Customer Reviews

Be a Nose! (Mcsweeneys)

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Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Maus, presents this 3-volume reproduction of his private sketchbooks. The first volume is the small notebook Spiegelman took to the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1979. It's quite small and filled with black and white drawings. The second volume, dated 2007, is more substantive than the first, but my favorite is the third volume from 1983. Containing more detail and more color than the other two, the third volume is the most interesting to flip through.

Since there's no narrative and very few related images in these sketchbooks, they're best appreciated in small doses. The imagery is interesting but lacks the supporting substance found in Spiegelman's longer works. By far the best thing about these sketchbooks is their clever design. McSweeney's did a beautiful job publishing this "book," which consists of three volumes of different sizes, types, and textures. These really do look like real sketchbooks. If you leave them lying around the house, visitors will mistake you for the artsy type.

Art Spiegelman, the creator of Maus: A Survivor's Taleand of many iconic images--including the 9/11 cover for "The New Yorker", opens up his sketches and inner most thoughts to the world in this small collection of his sketchbooks. Which provides some interesting images into how Art views the world and the notes that he took about what goes on around him. But...it really doesn't have any cohesion to the volumes (I work at an academic library and there are actually four volumes to our books all different sizes, one of which is printed like a mini comicbook and introduces the series and what it is.) It would be nice if this was perhaps just one volume with notes about where he was that day or what he did with the work. Or even just deciphering his handwriting which is difficult to read in some places.

Overall...if you're a big fan of Art then I recommend these books for purchase. Otherwise, they're interesting to look at and get a different perspective on the world, but I wouldn't necessarily buy them.

This is an interesting side note for fans of Spiegelman's work. This is exactly what it is, pages from his sketchbooks. Again, if you're a fan this will be of interest but otherwise I can't imagine anyone else enjoying this. The production is nice, each book is it's own distinct size, and a nice but not essential item for the comics library.

Excellent job , great books. A different look at Art's art ( I like that......) and a glance at his work in progress a great addition to his "oeuvre".