Halloween: Vintage Holiday Graphics (Icons) (Paperback)

by Steven Heller (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Trick or treat (smell my feet!) A guaranteed trip down memory lane, this book celebrates All Hallows' Eve in American graphic and print media from the early 1900s to the '60s. Featuring witches, ghouls, ghosts, and jack-o-lanterns, the scariest postcards and decorations, the silliest costumes and candid photos are collected here. With an introduction tracing the unexpected history of Halloween and its traditions, Vintage Halloween is a nostalgic tribute to one of America's favorite holidays.

About the Author
The author: Steven Heller, the art director of the New York Times Book Review and co-chair of the School of Visual Arts MFA Design program, is the author of over 90 books on design, popular culture, and satiric art. His recent books include Design Literacy Second Edition, Handwritten: Expressive Lettering in the Digital Age, and The Education of a Graphic Designer. The editor: Jim Heimann is Executive Editor for TASCHEN America in Los Angeles and the author of numerous books on architecture, popular culture, and Hollywood history.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Taschen (July 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 382284585X
• ISBN-13: 978-3822845851
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #366,389 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inviting The Autumn Muses , October 3, 2005

By	J. E. Barnes (Bayridge, Brooklyn, New York) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Jim Heimann's Halloween: Vintage Holiday Graphics (2005) offers one of the best collections of Olde Halloween images yet available. Drawing material from postcards, paper decorations, magazines, advertisements, package labels, private period photographs, sheet music, masks, costumes, party favors, and other varied sources, the book offers almost two hundred pages of visionary iconography, that, for many, will definitely represent the very nature of the holiday itself.

Among the more archetypal images: a vegetable man, three devils, and a caped witch enjoy a circular dance beneath an enormous watchful owl perched on a half moon; an androgynous child and black cat peering into a jack o' lantern as a transparent, green-skinned witch breezes by unseen overhead; and, appearing like the eternal outsider, a red-skirted witch gazes unnoticed through a window at a child's party, while a black cat, an owl, and an anthropomorphic moon observe her in turn.

Traditional images of ghosts, scarecrows, bats, fairies, pumpkins, and human tricksters in colors of orange, black, white, and green predominate, though some of the images were clearly culled from the Fifties and Sixties, and thus the occasional helmeted spaceman or antenned robot appears. There is a photograph of an adult blandly costumed as John F. Kennedy, another of a boy outlandishly dressed as television dolphin star Flipper, and, from an earlier era, bizarrely costumed manifestations of Mickey and Minnie Mouse courting one another out of doors.

The book's only flaw lies in the thankfully brief and offensively misguided preface essay by Steven Heller, whose questionable credentials for contributing such a piece are nowhere in evidence. "It is hard to image a more paradoxical day of celebration than one where ghouls, warlocks, and zombies freely haunt the populace to their cold heart's content - an entire day dedicated to torment," Heller begins, before immediately and awkwardly backtracking, though he continues to show little understanding of the nature of the holiday.

In essence, Halloween has nothing to do with ghouls or zombies, and certainly nothing to do with "torment." Readers with a broad and reaching knowledge of Halloween may also disagree with Heller's conclusion that "vampires, werewolves, and mummies" are in any way fundamental to the holiday's "liturgy."

Nor, as Heller states, is Halloween essentially about "being scared out of one's wits." Fear was merely the human byproduct incidentally produced by the supernatural agencies believed to freely walk the earth while the veil between worlds was at its weakest each All Hallows' Eve. Even the products of the American commercial haunted house industry, which manifest across the landscape during the fall, are rarely, if ever, frightening. Heller seems to have confused the contemporary vulgar corporate mindset, which panders to the increasing ignorance of the middle classes, with the genuine elements which characterize the holiday's pagan majesty and long traditions.

As his essay completely ignores the period from which virtually all of the included images were taken, Halloween: Vintage Holiday Graphics would have been a better book without Heller's contribution.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great little book., November 9, 2007

By	Spookee Boo "Horror Fan" - See all my reviews

This book is packed with great vintage illustrations from Halloweens past. As an artist who is heavily inspired buy Halloween imagery this book has been invaluable. I actually ended up wearing mine to pieces. But for the price it's really hard to complain. A little book glue and it's as good as new. This book is one of my favorite in my collection. Definitely worth the cheap price tag for anyone who is into this kind of thing.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun and yet, made me feel a bit old!!!, October 18, 2007

By	CLG "Carrie Greenwald" (South Dakota) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

I really enjoyed this book of vintage Halloween goodies and images - some I still have from the time I was a small child (I won't tell how long ago that was!!). A true enjoyment for the favorite party-time ever! Makes me want to say "Merry Halloween" to everyone - a commonly used title on the really old cards/images.