Art Books

[Lost Soul]

Not having any decent galleries in Britain my art intake is primarily through books, hence my shelves are creaking somewhat.
What's everyone else reading/recommending? I'm talking lowbrow here; from Glen Barr's fantastical brush strokes to Weegee's hard-boiled photography; 1950s stag magazines to Juxtapoz.

Speaking of Juxtapoz- is it me or has that magazine turned to shit and become just like all the other trendy art mags?

[Andy Seven]

Yeah, it's turned to shit - the same six artists hyped over and over again. But let's not gripe or I'll go off for hours. Here's a great book you need to get. It's called "Mexican Pulp Fiction" and it's published by Feral House (check out their great website). It has covers from tawdry old Mexican pulp fiction magazine covers. Here's a brief sample:

[Lost Soul]

Many thanks! I shall hunt it down and buy it. I've also added Cholo Style (again from Feral House) to my to-buy-list.

I haven't come across any decent lowbrow art books for a couple of years now. The last Glen Barr was a bit disappointing, I got some slim, Japanese Mark Ryden thing just for the hell of it but I don't know what it's supposed to be about, and I don't bother looking at Jux anymore.
I am, however, picking up scores of trashy 50s and 60s gentlemen's magazines from ebay to satisfy my lust for the seedy.

[Ed Post-Mortem]

There was a zine I was browsing through in a store the other day called Craphound. From what I've heard they're pretty popular and back issues can be difficult to find, but there's was some great new/old tattoo flash in there. There didn't seem to be anything too sleazy... excuse me low brow on the pages but as far as the sketches and collage style layout of the pages goes, it seemed worthwhile, if you can stand that kind of hipster shit.
This was from the issue I was browsing. Craphound #6 "Deaths, Telephones and Scissors"

[Mark]

I just bought the art book of basil wolverton...good stuff if you like crumb and robert williams stuff, he was an inspiration to both of them i believe.

[Andy Seven]

Wolverton's great.

[jason weed]

Thanks. I couldn't put into words how dissapointing the new juxtapose... you're right the same six artist over and over.

[Lost Soul]

It's a real shame about Juxtapoz as it was the only art mag I read due to the fact that it wasn't at all 'arty'. It's just trendy shit now.

I got Kustom Graphics: Hot Rods, Burlesque and Rock 'n' Roll the other day. I thought it was gonna be just some more bandwaggon jumping shit for the emoburlesque crowd but it's great! Concentrating more on graphic design than art prints, with loads of posters, flyers and LP covers by such luminaries as Rockin' Jellybean, Mitch O'Connel, Vince Ray and a whole load of incredible artists that I'd never heard of but will now be stalking to the ends of the earth. There's even some stuff to rival the mighty Art Chantry in there. A real good find.
There's a little bit of stuff that was obviously done on Adobe Illustrator but not enough to detract from the superb quality of this book.

It's published by Korero by the way.

[Andy Seven]

"Lonely Heart" by Tara McPherson is a cool book. She's kinda girly but her images are very cool.

[Lost Soul]

I saw the Tara McPherson book in Forbidden Planet the other day. It was good but a tad to modern looking for my tastes.

I got another one of those pin-up compilations on Fantagraphics edited by Alex Chun. Don Flowers this time. He's a lot more economical of line than Dan De Carlo but still good. I can see where Frank Cho (Liberty Meadows) gets his inspiration from now.

[Karen]

i just picked up allot of vampirella comics. I found them under some garbage toys at the salvo, for really cheap. Some of them are original series. it borderlines soft-core porn, but the details are vivid.

On my coffee table i have a book of Dali works, and it's going to stay on the coffee table becuase it ways about 60 pounds. It's an collection of most if not all of his painting, photography, and sculptures. it's published by tashen and they have a smaller version @ borders.