Arnold Roth: Free Lance [Paperback]

Arnold Roth (Author), Lucy Shelton Caswell (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2001

The legendary jazz illustrator finally gets the coffee-table treatment.

All cartoonists are geniuses, wrote John Updike, "but Arnold Roth especially so. He's an American original; irreverent, tireless, manicky, and secretly efficient... his work jumps with joy." You won't find better proof of this argument than this book, a generous, career-spanning collection of Roth's best cartoons and painted illustrations, originally created to serve as a catalog for a long-overdue gallery exhibition of this master cartoonist's work. From his early cartoons through his eye-popping and imaginative color illustrations for such magazines as Playboy, Esquire, TV Guide and Sports Illustrated, this book will delight any fan of superior cartooning. Color and black-and-white illustrations throughout

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This catalog of a traveling exhibition celebrates the career of one of America's foremost humorous illustrators. Roth's work has appeared in a half century of major magazines, from the 1952 pilot issue of TV Guide to recent numbers of the New Yorker, and Roth was one of the few Americans ever invited to join the staff of Britain's premier humor magazine, Punch. The 66 works in the book include black-and-white line drawings, such as examples of the newspaper strip "Poor Arnold's Almanac," and plenty of vivid watercolors. Roth's loopy, exuberant style recalls that of his British contemporary Ronald Searle and seems a likely influence on such younger artists as Ralph Steadman. Most of the drawings were commissioned for magazine articles, but clearly Roth is a cartoonist first; while the pictures serve the writings they accompany, nearly every one provokes a smile or a laugh on its own merits. "When Roth does it for the fun of it," comics historian R. C. Harvey observes, "he creates works of art as well as works of comedy." Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Arnold Roth has become one of the best known and most beloved cartoonists of the 20th century…one of the most celebrated cartoonists working today. (Brian Heater - The Daily Cross Hatch )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560974389
• ISBN-13: 978-1560974383
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 8.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,175,707 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fifty year retrospective compilation, December 13, 2001

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Arnold Roth: Free Lance (Paperback)

Free Lance presents a fifty year retrospective compilation of the graphic cartoonist's work, providing the cartoons which appeared in Playboy, Trump, and Punch, among others. Prior fans of Roth will appreciate having his widely distributed cartoons under one cover, while newcomers will surely recognize his style. Both black and white and color cartoon panels highlight this survey of his works.