Customer Reviews

Mad Men: The Illustrated World

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Unless the person you're buying for is the most casual of fans, they should be delighted with Dyna Moe's sense of humor and eye for details. The art captures with style and wit some of the iconic images devoted viewers know by heart, bringing out clever details. We learn how to make some of your better cocktails and then how to whip up hangover recipes. (The image for the former references Sally's skill with a shaker, and the latter is Betty on the bed after "A Night To Remember.")There are several pages devoted to a Joan paper doll. Pete with rifle, Paul at his most pretentious, a stewardess making eyes at the cool and collected Don, as well as Sal, and Connie, and Peggy... You'll learn how to create the perfect bouffant, and well as the books you'll need to know about to bluff your way through a cocktail party, phrases for well-meaning squares who might want to attend a freedom ride, and what your secretary's hairstyle means.

Swell!

I'm a huge fan of the show, and I'm not sure what I was hoping for in this book, but I was a little disappointed by the content. Ms. Moe's illustrations are fantastic, but her humor was uneven and generally too silly for my tastes. From the Amazon preview pages I knew it'd be a bit of a light-hearted take on the show, but I also thought there'd be some insight into the "Mad Men world" - recipes for making period cocktails, early 60's fashion, etc.

Instead, it's more or less a parody of the show's content, and it just gets cornier as the book goes on. If you're a fan of the show, you can safely pass this one up. Dyna Moe is a gifted illustrator, but her jokes fall flat and feel forced more often than not.

I purchased this book as a gift to myself. I love it and may purchase it for other Mad Men fans I know. It is so fun to flip through. The fonts are fantastic and it is full of folly and flippant artwork.

Dyna Moe has captured the spirit of the show wonderfully. I just want to crawl into some of the pictures and live there, or slide and swing around on the fonts.

This is a perfect book to keep out on the table...much more satisfying than an overrated magazine and more cost effective than your typical coffee table book.

Buy it, share it, live it.

I purchased this book for a friend who is "mad" about Mad Men. She LOVED it. She worked at that time and in the atmosphere of the show for many years and can relate first-hand to most of what goes on.

Both of us got a laugh out of the paper dolls included in the book. Both of us are of the age that we remember playing with paper dolls when we were young.

Good fun!!

I'm pretty sure that some of the high reviews of this collection of doll clothes illustrations, recipe rip-offs and second-rate humor are from friends of the doubtless popular author. Contrary to comments, this is not a good coffee table book unless your guest won't have time to really look at it. I'll give it a few days and then consign it to the dust bin.

Being a huge Mad Men fan I thought this would be better than it was. It is very dumb and a waste of money. Not even good enough to be a true coffee table book. Kudos to whoever did it and took advantage of the popularity of the show. Luckily it was cheap.

Mostly what it advertises to be: illustrations. Definitely a companion to the hit television series and nor a stand-alone book... too many of the inside jokes would get past you.

My husband is a HUGE fan of this series. This was a fun representation of some of the series characters. Adds to my husband's collection of Madmen memorabilia.

The drinks are accurate and quite potent. There are hangover remedies in here for that too.
He illustrations could not possibly be any more cute or charming... even if they include pregnant women smoking (remember kids... it is just a drawing, it was only once real! Don't try this at home!)
The jokes can get raunchy but fit the show plot points.
Who doesn't want a Joan Holloway paper doll? Who doesn't want to sing "L'Amour ooh-la-la" as cute as Joan can (with or without accordion!)
This book is lot of fun amongst adults and fans of the show... even those don't watch the show are humored by the "bouffant" directions, the drink mixes, the "rainy day games" and begin telling me stories of their own childhood times making Betty look like a Nobel-Prize-mothering-nominee. Fascinating.
I would like to go the record wishing for something with maybe a Peggy Olson feature... Sequel perhaps? Because, how the heck does Crane get to write about bow ties, Sterling get a two-page giggle on Hotel Trysts and yet Peggy only get a cute image or three? More Peggy! Even if Joan is my Beloved Favorite!

Did I mention three seasons of Joan paper dolls? I cut them out, put them on magnet backings and stuck them onto my file cabinet at work... very, very, very popular with all!

I love the illustrations of Mad Men episodes in this book, which is the meat of it, but there's also a lot of text describing select cultural, political, and historic people and events. There are also recipes and a very funny piece by Rich Sommer about his adventures learning to tie a bow tie.