Customer Reviews

Facetasm : Creepy Mix-And-Match Book of Face Mutations

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Remember those books you played with when you were a kid where on each page would be an ordinary drawing cut into three sections, but if you turned only one or two of those sections to a different page, you would create a new picture meshing together two or three different scenes? This is the same basic concept, but geared towards adults with the hearts of children (in their desk drawer).

Combining their skills are two of the greatest renderers of the strange and grotesque, Charles Burns and Gary Panter. My one complaint, however, is that what really made this type of book great as a kid was that you could take the ordinary and make it extraordinary and bizarre, however with Facetasm, each original picture is already bizarre as is. This takes away from the fun of such subversive acts as, e.g., combining a picture of a macho testosterone filled body builder with those of a dainty ballerina and a withered old man. Here, the artists themselves have already committed the acts of subversion with each original drawing. But it is still fun to play around with and it contains great artwork by both contributors.

This book is well worth the price and the time it take to reach you home. It's just a lot of fun. Charles Burns is one of the greatest illustrators it shows that he is very careful with his pen strokes. Gary Panter on the other hand wasn't a real good match for Burns but he doesn't ruin the book. They both did a terrific job. The whole idea is terrific.