Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years Is As Much A Mixed Bag As The Exhibition!

The Good: Good photography, Nice foreword, Some impressive art
The Bad: Overpriced, Some terrible artwork
The Basics: Titan Books allows those who cannot make it to the traveling Star Trek: The Exhibition experience the Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years as a coffeetable book with as mixed results as the artwork it presents!


I own very few coffeetable books. For one, I have cats, so the coffeetable is frequently used as a feline jungle gym and, frankly, I don't need to bring anything else into the house that the cats will destroy just by being placed where their name dictates. Second, coffeetable books are a tough sell with me because their pricing follows a very predictable arc; the price is usually set artificially high to capitalize on initial hype of the book's subject, then about three months after the premiere, the price of the book plummets . . . and about a year later, the coffeetable book goes into collectible pricing ranges based on its rarity, but it is virtually impossible to find truly mint copies of the book (yes, I am a snob about book condition!). So, I tend to avoid coffeetable books as a genre, though I do have a couple. When Titan Books announced that it was publishing the coffeetable volume Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years, that got my attention.

I was genuinely surprised that Titan Books could publish a coffeetable book because the last I knew Simon & Schuester/Pocket Books had the exclusive license for publishing Star Trek books (as I have come to understand it, there are differences between the fiction and non-fiction - about productions, cultural impact, etc. - publications and that allowed Titan Books to publish Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years). I also found myself thinking that Titan Books was a good choice for publishing Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years, a book based on the art exhibition of the same name that is traveling the world during the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek (which just so happens to be today!). Titan Books did an impressive job with Watchmen Portraits (reviewed here!) and it seemed like they could do right by a volume cataloging the Star Trek 50 Artists 50 Years Exhibition.

Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years is a coffeetable photography book that captures the artwork from the Star Trek: The Exhibition traveling art display of the same name. For $40, readers, collectors and art enthusiasts get a 112 page book of photographs and blurbs that is barely over a half-inch thick (not, admittedly, the way books are usually valued, but it's a lot of money for something that is physically less substantial or impressive than other Titan Books volumes in the same price point). The unique aspect of the book is a foreword by Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan director Nicholas Meyer.

As for the rest, what Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years are photographs or images of the fifty art pieces that were contributed to celebrate the 50th Anniversary Of Star Trek. The pieces range from montages that pack characters in from virtually every episode of the original Star Trek for a single shot to stylized headshots of Star Trek (franchise) aliens. There is a photo montage of (essentially) Mayim Bialik doing cosplay and photographs of toys and a theoretical starship. One of Leonard Nimoy's photograph montages was included, as well as new retro-looming movie posters and faux-recruiting posters for StarFleet!

What Titan Books got right with Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years is the book's physical quality. The foreword is a nice touch and all of the images are credited on the page opposite the work. The photographs look good and the paper stock is thick enough so there is no image bleed from other pages; each work of art is left to stand on its own. Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years is a book that looks as good as the artwork it portrays within its pages.

That said, Titan Books cannot be held responsible for the content of those pages and that is a decidedly mixed bag. Some of the artwork is cartoonish and juvenile and the purpose behind some of the pieces eludes me (Spock leaning on a classic car, for example). It is art, but it is not like the subjects of the photographs in the book Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years were all oil paintings; some are essentially doodles by famous artists. Others are immaculate works of detailed art, clever, or have quite a bit of artistic merit (like Nimoy's photography). The inconsistency makes for a very unsatisfying book and collection.

Which brings us to why Titan Books bothered to publish Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years. Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years was a massive undertaking and I suspect licensees like Titan Books and Rittenhouse Archives (which created a trading card set based upon the artwork from the exhibition, reviewed here!) had to bid and produce their products in something of a vacuum. They took a risk on the subject and, sadly, none of the licensees or museums that are hosting the Star Trek: The Exhibition knew that it would be so thoroughly spoiled online. StarTrek.com published images of all fifty works to promote the project and it completely guts the need for something like Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years. The book ends up feeling, sadly, like a cashgrab and to be fair to Titan Books, they did get screwed by startrek.com.

But, Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years exists in the same world as the internet and is attempting to appeal to the same fanbase. Unfortunately, in this instance, it makes Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years utterly unnecessary. Given the opportunity, I suspect most fans will look over the artwork on startrek.com and realize there is little thrill to be had in seeing the displays in person. Moreover, some of the artists are likely to offer prints of their work directly; that would allow fans to get the exact work or works that they loved from the art exhibition, without the works they did not. I would be surprised if there were fifty Star Trek fans in the entire world who would want all fifty pieces of artwork from the Star Trek 50 Artists 50 Years project hanging in their homes.

Ultimately, that makes the appeal of Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years surprisingly minimal, even for a coffeetable book that one glances at only occasionally.

The artwork within this book utilizes images based upon elements of the Star Trek franchise, most notably:
Star Trek
Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan
Star Trek: The Next Generation

For other Star Trek reference books, check out my reviews of:
Where No One Has Gone Before: A History In Pictures
The Star Trek Compendium
The Official Star Trek Prop And Costume Auction Book

5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Were It Not For The Furious Gods, Prometheus: The Art Of The Film Would Be Indispensible To Fans!

The Good: Decent stories, Great artwork, Affordable
The Bad: Repetitive, Nothing exclusive, Incomplete
The Basics: Prometheus: The Art Of The Film is an excellent tool for building hype for the film Prometheus and it is a wonderful resource to moviemakers, but there is nothing unique to it, which makes it more dated than timeless!


Back when Prometheus (reviewed here!) was first released, I was incredibly excited about the film. In fact, despite the problems with the plot of the film, I remain a pretty active fan of Prometheus. My wife seems to have tapped into that and she has picked me up a decent number of Prometheus-related gifts. The latest gift that is related to my love of Prometheus is Prometheus: The Art Of The Film. Prometheus: The Art Of The Film, by Mark Salisbury, is a book by Titan Books, a publisher that seems to specialize with releasing coffeetable books to coincide with genre blockbuster film releases.

Such is the case with Prometheus: The Art Of The Film. Salisbury wrote the book well and the sources are incredible, but in a world where so much information if available at the tip of one’s fingers thanks to the internet, books like Prometheus: The Art Of The Film lose their edge. In the specific case of Prometheus: The Art Of The Film, Salisbury and Titan Books run into the dual problems of not being exclusive/thorough enough and having to compete with a pretty impressive documentary. The former problem is one that has to irk people like Salisbury; just last week, artwork surfaced for a film that was being pitched around the time of Prometheus’s conception, an Aliens sequel featuring Ripley and Corporal Hicks that was the brainchild of director Neill Blomkamp. There is not even the faintest allusion to the project in Prometheus: The Art Of The Film and, considering the breaking news on the subject was art-related, print media once again takes a hit to the awesome power of the internet.

Unfortunately, Prometheus: The Art Of The Film is competing directly with The Furious Gods: The Making Of Prometheus (reviewed here!), a documentary that was released with the Blu-Ray version of the film. This is unfortunate because in Prometheus: The Art Of The Film, Mark Salisbury culls a number of great behind-the-scenes stories about how Prometheus was conceptualized and visualized . . . but the documentary includes all the same stories and more!

The benefit, of course, for Prometheus: The Art Of The Film is that it is a solid, stable book (those who want to take time to appreciate the artwork can linger on the pages as opposed to pausing a Blu-Ray) as opposed to a flickering screen.

As the title suggests, Prometheus: The Art Of The Film is a nonfiction, hardcover, book which explores how the film Prometheus was made. The writing is from Mark Salisbury (with a forward by Ridley Scott) and it is Salisbury’s relaying of a number of stories from the creative staff and stars of Prometheus. Salisbury charts the course of the creation of the film from the first pitches to the major rewrites through the storyboard sessions. He then got extensive interviews with creative personnel associated with the creation of Prometheus - costume designers, ship/vehicle designers, set dressers, etc. – in order to get the stories behind how the look and feel of Prometheus was developed. The level of thought behind every aspect of the designs in Prometheus is impressive and Salisbury catalogues the stories well, from the various thoughts behind the spacesuits that Shaw would wear to the various revisions of the Ampule found on the alien planet!

What makes Prometheus: The Art Of The Film worthwhile and still worth picking up for die-hard fans (even after they have watched the documentary) are the book’s extensive photographs. Prometheus: The Art Of The Film is a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes production pictures that incredibly detail the entire process of conceptualizing and creating the iconic images of Prometheus. The photographs are presented on beautiful, glossy, pages and anyone looking to make a science fiction epic will appreciate the level of detail captured in the pictures in the book. They are worthy of study.

Titan Books originally asked $39.95 for Prometheus: The Art Of The Film, but as the hype for Prometheus has died down, so has the price of the coffeetable book deflated. The advantage of this is that at clearance prices, Prometheus: The Art Of The Film becomes an indispensable asset to die-hard fans instead of a cashgrab. Despite being trumped by The Furious Gods, Prometheus: The Art Of The Film remains worthwhile and enjoyable.

For other Prometheus-related and film tie-in reviews, please check out my reviews of:
NECA Prometheus Holographic Engineer (Pressure Suit) Action Figure
Watchmen Portraits By Clay Enos
The Official Star Trek Prop And Costume Auction Book

5/10

For other book reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Wavelike Career (And Life) Of Janis Ian, Society’s Child

The Good: Informative, Mostly well-written, Entertaining
The Bad: A few gaps in the narrative
The Basics: Anyone who is a fan of music should pick up and read Society’s Child, the autobiography of Janis Ian which is a whirlwind of namedropping, professional victories and personal tragedies.


Today was a real treat for me; after months of having it on the nightstand, I finally sat down and read the bulk of Society’s Child. My wife gave me Society’s Child in hardcover for our five year wedding anniversary and as part of my goal for the year to read more, I started it several months ago. Until I committed today to being a reading day, I had not had the chance to devote the time and effort to focus my attention on it. I’m glad that I did; Society’s Child deserves the reader’s full attention for several reasons, not the least of which is that the autobiography’s subject, Janis Ian, has had a whirlwind life.

Society’s Child is the 348 page autobiography (plus the index pages) of singer-songwriter Janis Ian. Published in 2008, Society’s Child is a brutally honest personal narrative of a singer-songwriter whose works might no longer be at the forefront of the collective unconscious, but have far more enduring value than the vast majority of the music being produced and released today. Janis Ian is the writer and singer of songs from the late 1960s and 1970s when her career hit its worldwide peaks with the singles “Society’s Child,” “Jesse,” “Stars,” and “At Seventeen.” Society’s Child chronicles her professional resilience – while she has had many other charting songs between and since, she has certainly become more of a niche performer than a popular recording artist of the masses – and the erratic nature of her personal life.

On the personal front, Society’s Child is the story of a young woman whose trust was systematically destroyed almost from her earliest interactions with other people. Janis Ian writes frankly about her sexual abuse at the hands of her family’s dentist, her early attempts at songwriting and the relationships that formed the basis for many of her poems which she set to music. Ian writes about the effect having a hit song as a teenager had on her and her family, how her life at school dramatically changed and how her earnings contributed to her parents’ divorce. Janis Ian writes about the personal trials and tribulations that framed her life with an honesty that is uncommon in any autobiography, which makes for an engaging read and a deeply human narrative. It is virtually impossible to read Society’s Child as a fan of the works of Janis Ian, once pop superstar around the world, and continue to elevate her in the mind to superhuman status. First and foremost, Society’s Child makes a woman with creative gifts and lifetime earnings that vastly outstrip those of almost every reader seem incidental; she is first and foremost a person and her journey through life has not been easy. There is no other celebrity biography I have ever encountered wherein the subject of the narrative celebrates being able to get $20 out of an ATM to buy socks in chapters following being a superstar who ate live lobster sushi in Japan during a tour that made her rich.

Society’s Child casts Janis Ian as a woman who struggles with relationships and deep trust issues. Her trust violated at almost every turn (the FBI kept tabs on her family, leaving her father unable to get tenure during the Civil Rights Movement; late in the volume, she learns that her financial manager had been embezzling for decades, leaving her at the mercy of a zealous IRS agent who left her destitute), she took solace in romantic relationships that did not pan out. From a somewhat mundane first love to her first romantic relationship with a woman, Society’s Child illustrates how Janis Ian struggled to find love and acceptance regardless of her celebrity. Her first marriage is chronicled and is difficult to read (for the content, not the diction). Only a few pages after the relationship is loving and blooming, Ian faces the barrel of a gun and a situation written with such realism and tension that the reader forgets that the narrator must have survived it in order to write the book.

Fortunately, Society’s Child is not just the troubling tale of one woman who gets abused by a dentist, a husband, a therapist and the IRS. Acting in odd foil to her personal travails, both in terms of relationships and health, Janis Ian chronicles the story of her albums and recording career. After the initial stories, Society’s Child tells the story of Janis Ian’s life album by album. Ian writes about being a folk singer who is deemed “too young” by the established folk community in New York City. Not allowed to perform at some critical, early opportunities, Janis Ian is taken under the wing of luminaries in the pop and folk music fields. After befriending Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, Janis Ian’s meteoric career puts her on par with singer-songwriters like Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger, Billy Joel, and Joan Baez.

Society’s Child illustrates the impossibly fickle music industry and how Janis Ian struggled as an artist against a machine that abhorred the art that made her initially marketable. Ian writes about how the industry cycle of touring, promoting and recording became virtually impossible to balance against the act of creating the music the record label demanded of her. The book describes well and in enough detail how the traditional paradigm for the music industry was oppressive and robbed her of the personal moments that she needed to be an artist.

For those who are not already fans of the works of Janis Ian, Society’s Child is a great primer. Ian’s work is not filled with gratuitous namedropping; just as she describes the difficulty of those who did not live through the Civil Rights Movement understanding the social turmoil of the early years of her life, her description of the process of meeting other artists and being recognized by the music community calls back to a very different time and place. Ian writes about the late 60’s club scene vividly and she writes with reverence about her contemporaries and her inspirations as they come into her life.

While there are a few sloppy moments of prose – on one point, Janis Joplin pops up in a story as “Janis,” making the reader think Ian has slipped into the third person – most of Society’s Child is well-written and engaging. Ian writes with a sense of humor where appropriate (her story about eating sushi in Japan and running into Bruce Springsteen on the street after he was charting are instantly memorable) and with a vivid sense of imagery for the rest. Her internal narrative is tormented and she chronicles it well as she describes her feelings of betrayal, her feelings of being affectless, and of coming back to being emotionally well-rounded exceptionally well. Janis Ian details being dosed with vivid and disturbing imagery. Her descriptions, late in the book, of some of her health problems like CFS get troublingly resolved. For example, at the height of her CFS story where she appears otherwise insensate, she finds herself interrogated by the feds in an incident that she recounts without any of the nebulous of the incidents that immediately precede or follow it.

Despite the very few moments when the writing is not as tight or clear, the bulk of Society’s Child reads as a tight, engaging personal narrative. Anyone who has ever had a sense of celebrity worship should read Society’s Child; it humanizes one extraordinary artist and reminds the reader that while the industry and popularity of musical artists and movements might be fickle, those who create the art we consume face the same struggles we do and more and they are bound to face those challenges with the same basic tools we possess. While there is certainly more of the story of Janis Ian left to tell, Society’s Child gives perspective on the portion of Ian’s life most people will be most interested in.

For other works by Janis Ian, visit my reviews of:
Concert - East Lansing, MI - March 8, 2013
Janis Ian
. . . For All The Seasons Of Your Mind
Society's Child: The Verve Recordings
Stars
Remember
Between The Lines
Aftertones
Breaking Silence
Revenge
Hunger
God & The F.B.I.
Billie's Bones
Live: Working Without A Net
Folk Is The New Black
The Best Of Janis Ian - 2 CD + Exclusive DVD Edition

8/10

For other book reviews, please check out my Nonfiction Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Worthwhile Independent Of The Documentary, Superheroes! Is An Engaging Pop Culture History Volume!

The Good: Well-written, Fairly thorough
The Bad: Some missing elements, Does not fully explore a few concepts/characters
The Basics: Probably the definitive history of comic books in relation to popular culture in the United States, Superheroes! stands well on its own.


For the past few years, I have been reading and reviewing graphic novels and when I started, it was because I recognized that so many new films were based upon graphic novels. There was a pretty obvious massive crossover in geek culture to popular culture when V For Vendetta (reviewed here!) was adapted for a film and it was a major cinematic release/success. Recently, PBS aired a documentary on the history and significance of comic books in U.S. pop culture. To go with that documentary, the book Superheroes! was published.

Superheroes! has the appearance of a coffee table book, but what it actually is is a text book. For anyone and everyone studying the history of significance of comic books, Superheroes! might well be the definitive text. The book, written by Laurence Maslon and Michael Kantor, is filled with obscure and interesting photographs – covers of comic books that have not been seen intact since they were originally released (long before they were ever considered collectible) – but it is the text of Superheroes! that makes the volume a “must buy” for historians of U.S. pop culture.

Superheroes! describes the history of comic books in three major movements. In the United States, comic books began their ascent during the Great Depression. Starting as anthologies serialized comic strips that were sold dirt cheap and as collection of pulp books that were dominated by pictures, comic books became a phenomenon geared toward children when Detective Comics began monthly publications and sold their dime comic books to children through candy shops. The massive appeal of comic books erupted with the creation and release of Action Comics #1 – the first appearance of Superman.

Superheroes! then describes the creation of many of the major superheroes: Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man and the X-Men. Following the Great Depression, during the 1950s, the nature of comic book heroes evolved . . . and they came to the attention of agents of censorship. As a result, comic books evolved again and with the creation of the Comics Code, popular culture and geek culture around comic books diverged. While the mainstream books brought superheroes into a constant struggle to save the Earth, independent books pushed the boundaries of humor, taste, and social issues.

The final section of comic book history explores the way comic books started to use darker protagonists and comic books were adapted into major motion pictures. The eruption into mainstream culture brought a legitimacy to the fringe culture that young people and adults who had been interested in comic books never before had.

Authors Laurence Maslon and Michael Kantor do more than simply present a straightforward history of a fringe movement in the United States. Instead, Superheroes! compiles a slew of original interviews including quotes from a huge number of significant personalities in the comic book world. As a result, Superheroes! includes views from Stan Lee, Adam West, Alan Moore, and Lynda Carter that add depth and perspective beyond what one usually finds in either a history book or a coffee table volume.

The added perspectives are enlightening and Superheroes! is well-researched and well-written. It does have some gaps (The Human Torch is referenced as a comic book long before The Fantastic Four are created and transitions like that are presented somewhat erratically). Despite some gaps and having to gloss over some specifics about individual popular titles, which makes sense for keeping the book manageable in size and readable, Superheroes! is a worthwhile read and something everyone who truly loves comic books ought to own and read multiple times.

For other reference books related to comic books, please check out my reviews of:
The Wonder Woman Encyclopedia
Watchmen: The Film Companion
Mythology: The Art Of Alex Ross

8.5/10

For other book reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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(Not Really) The Autobiography Of Martin Luther King, Jr. Is An Informative Biography On The Leader, Not The Man.

The Good: Well-written, Strong narrative, Organized and readable to present a clear story of how one man changed the civil rights movement.
The Bad: Very little personal information/insight into the man
The Basics: The Autobiography Of Martin Luther King, Jr., compiled post-mortem, is an engaging narrative of the Civil Rights leader, with little insight into the man.


Honestly, when I sat down to consider reviewing The Autobiography Of Martin Luther King, Jr., I was at a bit of a loss. The 366 page hardcover is an engaging narrative, but it is remarkably straightforward with its strengths and its weaknesses. The Autobiography Of Martin Luther King, Jr. was edited by Clayborne Carson after the death of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and it represents the most concise narrative in (mostly) Martin Luther King, Jr.’s own words.

The Autobiography Of Martin Luther King, Jr. tells the story of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. After a very brief exploration of his youth, being raised by a pastor, Martin Luther King, Jr. meets Coretta Scott and marries. After extensive studies, he went to Montgomery, Alabama, where he became a minister who was at the flashpoint of the bus boycott there. After helping to organize the bus strike which was a pivotal moment in American history for civil rights, Martin Luther King, Jr. leads the Civil Rights movement to bring equality for black people in the United States.

And if one wants to read a book that is essentially a blueprint on how to organize a civil disobedience campaign, The Autobiography Of Martin Luther King, Jr. is an engaging way to get such information.

What is not strong in the book is anything personal about Martin Luther King, Jr. Throughout the book, Martin Luther King, Jr. focuses on the movement with almost no ramifications to his personal life. The Autobiography Of Martin Luther King, Jr. mentions Coretta Scott as more of an afterthought than a co-leader of the movement. In fact, as the trials and tribulations of Martin Luther King, Jr. increase, Coretta Scott King is marginalized and there is almost no affect on the subject of the biography.

The Autobiography Of Martin Luther King, Jr. is good, but one is left with a somewhat inhuman portrayal of the civil rights leader. He stands for his people, but has almost no emotional depth and that level of sacrifice reads as very sad, even though he delivered the necessary results.

For other memoirs or biographies, please visit my reviews of:
Keeping Faith – Jimmy Carter
The Autobiography Of Benjamin Franklin
When You Are Engulfed In Flames – David Sedaris

7.5/10

For other book reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Surprisingly Droll Memoirs, The Autobiography Of Benjamin Franklin Is A Mundane Businessman’s Journal!

The Good: Generally well-written, Moments of engaging storytelling
The Bad: Largely uninspired and uninspiring, Ends before the personal narrative becomes relevant/juicy, Bogged down in dull details, Lack of compelling voice
The Basics: The Autobiography Of Benjamin Franklin explores the growth of an English colonist into a successful businessman.


This year, I am reading more. I am doing my best to balance my pulp with my literature as I go through my personal library at home and that means reading a lot of new-to-me volumes that have been sitting on the shelf for years. For example, I have had The Autobiography Of Benjamin Franklin on my shelf since college, when I got a copy from a book giveaway the college did each year. It was never required for any class I was in, so my sitting down to read it was all about attempting to enjoy myself and learn something about one of the nation’s forefathers.

Sadly, wrestling through the 197 pages of the actual autobiography quickly turned into a gutwrenching chore and it became very difficult for me to summon the will to actually finish reading the small volume. It also left me with remarkably little to write about the book when I was done.

The Autobiography Of Benjamin Franklin is the story – told mostly in the form of a long rambling letter that was begun in 1771 and was resumed in 1784 and 1788 – of Benjamin Frankin in his own words. Written as a letter, Benjamin Franklin recounts his life in a winding story that includes coworkers, masters, and employees with whom Franklin did business over the course of fifty years. The story follows how Franklin, as a young protégé, became engaged in working a press, then went into business to start his own newspaper and then used that newspaper in the earliest acts of resistance against the British Empire.

Herein are the two main faults with The Autobiography Of Benjamin Franklin: 1. It is so focused on the life of Benjamin Franklin as a businessman that he does not explore much in the way of philosophy and thought and nothing even bordering on emotional attachment to those who are near him, and 2. It ends rather abruptly – Franklin is in the middle of recounting events from 1757 when the narrative ends – long before it gets to any of the interesting things that one might actually wish to learn about one of the key forefathers of the United States Of America. This would be like a presidential memoir including the story of the president’s life up to the decision to run for an elected office (but not the results of said contest, any subsequent political life, nor their actual presidency).

The result is that The Autobiography Of Benjamin Franklin is boring. There is the implication that Franklin spent decent money on prostitutes, but other than that there is nothing eye-opening or even intriguing within the pages. In fact, Franklin spends much of the early book discussing establishing his businesses, with great detail paid to the politics of the time . . . for who else had presses, how they maintained them, and what the effects of competing against them might be. There is a lot of namedropping, but many of the names are historically irrelevant.

Throughout The Autobiography Of Benjamin Franklin, I kept looking for examples of wit, stories that were rich in voice, and anecdotes that spoke to higher ideals. Instead, the closest Franklin provides is a lesson on debate and antiquated notions of the printing business. The Autobiography Of Benjamin Franklin leaves the reader desperate to read something interesting about Franklin written by anyone but Benjamin Franklin; the hyperbole of not wanting to toot his own horn makes his own autobiography virtually unreadable.

For other memoirs or biographies, please visit my reviews of:
Keeping Faith – Jimmy Carter
The Muse Is Always Half-Dressed In New Orleans – Andrei Codrescu
When You Are Engulfed In Flames – David Sedaris

2/10

For other book reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Quick Read, Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross Is A Wonderful Coffee Table Biography Of Artist Alex Ross!

The Good: Amazing photography, Interesting details and biography
The Bad: Nothing particularly superlative, The writing does not light the world on fire, Does not include anything on Justice!
The Basics: Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross is a beautifully-photographed coffee table biography of one of the world’s premiere comic book artists.


For those who might not read all of my many, many reviews, I am a fan of the artwork of Alex Ross. Alex Ross is a comic book artist who paints panels of artwork for the books that he provides art for. The book Kingdom Come (reviewed here!) is known much more for the art of Alex Ross than the writing of Mark Waid. While that might not be the most fair thing in the world, it is, alas, true. Alex Ross is also the artist of my favorite graphic novel of all time, Justice (reviewed here!). So, if anything, I was excited when my library got in Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross for me. Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross is, as the title suggests, a coffee table book of Alex Ross’s artwork, with a lot of information on his process, his biography and his thoughts on his final works.

Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross is written by Chip Kidd, who serves as a decent biographer for Alex Ross. Unfortunately for fans of Alex Ross like me, Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross was written after Kingdom Come and JLA: Secret Origins (reviewed here!), but before Justice. As a result, Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross is missing what promised to be some of the most interesting sections to me. The book is chock full of information on Uncle Sam, which is now in my graphic novel “to read” list because of how intriguing this book made it seem!

Chip Kidd presents a decent chronological narrative of Alex Ross’s life in Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross. Perhaps most interestingly, Kidd quickly dispels the potential myth that Ross was heavily influenced by the style of his mother. Ross’s mother was an artist for years before she became a homemaker and Ross did not encounter her art until long after he was an established artist. Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross includes basic stories about Alex Ross’s interest in comic books, along with full-color pictures of his earliest drawings of super heroes. Kidd then details how Ross first came to work for DC Comics.

Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross becomes an astonishing resource for fans of Kingdom Come then. Through detailed interviews with Ross, Chip Kidd explores the creative genesis for Kingdom Come. Readers are walked through the character design process of Superman and Batman and are treated to extensive sketches, prototype paintings and reflections on them by Alex Ross. Through much of the middle portion of Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross, Chip Kidd takes a backseat to Ross himself. Kidd acts as a relay, phrasing or rephrasing Alex Ross’s stories on the creation of Kingdom Come without providing any editorializing of his own.

Kidd’s reluctance to editorialize continues through much of the rest of Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross. Kidd chronicles Alex Ross’s rise to popularity in the wake of the massive commercial success of Kingdom Come and he even explores the bounty of merchandise that was released surrounding Kingdom Come. In that way, Kidd and Ross detail the influence Alex Ross had on the promotional materials, toys and other merchandise surrounding Kingdom Come and the Ross’s subsequent work for DC Comics and the Warner Bros. store. Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross also includes a bounty of information on Alex Ross’s Uncle Sam. In the wake of Kingdom Come, Alex Ross could pursue whatever projects he wanted and he chose the politically-charged Uncle Sam. In Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross, Chip Kidd walks through that decision and the artwork of Uncle Sam with Ross.

Unfortunately for Alex Ross fans, Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross appears to have been published well before Justice. There is nary a mention of the massive, amazing project in the book. Big pout.

That said, what Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross has far outweighs what it is lacking. The book is a museum to the work of Alex Ross and includes everything from photographs of superhero puppets he made as a child to the photographs he used to base some of his iconic paintings off of. Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross is visually impressive, with its glossy photographs of virtually every work Alex Ross did for DC Comics, including the four “tabloid books” that focused on Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel.

There is some irony, too, which Chip Kidd is (unfortunately) unable to elaborate, exploit or explain. In discussing the origins of his career with DC Comics, Kidd reveals that the first work Ross had was to create the cover for the novelization of the story of the death of Superman. Ross actually had to be talked into the project because he did not want to have to paint Superman with long hair (which was how he appeared following the Reign Of The Supermen arc). The irony comes from the fact that when Superman makes his appearance in Kingdom Come, he is older, in hiding . . . and wears his hair long! How Kidd did not ask Ross about that is unfathomable (at least to a die-hard fan like me!).

In the end, Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross is well worth reading for anyone who loves comics, especially those who are fans of DC Comics and the works of Alex Ross. It’s a much tougher sell for buyers, though. It’s an enjoyable book, but it is not the ultimate guide to all things Alex Ross and at full price, it is expensive.

For other books on popular media and comic books, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
The Ultimate Wonder Woman Encyclopedia – Phil Jimenez
Watchmen Portraits – Clay Enos
Where No One Has Gone Before: A History In Pictures – J.M. Dillard

6/10

For other book reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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An Enjoyable Memoir From An Actor I Barely Know: Stories I Only Tell My Friend Works.

The Good: Very funny, Insightful stories, Generally well-written, Voice.
The Bad: No thematic unity, I realized quickly much of my enjoyment was based on outside appreciation of Lowe.
The Basics: Rob Lowe’s autobiography, Stories I Only Tell My Friends is an enjoyable romp that makes it seem like working with Martin Sheen on The West Wing was an inevitability.


A few weeks ago, I was at my local public library and I overheard a patron talking with two of the reactionary evangelical librarians (they exist! I was so shocked!) who work there. The patron was asking about Rob Lowe’s book and neither of the librarians had heard of it. The patron sneeringly told them that the book, Stories I Only Tell My Friends was all about how Rob Lowe was telling secrets of Hollywood. I knew of the book’s existence, but had pretty much vowed not to read it when I caught my wife checking out Rob Lowe shirtless on the cover of Vanity Fair. I knew enough about the book to correct the librarians when, two patrons later, they were still saying how horrible a man Rob Lowe must be for telling secrets. I pointed out that that book would be “Stories My Friends Told Me” and I left. I was shocked when last week, Stories I Only Tell My Friends was on the shelf, which makes me think someone liberal still works at the library.

Eager to show whatever closet liberal might still be working at the library that their efforts are appreciated, I immediately took out Stories I Only Tell My Friends. I was actually surprised at how fast the 306 page memoir read. Lowe has a decent narrative voice and the book is often funny and frequently poignant. But, it is worth getting right out of the way what I didn’t like about the book.

Lowe begins his memoirs stunningly, with the story of the photo shoot for George magazine that JFK Jr. fought to have . . . right before Kennedy died. Right off the bat, Rob Lowe is mentioning The West Wing (reviewed here!) and frankly, that’s why I had any interest at all in the book. For sure, it should not be a detraction that Lowe actually met consumer demand and wrote about his experiences on The West Wing! But the fundamental problem was that all I truly found myself caring about in Stories I Only Tell My Friends were the stories tangential to The West Wing. Ironically, in a book I recently read, I did not enjoy the namedropping; in Stories I Only Tell My Friends, I found I did like the references because I knew who Lowe was writing about, frequently before he made the references explicit.

So, for example, it was very easy to thrill upon reading that when Lowe moved to Malibu, he began hanging out with a child director, Chris Penn – with a reference to the subjects of his film, his brother Sean, friend Charlie and Charlie’s big brother Emilio (40)! As Lowe moves up in the acting world in Malibu, there are frequent near-misses or allusions to Martin Sheen. This makes, for people like me who were fans of The West Wing, thrilled because the inevitable meeting between the young Lowe and Martin Sheen a real treat to read.

Unfortunately, between those scenes and until the book moves into the sections on The West Wing Rob Lowe writes about his family, random Malibu surfer kids who died horribly and the struggle of becoming a young actor when you have an agent almost immediately and live right near Los Angeles. The book isn’t so much a “rags to riches” story as it is the story of a boy becoming a man on an inevitable ascent into superstardom. Rob Lowe writes about his young acting life with a matter-of-fact sense that reads with the very clear truth that professionally, acting was his sole passion in life.

The story also picks apart the personal foibles of Lowe, who was tabloid fodder in the late 1980s and early 1990s at a time when I didn’t care one wit about celebrity gossip. It tells of his early blooming and the seduction of women and booze in Hollywood before he got his act straight and fell in love with Sheryl. This section, much of the book, was in no way an atypical story or memoir and it became much more interesting to read about what parts Lowe passed on than the narratives about family or the like.

That’s not to say the book is bad in any way, but I can say that if I had no interest in Rob Lowe from The West Wing, this memoir would not have made me a fan. The reason is simple; all of the best parts put Lowe on the track to get that role of the lifetime and are in one way or another connected to it. Regardless, throughout Stories I Only Tell My Friends, Lowe has a distinctive narrative voice. He writes just like he speaks and that is fairly erudite, though the diction in the book is unchallenging to anyone who is fifteen years old or older.

It is hard not to appreciate his lines, though and he has some real beautiful prose. But more often than not, one can see him as Sam Seaborn smirking through some of the best moments. In that way, Lowe makes the mundane interesting again, like with his lines “As always, I want to keep my head down and assume all is well. If there is an eight-hundred-pound gorilla in the room, I won’t be the one to point it out, lest I be eaten by it” (57). There are very few contemporary actors or writers who can truly get away with using the word “lest,” but he does it.

Ultimately, anyone who likes The West Wing, actor gossip, or Rob Lowe will find something to like about Stories I Only Tell My Friends. It’s an interesting memoir, even if it reads more like an archetype of the Hollywood story than any memorable exception to it.

For other memoirs, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Role Models – John Waters
Keeping Faith – Jimmy Carter
A Moveable Feast – Ernest Hemingway

7/10

For other book reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Timely Satire Of Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!)

The Good: Funny, Moments that reach into clever
The Bad: To truly "get" requires knowledge of television show, Not all moments land, Very timely
The Basics: Stephen Colbert (and his co-writers) present a book that extends the humorous persona of the Colbert character from the mock-conservative The Colbert Report.


It's a rare thing that I pick up a book of humor, especially satire. Books like that tend to be very polarizing and while I have little problem with that, it is hard to read a book and evaluate it when one knows that it is pretty much a "love it" or "hate it" type work. And while I do enjoy watching The Daily Show With Jon Stewart when I am on the road, I have seldom found myself as amused by Stephen Colbert's The Colbert Report, which follows it.

This is not to say that I have not enjoyed the humor of Stephen Colbert. My problem with The Colbert Report is pretty much that it's a one-trick pony. Colbert deadpans his way through being an arch-conservative pundit who spouts off the most cliche concepts of patriotism, values and other conservative-appearing buzzwords to make a show of defending all things American as good and the rest of the world as losers. The problems with the show - at least the episodes that I have seen - are that Colbert is very good at what he does and he is essentially telling the same joke over and over again. Colbert's deadpan is right on; he is consistently in character and if one did not know he was being satirical, it is easy to see how some would think he was this right-wing bastion of ideology. This is largely because does not do clever asides or stop to smirk at the camera the way Jon Stewart does. In other words, Colbert does not label his jokes.

With his book, I Am America (And So Can You!), Colbert labels his jokes. In fact, the book is filled with humorous asides, in red ink, in the outside margins. I Am America (And So Can You!) is a 228 page one-trick pony but what keeps it from being mysterious to future generations will be the sidenotes. Indeed, the book is funny, but the only thing that keeps it from hinging entirely on the knowledge of Stephen Colbert's schtick is the prevalence of sidenotes and diagrams throughout the book that offer little asides, like pop-up video notes to deliver counter punchlines to what is in the main text.

In I Am America (And So Can You!) Colbert writes with mock-conservatism about the importance of the American family and keeping it idealized, vilifying education, science, and homosexuality, and doing what he can about race relations and immigration. And while someone, somewhere, might come to believe that Colbert is serious in his section on racism when he writes, "After about a hundred years of this, a very smart man named Dr. The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech and said, 'I have a dream that this should end!' And it did. Racism no longer exists in America" (172) it is quite hard to believe those people would actually get that deep into the book before recognizing the humor. Moreover, the lines I just cited are actually packed with footnotes and sidebars. After the "And it did," there is a footnote that plays off a chapter-long joke about the song "Ebony And Ivory" that notes "With the help of Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney" (172). As well, next to the last line I cited, there is the Colbert aside that "May vary on a block-by-block basis" (172).

In other words, I Am America (And So Can You!) is a book packed with jokes that even those not tuned in to The Colbert Report ought to understand as humor and satire and it is hard to believe that there are those who would not.

In addition to the lengthy diatribes on the class war between the upper, middle, and lower classes, the evils of the liberal media and the deprivations of Hollywood films, I Am America (And So Can You!) is packed with pictures and illustrations. Colbert satirically solicits advertisers throughout the Sports chapter, filling up space with corporate logos and slogans and continually renaming the chapter based on the sponsors willing to pay him for advertising space. There are places this works quite well, like the magazine covers imagined by Colbert in the section on the media (152) and the image of the book stuck inside a Bible (on page 52) to deliver humor that is actually funny and fits with the satirical intent of the book.

But then there are pictures like the coupon on page 27 for age-defying pudding that just fall flat. In combination with the over-large American-flag shaped text at the beginning of each chapter, there are maybe a hundred pages of actual text throughout the book and the rest is filled with font-size changes, open spaces (there is a place for animals to mark their territory on one page) and photographs and illustrations.

As well, I Am America (And So Can You!) comes with stickers so that one may mark their first edition in places where they agree with Colbert and award other books the "Stephen T. Colbert Award For The Literary Excellence." And Colbert acknowledges at points that he is killing space in order to reach a page count and the book self-referential like that in many places.

Colbert presents I Am America (And So Can You!) as an opportunity for readers (he does not recommend reading books) to become more patriotic and more like Colbert (at least the Colbert of The Colbert Report). As a result, the book is a clear work of humor and fiction that is intended to amuse, rather than enlighten, readers. While it is perfectly possible to get the humor that is unique to the book out of what is on the page, the specific voice of the Stephen Colbert character is rather dependent upon seeing at least one episode of The Colbert Report.

Will those who do not watch the show get something out of it? Absolutely. There are many lines that are independent of the Colbert voice, like in the section on how to read the book, where Colbert writes "This book should never have the midsection carved away in order to conceal a weapon or jewelry. Those items should be stored either inside the taxidermy heads hanging in the trophy room or in the safe behind the painting in the study" (x). Jokes like that are, again, clearly labeled jokes that make this a very quick read of a humor book.

But the political commentary on the conservative movement and its dogmatic approach to debunking science, protecting the traditional family and lambasting media and entertainment outlets are best appreciated by an understanding of the Colbert character voice. Crafted from some of the same team that established his similar indifferent character on Strangers With Candy, it is hearing that character's voice - because that is the style the book was written in - with its mock-authoritarian attitude, that makes the book more entertaining and enjoyable.

But, ultimately, it is what will date I Am America (And So Can You!). The book is funny now, but it lacks the enduring satire of something like Twain's Letters From The Earth (reviewed here!). Colbert appears - and this is not a complaint - to be capitalizing on his current popularity and his character's timely message. And it works. I Am America (And So Can You!) is funny, easy to read and is bound to make one laugh.

At least the first time through.

This is not a book that many people will need to come back to and the humor in it is pretty repetitive. After all, the joke that predominates the book is the character and the character is funny. But it's pretty much a one-trick pony.

It's hard not to like the trick, though.

For other humor books, please check out my reviews of:
Go The Fuck To Sleep - Adam Mansbach
The Sinner's Guide To The Evangelical Right - Robert Latham
The Onion Presents Our Front Pages

6/10

For other book reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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John Waters Entertains And Unsettles With Role Models!

The Good: Very funny, Great narrative voice
The Bad: Something of an acquired taste, Opens with a lot of namedropping.
The Basics: John Waters beautifully exposes the outsiders in the United States in Role Models, his latest book which is overall an intriguing anthology of character explorations.


A few months back, my wife and I were up late watching - of all things - Jimmy Kimmel Live, which we had been catching more and more since his hilarious post-Oscars episode. John Waters was on plugging his book Role Models and my wife was getting a kick out of him, while asking every few minutes "Who is this guy?!" I knew of John Waters, more than having any familiarity with his work. Indeed, the most I had seen of any of his movies had been snippets from the documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated. But, I enjoyed the snippets and the interview and for an anniversary afterward (due in no small part to the local Borders getting closed down and discounting everything drastically), my wife presented me with a copy of Role Models.

How this book hung around long enough to be discounted 75% with a store closing (not a Stephen King book in sight, what the hell?!) is a mystery to me, though the experience my wife and I had with it might be part of the reason. Role Models is a collection of character studies and each chapter has a different focus, told through the distinct voice of John Waters, and the opening of the book might seem like a lot of namedropping. My wife started reading Role Models aloud to me as I drove her around - too bad she didn't make it to the later chapters on Marine porn and Zorro the stripper! - but she became very frustrated reading the references to people she was unfamiliar with. Opening with Johnny Mathis, whose work neither she nor I were familiar with, Role Models became a painfully convoluted series of namedrops that distracted from many of the points Waters was trying to make. So, for example, after asking Johnny Mathis who his role model was, Mathis responds "Lena Horne" (10). The question and answer are literally a single line on page ten, with a one line follow-up. What follows that is not any sort of reflection on Mathis or his answer, but rather an eighteen line digression on Waters's thoughts on Margaret Hamilton. Reading John Waters' namedropping tangents is like wrestling with the perspective issues from the narrative technique of Thomas Pynchon (V is reviewed here!).

But, I soldiered through on my own and having finished Role Models, I think I am feeling exactly like John Waters wanted me (and other readers to feel). I feel like my life has been underlived and somewhat pointless. After all, I've written novels - two of which have been published -, have the first ten episodes of a one hundred episode television series written, and I've met a crapton of celebrities, but usually in the hustle and bustle of a convention atmosphere. I've done nothing. My life has been waiting for the opportunities, the pop, which Waters writes about on virtually every page. He writes about artists who have created undying works, dangerous pornogaphers who have made half a million dollars selling outsider erotica in a single year and stippers who inspire thirteen full pages! They are all original, interesting and had their own weird big break that brought them to the attention of John Waters. It's enough to make anyone who has never been to the Vanity Fair post-Oscar party weep at how banal life can be.

In all honesty, reading Role Models makes me wish I could be a beggar in front of John Waters' house. Sure, I'd flatter him (and because I am genuinely interested!) by asking him to screen his movies for me, but then I'd want to have the resources to take his advice (or some of it, anyway!). In his chapter "Bookworm," he recommends his indispensable books. Well, Mr. Waters, you sold me on wanting to read In Youth Is Pleasure, We Need To Talk About Kevin, Darkness And Day [admitting that probably excludes me from ever running for public office again, though possibly reading a John Waters book did that already!] and even Two Serious Ladies, but my wife and I spent our disposable income for books on yours, can we borrow your copies? Waters makes us yearn for more time to read and live rather than press ridiculously through the day to day like we are all bound to.

Because the book is a series of essays, there is a hit-or-miss quality to Role Models. Some of the chapters do not add up to much, like how "Little Richard, Happy At Last" is more self-referential about getting and participating in the interview with Little Richard than the content of the interview. In other words, the chapter is more about meeting Little Richard than anything Waters learned about him by interviewing him. Waters discusses rumors or preconceptions he had based on Little Richard's life, but they do not get debunked or clarified through the interview.

But what makes Role Models a salivatingly-good read, outside of Waters's distinctive voice with lines like "Today Bobby is renting or maybe squatting in a run-down home surrounded by jail-strength industrial chain-link fencing. As I pull up in a ridiculous Mercedes-Benz that I didn't order but was upgraded to by the car rental place, I feel a sickening sense of entitlement" (203), are the virtual unknown subjects in the book. Bobby Garcia, a gay man who loathes having sex with gay men and instead made a living (for a long time) making videos in which straight Marines jerk off for him and the camera and occasionally get involved with oral or anal sex with him. Yes, it sounds like an absurd plot for some strange gross-out comedy, but these are the personalities John Waters uncovers and explores in the book, in the process revealing to the reader an entirely different reality than the mundane norm where , well, shit, I can't think of what we're "supposed" to be like now that I've read this book!

No, reading Role Models will not make you into a pervert or seduce one to the "gay lifestyle," but it is enough to open one's mind to a world much larger than the Hollywood heteronormal, everything-is-easy-to-understand-and-feel portrayal of reality. That is the gift of the outsider and John Waters is a wonderful guide!

For other books of essays, please visit my reviews of:
Letters From The Earth - Mark Twain
When You Are Engulfed In Flames - David Sedaris
Politically Incorrect - Ralph Reed

6.5/10

For other book reviews, please check out my index page by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Propworx Creates An Interesting, Rereadable Reference Tool With The Official Star Trek Prop And Costume Auction Book!

The Good: Photography, Neat interviews, Collectible value
The Bad: Typos, Expensive for what it is.
The Basics: In preparation for the August 8, 2010 Propworx Star Trek auction, the company produced a beautiful volume which still informs fans worldwide!


I'm feeling a little melancholy this afternoon and it has a lot to do with the fact that this will likely be the first year in the last six that I won't be making my summer sojourn out to Las Vegas, Nevada for the annual Star Trek convention there. As a teenager, it was a dream vacation and I did not go, but for the last five years, my small business has picked up the tab and I've had two tables to sell merchandise from at Creation Entertainment's Las Vegas Star Trek convention and it was cool for my mother and I and the, for the last two years, my wife and I. But, the economy being what it is, I do not have the capital to put down for tables or afford the trip out, so unless something miraculous happens on eBay in the next week, my August will be unblemished by a trip out to Las Vegas and back. That leaves me a little depressed.

It's days like this when I find myself flipping through the Propworx catalogue from last year's Star Trek convention. Last year in Las Vegas, on the final day of the Star Trek convention, Creation Entertainment hosted an auction from Propworx of props from the set of the various Star Trek series’ and this was the first time I was actually able to attend one and bid in person (a few years prior, I went to the viewing of the to-be-auctioned props from Christie's and actually lay my hands upon Deep Space Nine, which was a spiritual experience for me). To prepare potential bidders for the auction, Propworx created The Official Star Trek Prop And Costume Auction book. It may seem strange to create such a lavish book for a single auction, but Propworx CEO Alec Peters had it created and it has become a collectible book still sought after by fans the world round.

Moreover, The Official Star Trek Prop And Costume Auction is not just a pamphlet on the items being auctioned by Propworx. Instead, this is a 296 page hardcover book which includes lavish photographs, interviews, and product descriptions that are enough to make the mouth water of any serious Trekker. Peters and his team wisely created a book which is designed to be more than just a sales tool, but instead stand up for collectors of rare Star Trek items of the history of the creation of their favorite show.

The first notable aspect of this book is the photography. This professional auction book features both incredibly clear photographs of each of the lots in the auction along with digital art, candid photographs and promotional photographs from the contributors and series'. This is actually an impressive volume in a photographic sense and the color balance and richness that is usually saved for high end photography books.

The book opens with interviews and comments unique to this book. Profiled in The Official Star Trek Prop And Costume Auction are digital artist Doug Drexler, the modern franchise Scenic Art Supervisor Michael Okuda and his wife Denise, Senior Illustrator Rick Sternbach and writer Marc Zicree, all of whom provided items to the Propworx auction. The profiles read well and are interesting, though they contain some typos which set a poor tone for the book.

The listings follow, broken up by Star Trek series and this is the meat of the book. More than simply a listing of auction items, each paragraph gives specific measurements, tells a story and/or completely details the item for sale. Some of them are amusing, like the note on Lot 07 "Rescued from a dumpster by Eric Payton" (45)! The descriptions usually tell the episode or episodes the item was in and the condition. The book also contains estimates of what these items would sell for. Unlike the Christie's auction of the biggest and most significant Star Trek props, the Propworx auction estimates are not off by a factor of 10 (items in the first Star Trek auction sold for an average of ten times what the estimates were for! No, the estimates in The Official Star Trek Prop And Costume Auction are only off by a factor of two to three. So, for example, the Cardassian Isolinear Rod (Lot 120) that is estimated at $100 - $200 actually sold for $500. It's also, arguably, the reason that if my wife ever lets us return to Las Vegas for a Star Trek convention, I shall not be allowed to attend the auction.

The Official Star Trek Prop And Costume Auction adequately prepared bidders for what would be on the block and while many of the items were production sketches which did not draw the attention of the scads of fans the original auction did, there was enough to keep die-hards happy. And now, those who missed the auction have a collectible book which shows more of the history of their beloved show leaving the vaults and ending up in the hands of private collectors.

For other Star Trek reference tools, please check out my reviews of:
The Star Trek Compendium By Allan Asherman
The Star Trek Encyclopedia By Michael And Denise Okuda
The Klingon Dictionary

5/10

For other book reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Before It All Went So Very Bad, The Star Trek Encyclopedia Was Essential!

The Good: A useful reference tool, Thoroughly researched, Nice pictures
The Bad: Incomplete (obviously)
The Basics: Ten years out of date, fans of Star Trek are urged to use the online reference materials at "Startrek.com" to get the authoritative material The Star Trek Encyclopedia once had.


In the tradition of Star Trek reference books like the Star Trek Compendium (reviewed here!), Simon & Schuster published The Star Trek Encyclopedia, which was designed to be the ultimate Star Trek reference work. Many, many die-hard Star Trek fans wondered why (not because we have it all memorized, either!) when Simon & Schuster was the publisher of the electronic resource The Star Trek Omnipedia. The "Omnipedia" was a clever resource designed to bridge the gap between the readers of Star Trek materials and the growing computer savvy fans who wanted a more multimedia experience. The idea was clever and one suspects that it was only the failure to continue updating it properly that led that product to eventually fail.

At least with the The Star Trek Encyclopedia, Simon & Schuster gave the concept a fair shot, picking up with a print version of what the "Omnipedia" had been. Of course, the "Omnipedia" had been designed as a multimedia tool with visual clips and pictures for virtually every entry as well as arrangements that were alphabetical and chronological (for in-universe events). The The Star Trek Encyclopedia seems pedestrian by comparison and, like all outdated reference materials, now sits on the shelves of many a Trekker getting dusty. Given the way that Star Trek: Enterprise gutted the timeline of the Star Trek universe and the feature film Star Trek rewrote it, the The Star Trek Encyclopedia is arguably impossible to update (though the Star Trek Chronology actually would be, given the in-universe contradictions).

As its title suggests, the Star Trek Encyclopedia: A Reference Guide To The Future is intended to be a reference book for all things in the Star Trek universe. The authoritative guide to what is considered canon and what is not, the The Star Trek Encyclopedia was compiled by Star Trek archivists and uber-Alpha Geeks Michael and Denise Okuda whose expertise is unparalleled in matters Star Trek. While there are other archivists, like Richard Arnold, who might know behind-the-scenes stories better than anyone else still alive, the Okudas have gone over every minute of every episode of everything in the Star Trek franchise that they are more-or-less considered the experts on what appeared on screen and how it all works in the Star Trek universe.

Unfortunately, as suggested earlier, the The Star Trek Encyclopedia is now a decade out of date! As a result, this has articles on everything in the Star Trek Universe up to 1999, which means it includes everything from:
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager through Season 5
and the Star Trek Motion Pictures through Insurrection

This is organized as a standard encyclopedia would be . . . alphabetically. From A to Z, the Star Trek universe is categorized and it is almost all in-universe. What that means is, topics are treated as if they were real, true events and people with as much information that was ever spoken about or shown about Klingons, Benjamin Lafayette Sisko and the Wormhole aliens (among others!). As a result, information on the actors and behind-the-scenes information that was included in works like The Star Trek Compendium are lacking from this reference tool.

The only real "out of universe" concept needed to make the The Star Trek Encyclopedia work that was included in this volume was the articles on each episode. With episode and movie titles integrated into the text, alongside fictional concepts like phasers and warp theory, the book is necessarily pulled out of its own reality slightly. Still, for Star Trek enthusiasts this is the ultimate resource . . .or it was until it became terribly out of date.

Articles are written simply and directly and feature the inarguable canon of Star Trek, meaning just what appeared on screen in the various series' and movies. The only exception to this are a few computer-generated shots of starships whose classes were mentioned in various programs but were never shown on screen. These conceptual works expanded the universe slightly and are generally considered "safe" extrapolations to the Star Trek universe because no one has ever bothered to create anything that has made it onscreen to contradict these little aside works. However, none of the non-canon novels, comics, commentaries or even the "Animated Series" (which is in dispute among the fans) are included in this volume.

As stated, the articles are easy-to-read, general summaries of each topic. Articles are longer for those subjects that had more airtime. So, for example, the article on Worf is several times the length of the summary of the Greek God Apollo. Episodes are generally reduced to about two paragraphs worth of information, though the most significant ones have a bit more space dedicated to them.

The final update of the The Star Trek Encyclopedia, printed in 1999 was a last-ditch attempt to save the Star Trek reference books. Oversized books like this that explored the technical aspects or "nonfiction" aspects of the Star Trek universe were selling slowly and this final update was not a huge seller at the time, whatwith many fans simply opting to wait until Star Trek: Voyager ended and get the update they presumed would be forthcoming then. The detraction to this final edition, though, comes in the form of Simon & Schuster's cheapness. While the book looks wonderful with its glossy pages and full color thumbnail pictures accompanying every major topic in the encyclopedia, the final update was done as an appendix. Thus, the final topics for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and the film Star Trek: Insurrection were not actually integrated into the text, they appear in an appendix instead, rather problematically for those who do not know WHEN certain events happened. This was done to save money, but it looks tacky in retrospect now and robs the final product of the usefulness for more casual fans.

Finally, the The Star Trek Encyclopedia has served its purpose; while Star Trek was at its peak with two different series' on the air, it provided a reference tool for making allusions that prevented writers and producers from having to go back to rewatch entire episodes. But now, the franchise is so plagued with contradictions that to update it would be impossible and if Simon and Schuster could not be bothered updating it properly when the series was at the peak of its popularity, it is hard to imagine them doing it now much better.

A good idea, well executed but poorly updated, the The Star Trek Encyclopedia is now a glossy paperweight for a universe that was once cleverly conceived and constructed.

For other Star Trek or fictional universe reference materials, please check out my reviews of:
The Klingon Dictionary
Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History In Pictures
The Essential Wonder Woman Encyclopedia

5/10

For other book reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.




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