Friday, February 5, 2010

Haunted Book Review Thursday...On a Friday.

"I've always depended on the kindness of strangers" could be an appropriate title for this posting since this Hallowe'en book was a gift from when is evil cool? a very cool guy and artist to boot.  He also has the Random Picture Day blog.  I would LOVE to know how he finds all these absolutely marvelous eclectic mix of pictures from everywhere and of everything imaginable. Not only that, he painted me this GREAT skull picture...and did I mention it's about 2 inches by 3 inches?  Incredible!  This photo washed out the colors, it's a whole lot more vivid in person.  Go by and visit when is evil cool? and Random Picture Day, you'll be glad you did!


Haunted Book Review Thursday...

 

Halloween: Vintage Holiday Graphics
Edited by Jim Heimann

This is my kind of book, no annoying pesty things in it, oh, what are they called...oh yes...WORDS.  This book is a glorious pictorial history of commercial Halloween advertising, cards, costumes, decorations and candy.  The pictures speak more than any explanation could, from the elegant printed dinner napkin from the Art Deco period to the wasp-waisted housewife from the 50's handing out full sized candy bars to the kids around to quaint vegetable cards from the turn of the century, you get a wonderful (and sometimes blatantly disturbing) glimpse into Halloweens past. 

The only thing that I might would have done differently is organized the graphics by chronological order but then again, the artistic renderings of all the products are basically foolproof to what era they were made.  And also, each page is a different surprise, making the book always fresh to look through.

This is a great book for inspiration, imagination, and just getting into the spirit of the season so yeah, you need to get it.

When is evil cool?, thanks again!

3 comments:

Diane said...

that looks like a totally cool book! wiec? and his random pics are great places to visit. super neato skull painting!! maybe you will share some of the images from the book with us....? :)

suzanne said...

I'll have to track this book down. I love vintage Halloween imagery.

Nice skull :)

wiec? said...

Thanks for the shout Mr. M and glad you like the painting.

couldn't agree more about the book. Taschen (the publisher who put out the book) makes one for all the holidays apparantly. At Barnes and Noble i leafed through the Valentines Day Book. Just as varied as and full of cool images from decades past but not a keeper like the Halloween book.