.

But romance readers know that other covers are just plain awful. Take these worst-of examples from the Cover Cafe's annual contest. "This cover is enough to make me nostalgic for the bodice-ripping clinches of old," wrote a judge of "Take Two," the second-place 2006 winner. "At least they didn't look quite so weird and porn-y.”

The Cover Cafe, which is devoted to romance novels, also awards a series of best-ofs every year. Maybe some of those -- with titles like "The Boundless Deep," "Abandon" and "The Russian Concubine" -- will make it into a retro-book-cover exhibit of the future.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Paris Las Vegas

Alice, Beatrix and Harry: Valuable children's literature collection up for auction

A valuable collection of children's literature, including Alice's own copy of "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There," a first edition of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and Beatrix Potter's personal copy of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" will be presented for auction Dec. 16.

It is the collection of NFL player Pat McInally, a Harvard grad who was a punter and receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals from 1976 to 1985. After completing his turn as a professional football player, he started a successful line of football action figures.

The auction, held by Southern California auctioneer Profiles in History, includes an original drawing by John Tenniel of the Gryphon from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (pictured). Two copies of "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There," the Alice sequel, are for sale: One has a pair of original pencil drawings by Tenniel and is estimated to sell for $40,000 to $60,000; the other, expected to sell for at least twice as much, is signed by Alice Liddell, who as a young girl inspired Lewis Carroll to write "Alice."

Other first-edition children's books for auction include "Stuart Little" signed by E.B. White; "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien; "Watership Down" by Richard Adams; and "Mother Goose in Prose," L. Frank Baum's first book, in which Dorothy makes her debut. A copy of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" is accompanied by a letter about Narnia written and signed by C.S. Lewis. There are also limited editions of "Winnie the Pooh," "The House at Pooh Corner" and "Now We Are Six," all inscribed by author A.A. Milne and illustrator Ernest H. Shepard, as well as a limited edition of the first four Harry Potter books inscribed by J.K. Rowling.

There are a few bookish collectibles for adults too, including a first edition of "The Time Machine" signed by H.G. Wells. James Bond fans should be happy: In addition to a first edition of "Goldfinger" signed by Ian Fleming to William Plomer, to whom the book is dedicated, there are first editions of "Thunderball," "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and "For Your Eyes Only."

Although bids will be accepted by the old-school methods of mail, fax and in person, online auctioneers icollector and LiveAuctioneers also will be taking bids. 

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Original John Tenniel drawing of the Gryphon from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." Credit: Profiles in History

Pop-up books in the news

The man behind the modern pop-up book, Waldo "Wally" Hunt, has died. Hunt, a Los Angeles advertising executive, sold his company and traveled to New York, where he became disenchanted. He was charmed by a pop-up book imported from Czechoslovakia. "I knew I'd found the magic key," he told the L.A. Times in 2002. "No one was doing pop-ups in this country." Hunt's first pop-up company was so successful that Hallmark purchased it. Then Hunt returned west and started another company -- making pop-up books, of course.

"He was such an important publisher of pop-up books who really advanced them technically. The pop-up designers who worked for him were amazing creative engineers," Cynthia Burlingham, director of the UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts at the Hammer Museum, told the L.A. Times.

Hunt was also a collector; many of the 300 works in a 2002 exhibit "Pop Up! 500 Years of Movable Books" at the Los Angeles Central Library were from his collection. He passed away at 88 on Nov. 6.

Meanwhile, the website Hilobrow, which has just undergone a snazzy design upgrade, celebrates pop-up books as underutilized subjects of book trailers. The site has posted a series of examples -- including some that are mediocre and lousy -- that includes a few real charmers. One winner -- for "ABC3D," a design favorite of 2008 -- is after the jump.

A cornucopia of book covers

The blog The Book Cover Archive has come up with a short, short list of its top 10 book covers of the aughts, with another 10 runners-up. There are special mentions for a handful of designers, but really, a group of 10  covers -- even 20 -- is not nearly enough.

This set has a heavy helping of covers that work as trompe d'oeil -- 2008's favorite, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," has a cover that appears to be the spines of a bunch of other books lined up in a neat row. But those lose some of their charm when reproduced digitally (it's hard to tell the difference between a clever cover made up of a picture of spines of books and a simple picture of the spines of books). And on balance, the top choices seem to be on the somber side, like a mix tape recorded on a gloomy day.

So there's good reason to go exploring the Book Cover Archive's archive. There are close to 1,200 covers on (cyber) display, sortable by publisher, designer, title. The archive is created with some serendipity -- generally, book covers are added around their publication date, but some are late additions.

But the sorting isn't the point so much as the gazing. Because the archive only includes those covers that merit appreciation, every one is worth a second look -- and displayed in arrays of 70 or more, they're a book lover's eye candy.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Image: Book covers for "Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth" by Chris Ware and Penguin's 70th anniversary reissue of John Steinbeck's "The Murder."

Isabel Rucker's long, long memoir

Tonight the SOMArts Center in San Francisco holds an opening for two artists, including Isabel Rucker, whose very long memoir will be on display. How long, exactly? "The Unfurling" is more than 400 feet long, written and illustrated in graphic novel form on a 12-inch-high scroll. That's Rucker above, just after finishing the installation this week.

Rucker, who is the daughter of science fiction author and cyberpunk visionary Rudy Rucker, began work on "The Unfurling" seven years ago when she lived in San Francisco. It details both her city life and her move to rural Wyoming, off the grid. Using the scroll -- technically, three separate 150-foot rolls of paper -- allowed her to vary the width of the panels. While some are compressed, others are quite broad. The illustration of a road trip from California to Wyoming is more than 10 feet long.

 

"Initially I didn't have Jack Kerouac in mind, but after starting it, I did." Rucker told Jacket Copy via e-mail. "I love 'On the Road' and any other writing by him. A couple of years ago I had the joy of seeing the 'On the Road' scroll in person at the NYC library. It was amazing. I like to think there is a somewhat stream of consciousness similarity. I didn't have an outline for the story."

What could be the future for a graphic memoir that's 400 feet long? While "On the Road" was broken up into pages and published in book form, the design of the "The Unfurling," with its extra-wide panels, seems to resist that. Could a project like this be published as a scroll, sold in bookshelf-friendly tubes?

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photos, from top: Isabel Rucker with the installation of "The Unfurling"; an excerpt. Credits: Isabel Rucker

'XKCD: Volume 0' is sticking it to traditional publishers

What's the most stupidly ambitious aspect of "XKCD: Volume 0," the book based on the wildly popular yet still very underground webcomic:

• Is it the assumption that cartoonist Randall Munroe's uber tech-savvy audience would pay for a hard-copy version of the comic strips it gets for free in a comprehensive online archive?
• Is it that Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Conde Nast's Reddit, turned his "un-corporation" Breadpig into a publishing company for his friend Munroe's book, while Munroe, 25, declined several offers from established publishers, despite their persistence? "I kind of make it hard to e-mail me," Munroe said on the phone from Somerville, Mass.
• Or how about the pledge to build a $32,000 school in Laos from a portion of book sales without the luxury of advertising or having copies on major bookstore shelves?

You're right if you guessed all -- or none -- of the above.

"XKCD: Volume 0" is a gamble that's paying off for Munroe, a former NASA contractor who left to pursue stick-figure cartooning full-time.

The first run of 10,000 books is almost sold out. Ohanian's half-baked publishing project has attracted dozens of uninvited proposals from authors. And the school in Laos, whose $32,000 goal was reached shortly after the first two book signings in San Francisco and New York, is almost constructed.

Upcoming Andre Agassi memoir reveals drug use

In his upcoming memoir, tennis star Andre Agassi admits that in 1997 he used the recreational drug crystal meth -- or "gack," as his assistant, referred to only as Slim, called it. The book "Open: An Autobiography" will be in stores in November, but is being serialized by the Times of London beginning Thursday. And they ran this excerpt today:

Slim dumps a small pile of powder on the coffee table. He cuts it, snorts it. He cuts it again. I snort some. I ease back on the couch and consider the Rubicon I’ve just crossed.

There is a moment of regret, followed by vast sadness. Then comes a tidal wave of euphoria that sweeps away every negative thought in my head. I’ve never felt so alive, so hopeful -- and I’ve never felt such energy.

I’m seized by a desperate desire to clean. I go tearing around my house, cleaning it from top to bottom. I dust the furniture. I scour the tub. I make the beds...

Later, Agassi tested positive for the drug. It would mean a public suspension, and he feared, a lot more.

My name, my career, everything is now on the line. Whatever I’ve achieved, whatever I’ve worked for, might soon mean nothing. Days later I sit in a hard-backed chair, a legal pad in my lap, and write a letter to the ATP. It’s filled with lies interwoven with bits of truth.

I say Slim, whom I’ve since fired, is a known drug user, and that he often spikes his sodas with meth — which is true. Then I come to the central lie of the letter. I say that recently I drank accidentally from one of Slim’s spiked sodas, unwittingly ingesting his drugs. I ask for understanding and leniency and hastily sign it: Sincerely.

I feel ashamed, of course. I promise myself that this lie is the end of it.

While the admission now may get him in hot water with some sports officials, it certainly can't hurt his book sales. How many people knew the 1992 Wimbledon champion had a memoir coming out? Now, we all do.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Andre Agassi at a 2007 press conference. Credit: Ian Salas / EPA

Pasadena Museum of California Art launches its first reading series

The happily local Pasadena Museum of California Art is launching a fitting reading series, Written in California. The free series kicks off Thursday at 7 p.m., with discounted ($5) access to the galleries for the hour prior.

Thursday night will feature Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, who was nominated for the National Book Award for her debut novel, "Madeline Is Sleeping." She now lives in Southern California and teaches at UCSD, so she could read her recent short fiction or from her second book, 2008's "The Ms. Hempel Chronicles." Susan Salter-Reynolds wrote our review:

Such a beautiful book is "Ms. Hempel Chronicles," the kind that gives its reader profound insights into ordinary, everyday life. The more such insights we have, the better able we are to really live, and not just go through the motions.

Beatrice Hempel is a young middle-school teacher, "still young enough to decipher the lyrics" of the songs her students listen to, but "old enough to feel that a certain degree of outrage was required of her." Beatrice, Ms. Hempel, is often uncertain of herself. She thinks she is a terrible teacher, but her students love her. The school bureaucracy makes teaching with any heart all but impossible.

Current exhibitions at the museum include "Wayne Thiebaud: 70 Years of Painting," "Behold the Day: The Color Block Prints of Frances Gearhart" and "Population: Portraits by Ray Turner."

Written in California is scheduled to return roughly bimonthly. The next announced reading will be in January 2010, featuring Marisa Silver, an LA Times book prize finalist for her novel "The God of War."

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Pasadena Museum of California Art. Credit: Annie Wells / Los Angeles Times

Lovecraft comes to life

Although he acknowledged a debt to Poe, H.P. Lovecraft is now recognized as a master of his own kind of horror, fantasy and science fiction. He created a fictional world -- complete with monsters and gods -- and encourages his friends to bring it to life in their own work.

That world includes Miskatonic University, which appears in several of his short stories and the novella "At the Mountains of Madness." Miskatonic U is in Arkham (not a real town) in Essex County, Mass. (a real place).

But that's not quite good enough for the blog Prop Nomicon, which has been creating real-life memorabilia from Miskatonic. In the above photo, there are a newly made vintage postcard, a school pin, an embroidered school badge, and three notebooks of the kind used by the characters in Lovecraft's work. The items sold out earlier this week, but will be available again, probably before the holidays.

Sales aren't the blog's main concern, though: It's focused on bringing Lovecraft's stories to life. Just take a look at this meticulously assembled kit. It brings to life the one used in the 1930 Miskatonic University Antarctic expedition ("At the Mountains of Madness"). It includes decade-perfect binoculars and measuring instruments, core samples, fossils, expedition photos, maps and plans. Some materials have been restored, some aged (rubbed down with dirt and cocoa), others created from scratch.

It's a monumental accomplishment, but one that the site's proprietor doesn't feel proprietary of. He's enthusiastic about Creative Commons, and any of the documents he's created -- the detailed map of the expedition, the mock-ups of the plane, the re-created vintage pilot's license -- are available for download, remixing and re-use. Just like Lovecraft would have wanted it.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Prop Nomicon. Used with permission.

Ray Bradbury, painter

The author of "Fahrenheit 451" and "The Martian Chronicles" didn't always reach for a pencil. He used to reach for a paintbrush. He talked to Hero Complex's Geoff Boucher:

"Painting has been part of my life since I was a child," Bradbury told me Thursday when we spoke by phone. "My Aunt Neva went to the Art Institute of Chicago and she took courses there and she took me to see the paintings. I began to paint in the 1930s and 1940s and I did a lot of amateur work over the years. I visited art galleries everywhere I went in the world.... My artwork doesn't inspire my writing, it's my writing that inspires my artwork."

The above painting, which Bradbury did in 1948, is about to be issued as a giclee print. Called, unofficially, "Dark Carnival" -- for the short story collection whose cover it eventually graced -- it will be printed in a limited edition of 200. The 18-by-24-inch prints, which Bradbury will sign at the bookstore Every Picture Tells a Story on Oct. 24, cost $300.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Image: Ray Bradbury