Graphic Arts

“You must read this book.” —Neil Gaiman

The bestselling international classic on storytelling and visual communication.

Praised throughout the cartoon industry by such luminaries as Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening, and Will Eisner, Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics is a seminal examination of comics art: its rich history, surprising technical components, and major cultural significance. Explore the secret world between the panels, through the lines, and within the hidden symbols of a powerful but misunderstood art form.

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Why Don’t I Have Anything to Wear? holds the easy solutions to these questions. In her five-step programme, Andrea Cheong will teach you how to break free from damaging shopping patterns, helping you to save money, shop smarter and create a wardrobe that works effectively for you. This simple guide will give you the tools and knowledge to confidently assess whether a garment you want to buy is value for money or a rip-off. Filled with fun interactive quizzes, checklists and decision trees, Why Don’t I Have Anything to Wear? will help you understand:

· How retailers can play mind games
· The difference between sustainable buys vs sustainable brands
· The value of the secondhand and rental market
· The different types of materials
· How to shop less to shop better, and so much more.

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Japanese animation has beautiful designs, fleshed out characters, and engaging storylines—and it’s also overflowing with so many scrumptiously rendered meals! Do you ever watch your favorite anime series and start craving the crunch of crispy seafood or the warmth of delicious noodles and broth or the fluffiness of soft, airy cakes? Now, you can make your cravings a reality with Cook Anime!

Join an otaku on her tour through anime food and find out what your favorite characters are savoring and sharing—from bento to yakisoba—and then learn to make it at home! Along with each recipe, you will discover facts behind the food, such as history, culture, tips, and more. Perfect for foodies and anime-lovers alike, Cook Anime is the all-inclusive guide to making the meals of this Japanese artform.
 

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In the mid- to late 1980s, rave culture developed. It influenced music, design, art, drugs, fashion, language and even the law. Originally emerging in the USA, it was refined in the UK by people who wanted to dance, party and express themselves in terms of art and music. It started in in small, sweaty clubs but such was the popularity that soon enormous Raves, with tens of thousands of people, were common.

‘House’ music and illegal drug ecstasy were the driving forces behind what turned into a global phenomenon. Events that started as secretive nights in underground clubs, with word-of-mouth advertising grew from one-off take-overs of unusual venues into huge open land-based events. Pager and telephonic communication became the medium of message-passing, and flyers were key to it all: informing the right people about the right place at the right time. Chelsea Berlin was there from the beginning, attending many of the now legendary events, from Club Shoom to Energy and beyond.

In Rave Art, the whole exciting movement is documented through the flyers that were handed out freely (often privately) to inform partygoers of the next venue. Flyer design became an artform, and this book contains hundreds of the most significant and rare examples from Chelsea’s huge collection.

Together with personal reminiscences and quotes from famous, infamous and not-so-famous attendees, Rave Art paints a vivid picture of what is probably the last significant youth culture movement of modern times.

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Dress Like a Parisian is a wise and witty guide to finding your personal style, taking inspiration from how real Parisian women dress. With personal stylist and fashion blogger Aloïs Guinut as your guide, you can explore which colours, shapes and styles work best for you, whatever the occasion. Aloïs reveals Parisian style secrets, rejects restrictive fashion rules and shares her favourite shops and brands, demonstrating how you can use fashion to enhance your personality rather than shaping your personality to fashion. In the words of the patron saint of Parisian women, Yves St. Laurent, ‘fashions fade, style is eternal.’

This book is illustrated with photography shot on the streets of Paris plus illustrations by acclaimed fashion illustrator, Judith van den Hoek, who has worked with Elle, Hermes, Vogue, Prada and Grazia.

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This coloring book features girls living in a victorian fantasy world by illustrator- Kuroimori, who is popular for his fantasy, adventure, and retro-futuristic work. This title contains 31 patterns focusing on the beautiful constellations twinkling in the night sky, along with rooms and elegant costumes with a steampunk atmosphere.

Each coloring page comes with cut-out lines so that the pages can be detached and used. In addition, at the end of the book, you will find color samples of five works, including the cover illustration, as well as tips on how to color in using colored pencils and markers. We hope that you will enjoy this world of nostalgic fantasy.

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*A Financial Times Book of the Year*

‘The first time I opened What Artists Wear, I gasped with pleasure. Imagine it as a kind of punk cousin to John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, liberally illustrated with the most astonishing images of artists, decked out in finery or rags … It transported me to somewhere glamorous, exciting, even revolutionary’ Olivia Laing, Guardian

Most of us live our lives in our clothes without realizing their power. But in the hands of artists, garments reveal themselves. They are pure tools of expression, storytelling, resistance and creativity: canvases on which to show who we really are.

In What Artists Wear, style luminary Charlie Porter takes us on an invigorating, eye-opening journey through the iconic outfits worn by artists, in the studio, on stage, at work, at home and at play. From Yves Klein’s spotless tailoring to the kaleidoscopic costumes of Yayoi Kusama and Cindy Sherman; from Andy Warhol’s signature denim to Charlotte Prodger’s casualwear, Porter’s roving eye picks out the magical, revealing details in the clothes he encounters, weaving together a new way of understanding artists, and of dressing ourselves.

Part love letter, part guide to chic, and featuring generous photographic spreads, What Artists Wear is both a manual and a manifesto, a radical, gleeful, inspiration to see the world anew-and find greater pleasure and possibility in the clothes we all wear.

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The joys of the world, one terrible map at a time – this is the ultimate gift book for the budding geographer or anyone who wants to have a laugh.

Ever wondered about the average jean colour across the United States? Or what ‘pedestrians’ look like in Denmark? What unites Brokenwind, Upton Snodsbury and Crackpot? And have you ever tried to take a train in Antarctica? Well Terrible Maps is the book for you!

Put together by the creator behind the tremendously popular social media feed, this is the ultimate humour book for the budding geographer in your life. From countries that eat their national animals to nations that have declared war on birds (and lost), Terrible Maps celebrates pointless cartography in all its glory. Don’t leave home without it!

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Now in a convenient paperback edition, this is a bag-making series with a difference: 15 stylish occasion bag designs, two handy plastic templates and endless variations! 

Focusing on occasion bags, this beautifully presented, 96-page book contains easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for a wide variety of bags in a range of fabrics and styles. Included are two easy-to-use templates: durable, reusable, wipe-clean and perfect for fussy cutting, they make building a bag even easier.

The 15 occasion bags are each made using different techniques, pockets, straps and fastenings to create 15 very different results. The templates can also be used for your own further design variations, and Debbie gives advice on how to adapt and create your own unique designs. Each project in the book is explained using Debbie’s friendly style and clear step-by-step photography, and there is also a comprehensive techniques section and a guide to using the templates.

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Take up your hook and with the expert guidance of crochet and amigurumi expert Sarah-Jane Hicks, recreate the wonderful world of Aardman Animations’ beloved twosome, Wallace & Gromit! 

Taking inspiration from the short films A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave and A Matter of Loaf and Death, crochet eight of the key characters from these ripping yarns; ‘props’ including the Cooker and Rocket from A Grand Day Out; and sheep from A Close Shave. You can also make the characters’ accessories and costumes!

These include: Gromit’s raincoat and sou’wester from The Wrong Trousers, Shaun the Sheep’s trademark woolly jumper (from A Close Shave), and master criminal Feathers McGraw’s ‘cunning disguise’…

Sarah-Jane Hicks introduces the key crochet techniques required to make up the characters, then features the patterns required with images of the finished works, all enhanced with stills from the films they appear in.

Featured characters include: Wallace, Gromit, Feathers McGraw, Shaun the Sheep, Wendolene Ramsbottom, Piella Bakewell, Preston the cyberdog and Fluffles the poodle.

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Perfect for beginners of all ages and bursting with humor, sweetness, and imagination, this book is sure to put a smile on your face! Get cozy, grab a pencil and your markers, and draw anything you can imagine in the most adorable art style.

With her large social media following on Instagram (@bobbiegoodsart) and TikTok (@bobbiegoods), Bobbie Goods shows off her simple techniques for drawing her super cute world. After selling thousands of coloring books since opening her online shop in 2021, Bobbie Goods now brings you an adorable how-to-draw book! You will learn how to:
 

• Draw delightful characters, such as puppies, bears, and bunnies!
• Place them into scenes like a cozy coffee shop, a busy baker’s kitchen, or a summertime pool party, and then color them in!
• Draw adorable objects to place in the scenes, such as plants, furniture, food, fashionable accessories, and decorations.

Enjoy drawing and coloring the super cute world of Bobbie Goods!

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