Station 451-A Book Blog

A book you very likely don’t have on your shelf #896

Legendary fantasy artist John Blanche has died. He is known mostly for his long association with Games Workshop, where he served as art director and created many of the iconic images that shaped the Warhammer and 40K worlds. He was capable of working in diverse styles, but much of his art and his own creative miniature conversions made his name synonymous with the "grimdark" aesthetic, mixing elements of moody gothic architecture and body horror with a limited color palette.

Andrew Liptak at Transfer Orbit interviewed me about my upcoming art book!

Your first book was Worlds Beyond Time: what will this new book do that you couldn't do with that one?

There’s a great Leo Steinberg quote: “All art is infested by other art.” My first book took a really close look at one slice of science fiction illustration (mostly book covers, mostly 1960s-’80s), so this new one is pulling back to look at the web of influences that went into that era and emerged from it.

I’m covering such a broad area that it’s going to be impossible to include everything, so I’m approaching it more like an art smorgasbord that jumps around between centuries and mediums.

You can digitally borrow them here, and find even more on Anna's Archive here.

Smoke (1856) [Daylight Fonts · Fonts In Use]:

Open up Gail Crowther's new bestseller Marilyn and Her Books (now available in the U.S.) and the first thing you'll see are some of the editions Marilyn owned. I was thrilled to see she had a penchant for my beloved Modern Library books, which I'm used to thinking of as "vintage," but they were contemporary for her. And I actually own most of the editions she had.

I've been reading the book (I'm about a third of the way through), and it's beautifully written and absolutely fascinating. This is a perfect read for ALL book lovers, not just those who appreciate Marilyn Monroe. It speaks to us as readers, delving into things like: what the books we own and read say about us (as well as the books we don't read); shelf-snooping--something we're all guilty of; books we read vs. books we skim; books we bought versus books we received as gifts; and so much more.

I'd say it's the best book about books/reading since Maureen Corrigan's So We Read On (about The Great Gatsby), but Crowther's book is better.