This week- surprise surprise!- the awesome Ray Fenwick is going to be guest blogging five of his favorite books. If you haven’t seen Ray’s work or read the huge article about him in Print magazine, then it’s time to check his work out via his website, his flickr page or his design studio’s site. His patterns are my favorite, full of super illustrative elements, they are always light and fun. (He’s been a huge inspiration for me in that department.) His work always has a great sense of humor to it from his handdrawn LL.Cool J lyrics to his Hall of Best Knowledge comics (which this spring will be published by Fantagraphics) to this great Don’t Freak Out Shopper tote bag. Ray has such a big fan club that it was almost impossible to get one of his Tiny Showcase letterpressed prints. When it came time to purchase I had to click refresh about 55 times because the site was so overloaded. I always look forward to hearing what Ray’s up to next because it’s always something exciting and his emails often make me laugh outloud. I am so so happy he was willing to contribute to this blog and make me laugh a little more. Thanks Ray!!

You should buy it!

Right off the hop, I have three questions. First, Is it a conflict of interest to write about something that I was involved in? Second, I think that only applies to professionals, am I right about that? Lastly, are people who write blogs “professionals”? If I am to answer those questions in reverse order, I would say that bloggers are amateurs, conflict of interest (or any ethical code) is only something the pros need to worry about and that it’s okay for me to write about this book.

I shouldn’t really worry about conflict of interest though, as I only did the inside covers, but it was enough to get me a couple copies. Once you see the book it should be clear that this is a pretty impressive score on my part. It’s lavishly produced, with a foil-stamped, cloth-bound hardcover, gilt (gold painted) edges, immaculate printing and lovely paper. It’s stunning to look at, but dudes, DUDES, we haven’t even opened it yet!

Inside Beasts!, ninety different artists, illustrators, designers and picture-makers are each given a page to depict a mythological or folkloric beast. Along with each full page you’re given a short history of said creature. The images concocted are as varied as the artists represented, but what took me by surprise was how consistently great the work was. I could easily rip out two thirds of this book and frame it. In fact, that sounds like a pretty rad idea. If I had a beautiful mahogany-walled private study I would hang the beasts done by Esther Pearl Watson, Mat Brinkman (obviously I’m crushing on him), Corey Lunn, Marc Bell, Mizda Wana, Bwana Spoons, Justin B. Williams, Maxwell Loren Holyoke-Hirsch and Souther Salazar. Later I would tear them down out of jealousy, but until then, wow. Beautiful.

© Julia Rothman 2007