Hasta La Ideas

Two new releases from Nobrow, YCN’s latest quarterly Ideas Illustrated journal, a V&A book entitled The Power of Making, Google’s latest Think publication, plus an encyclopedia of 8-bit computer game villains courtesy of GameSpite. Yup, it’s something of a bumper edition of our regular Nice Publications post…

First up is Luke Pearson‘s graphic novella, Everything We Miss, published by Nobrow. Printed in 3 spot colours, the hardback A5 book’s 38 pages follow the final, painful days of a couple’s doomed relationship – but illustrates all the things that might be happening around the central and peripheral characters when they’re not looking or paying attention. It’s beautifully observed and drawn, and darkly engaging.

Everything We Miss by Luke Pearson (£12), is available from nobrow.net

Also fresh from Nobrow, Forming is a larger book in every way. The oversize A4, 122 page hardback is actually the first part in an ongoing saga (there will be three books in total) by Philadelphia-based illustrator Jesse Moynihan that charts a fictional, psuedo-mythological history of planet Earth in which gods, giants, humans and interplanetary assassin droids slug it out in a new, irreverent look at how our universe, planet, and belief systems were formed over several millennia. Moynihan has actually been revealing the Forming story, page by page, on his website since early 2009, but this is the first time it has been printed…

Forming, Vol.1 (£18) is available from nobrow.net

It’s called Ideas Illustrated and it’s an apt title. There’s some great illustration in YCN‘s latest quarerly edition by the likes of Jean Jullien, Martin Nicolausson, Jacqueline Ford and plenty more. Written contributions come from Sir John Hegarty (BBH), Mark Borkowski (Borkowski PR), Tom Uglow (European CD of Google and YouTube) and more. Here are some spreads:

To get hold of a copy of Ideas Illustrated (£5), visit the YCN store online at shop.ycnonline.com

Also making great use of illustration is Google’s latest issue of Think Quarterly, the Innovation Issue – edited and designed by The Church of London. Written contributors include Google’s own president of advertising, Susan Wojicki, Ogilvy’s head of planning, Russell Davies, Nike’s Hannah Jones (vice president of sustainable business and innovation), and interior designer Kursty Groves. Illustration contributions come from Mitch Blunt, Robert Hanson, Steve Wilson, Noma Bar, and Gary Taxali.

Lift Think Quarterly out of its box to find there are some fridge-style word magnets. It didn’t take long to find they ‘stick’ to the front cover.

More about this issue of Think Quarterly at thinkwithgoogle.co.uk/quarterly/innovation

The Power of Making (September 6 – January 2 2012) is the second V&A and Crafts Council triennial exhibition and this book of the same name (cover shown above), edited by Daniel Charny, contains essays by Daniel Miller, Professor Sir Christopher Frayling, Martina Margetts, Ele Carpenter, and Bruce Sterling. It also showcases a host of works from the exhibition. Designed by Oscar & Ewen. Here are some spreads.

We were also sent the latest issue of GameSpite Quarterly, a magazine devoted to all things computer game related. Issue 7 is called the Encyclopedia of 8-Bit Villains and, well, that’s exactly what it is. From Abobo (Double Dragon) through to Zoda (StarTropics) they’re all here. Well known villains such as Atari’s Asteroids, and Nintendo’s Bowser and Donkey Kong are all written up, along with lesser known baddies such as Namco’s Biggy Man (from Splatterhouse released in 1988) and Goruza from 1990 game release, XEXYZ. This encyclopedia of video game nasties even has entries for Gravity which, according to this tome, made its first appearance as an obstacle to overcome in a video game in Steve Russell’s 1962  Spacewar! game. Also worthy of its own entry is the dreaded Edge Of The Screen – a classic gaming glitch that has plagued the hardiest of gamers since time immemorial (well, since about 1971). Here are some spreads:

To order a copy of GameSpite Quarterly (issue 3 is an encyclopedia of 8-bit heroes) head over to gamespite.net. Paperback issues will cost you $14 while hardback editions will set you back $38 a piece.