Publication Date: August 7, 2012 | Series: Art of Molly Crabapple (Book 2)
"I have become convinced that Molly Crabapple was sent by the devil to seduce us all into art"- Neil Gaiman
Fine artist, illustrator, and comics creator Molly Crabapple captures the absurdity of modern life in intricate, theatrical detail in her fine art work, drawing inspiration from politics, polite (and not-so-polite) society, and hundreds of years of literature. Her work is burlesque-inspired in the broadest definition of the word - deftly satirizing the powerful with adorably sinister animals, steampunk-tinged machinery, and of course, beautiful girls. But it's not all fantastical - when Occupy Wall Street broke out, Molly was there, capturing the immediacy of the revolutionary feeling in pen and ink. In a new 48-page book from IDW, you can get Molly's art in gorgeous full-color, work that's decorated glamorous nightclubs, museums and galleries, and protest signs and occupied spaces around the country. Comedian Margaret Cho contributes the forward.
{"itemData":[{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":11.06,"ASIN":"1613772734","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":8.99,"ASIN":"1613771541","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":8.99,"ASIN":"0978953401","isPreorder":0}],"shippingId":"1613772734::awK9JrGk4IbBaeLTncvXLzkxnK2sx5qC%2FOhXwWHGKaapJB5RZo1isg0k6hm9mwi70uWsXJdXDKHuJKhmTteNXsHhp5oJxOEJvVbNQRYj7g2kHokwEYjvbw%3D%3D,1613771541::YpLoA7iUmFlhKs2j%2F3r60vs8tS4GWs3jK4eqMG0CayiPVypD%2FXW5%2BVY7djHJI0wF2a94jOUTrlRKuAyRwiWBOxYNcNRNe9TKkIVXrQKUAHV%2BSnvtv2DCgw%3D%3D,0978953401::INgQDuR2Q%2FfCwqpxooWzMFqUZVj87us3ZVJhNT9Ffv3J2UfKFO3OFk%2FdMciDbNp4fKIT86xrqRkMOX2GKsKPYC5guWZ4rvajCSokvie0ohM%3D","sprites":{"addToWishlist":["wl_one","wl_two","wl_three"],"addToCart":["s_addToCart","s_addBothToCart","s_add3ToCart"],"preorder":["s_preorderThis","s_preorderBoth","s_preorderAll3"]},"currenyCode":"USD","shippingDetails":{"xz":"same","yz":"same","xy":"same","xyz":"same"},"tags":["x","y","z"],"strings":{"addToWishlist":["add to wishlist","Add both to Wish List","Add all three to Wish List"],"addToCart":["Add to Cart","Add both to Cart","Add all three to Cart"],"showDetailsDefault":"Show availability and shipping details","shippingError":"An error occurred, please try again","hideDetailsDefault":"Hide availability and shipping details","priceLabel":["Price:","Price for both:","Price for all three:"],"preorder":["Pre-order this item","Pre-order both items","Pre-order all three items"]}}
Lastly, it's all so stupidly beautiful in spite of its piercing intelligence....Here's something to say and the skill with which to say it. She says so in pictures, so interpret at will."- Page 45
Product Details
Paperback: 48 pages
Publisher: IDW Publishing; First Edition edition (August 7, 2012)
Molly Crabapple's hyper-detailed compositions are something akin to a Where's Waldo diptych--on a 7-day bender. If Dr. Seuss backtracked through the time-space continuum and commissioned Toulouse-Lautrec to reimagine his storybooks, the resulting mayhem would approximate Crabapple's spiraling scenes of sex, ambition and artifice.
From her auto-didactical beginnings in a Parisian bookstore--where she cultivated her signature aesthetic by copying pages from A Tart's Progress--Molly sketched her way through Morocco and Kurdistan...and once into a Turkish jail.
Spurred by a desire to de-sterilize the buttoned-up art school scene, Molly founded Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School, a celebratory mash-up of cabaret and live drawing. Now in its 6th year--with branches in over a hundred cities--Dr. Sketchy's global trajectory continues to accelerate. Molly's brand of off-grid entrepreneurship caught the attention of major media outlets, securing cover stories and featured profiles in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, Playboy, AP Wire, NPR, and hundreds of other media outlets around the world.
No stranger to nightlife (or notoriety), Molly collaborates with avant-garde performers and underground theatrical venues across the globe, occupying the enviable post of House Artist for The Box, one of the world's most infamous nightclubs. Her latest contribution to The Box--a 90-foot mural for the club's London branch--required a painstaking application of graffiti, sandpaper, and splattered burnt sienna paint, on surfaces ranging from enamel tiles to raw linen.
Molly's first graphic novel, the steampunk saga Puppet Makers, was released electronically by DC Comics in 2011, and her forthcoming Straw House will be issued by First Second Books in 2013. With close-woven ties to comic book sub-culture, it comes as no surprise that Crabapple's celebrity fans include Hugo Award-winning graphic novelist Neil Gaiman--as well as musician Moby and comedian Margaret Cho.
At 28, the New York City-based artist has spoken to throngs of admirers at the Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum, and heavyweight galleries and universities from Helsinki to Sao Paulo. Her client roster includes The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Red Bull, Marvel Comics, and a few less-respectable patrons.
Molly adores absinthe, circus performers, leather-bound books and crowquill pens. She is deeply entrenched in plots of world domination, but will (temporarily) set aside her stratagems for commissioned projects...and impromptu trips to Paris.
Molly has done it again! Warning! This little book will seduce you, enthrall you and have you laughing out loud at times. For those of you who are illiterate, don't worry. This is an art book so you can simply admire the lovely pictures that Molly has been kind enough to draw over the past few years (get someone else to read this review for you). If you actually can read, you will enjoy the comments from Margaret Cho, Neil Gaiman and Molly herself throughout the slender and beautifully rendered tome. From fanciful, remarkably detailed Burlesque images to portraits of a variety of intriguing people (Stoya graces the cover) this volume captures Molly's interests in many ways. Her posters for OWS and May Day are iconic. Her desire to make a difference socially and politically through her art is what separates her from most artists today. This "volume" speaks "volumes" about her dedication to the world around her as well as the Bohemian underbelly that she loves to explore. It is guaranteed to make you smile (or possibly gasp at times!) but there is no way you will not want to continue turning pages. The only bad thing about this little book is that it doesn't go on forever...
