Womyn's Studies

The greatness of this poster is not fully realized until your eyes drift down to Angie Harmon's ass.

The Gap Makes Me Cry

OK, I know this is old hat, but these gap ads really make me sad. This is from their fall campaign launched a few months ago, but the posters are still up in their stores. Coupled with the new RED campaign they're doing, I don't want to shop, I want to slit my wrists! Or rather, I want to go to the GAP, buy a hooded sweatshirt, and then jump off a building.

Actually, the first thought I had when I saw these was that John Mayer and Legally Blond girl (whatherface??? Serena? Selena? Yolanda?) were sad about the war in Irak. I figgered that was why the campaign was so sad. I mean, do we have a right to show happy rich CAPITALIST SCUM when 90% of the world is starving and/or sewing our clothes, which we throw out every season anyway???? Viva la Revolucion! (sp?)

Seriously folks, we have to do something about this darn planet.

The Keep - Hard vs. Paper

The Keep novel:
Design by John Gall?
Amazon.com: "In Jennifer Egan's deliciously creepy new novel, two cousins reunite twenty years after a childhood prank gone wrong changed their lives and sent them on their separate ways. "Cousin Howie," the formerly uncool, strange, and pasty ("he looked like a guy the sun wouldn't touch") cousin has become a blond, tan, and married millionaire with a generous spirit. He invites his cousin Danny (who as an insecure teenager left him hurt and helpless in a cave for three days) to help him renovate an old castle in Germany. To reveal too much would ruin the story, just know that The Keep is a wonderfully weird read--a touch experimental in terms of narrative, with a hefty dose of gothic tension and mystery--balanced by an intimate and mesmerizing look at how the past haunts us in different ways. --Daphne Durham

The Emperor's Children:
Designed by Carol Divine Carson?
The Keep uses a painted image, while Emperor's Children uses a photo of a luxury building taken from Central Park. The New Yorker says, "a witty examination of New York's chattering classes."

The Keep, Awesome 80's Horror Poster:
A 1983 movie that has nothing to do with any of these shenanigans:
IMDB: "Nazis guard a citadel that harbors a dangerous force that starts wreaking havoc and death upon them, forcing an uneasy alliance with a Jewish professional who can stop it."

The Ruins

WEIRD! Top is the hardcover, below is the paperback. I LOVED the hardcover when it came out last year. It was done by Peter Mendelsund. I think the paperback definitely got the mass-market treatment - it seems like it's for another audience.

For the record, the book is a literary horror yarn about a group of American colleg kidz who vacation in Mexico and just like the stereotypical clueless privileged Americans they are, get lost in the jungle and find a whole heap of trouble. Some of this trouble involves a killer plant.

Superhero Novels

I came across these three books recently. Top is paperback for It's Superman (designer Derek Walls), followed by the hardcover, designed by Chris Ware. Hero was done by Chipp Kidd, and Soon I will be Invincible is probably my favorite - designer name to come. The paperback for Superman uses an animation cell from a 1941 cartoon.

It's Superman is a very fun read - it's a novel for adults and takes place during the Great Depression, mid-thirties, and follows Clarke Kent as he exits his teenage years and meets up with Lois Lane, Willi Berg and Lex Luthor. It's the beginning of the legend, and it's great. Part of the joy of reading it is being totally absorbed in the period detail. It makes so much more sense for Superman to belong to that era than to belong in a modern world, especially since the comic books started in that time.

Hero is about a gay teenage superhero - haven't read it yet, but it's in the YA section and the author was involved in the Narnia movies. ...Invicible is about a league of superheroes fighting a villainous scientist named Doctor Impossible. I just freaking LOVE the back cover for Invincible. It sums up all these book covers into one irresistible image.

stock photo of the day

ABC

Check out this awesome cover for ABC! You've gotta see this book in real life. It's movie-poster-meets-book-cover to the max factor. The letters are naturally debossed to look chiseled into the stone. The book involves a grieving father's quest for the origins of the alphabet that leads him to Syrian ruins and a cult of researchers who like him, deflect their sorrows by obsessing over this mystery.