Upcoming books for pop culture fans

Here are new and upcoming books of possible interest to pop culture fans. Click the titles to order them from Amazon.


Scorchy Smith And The Art Of Noel Sickles

Noel Sickles drew comics for three brief years, yet his groundbreaking work on the 1930s aviation adventure series Scorchy Smith is a milestone in the history of newspaper comic strips. Over the past 70 years, however, readers have seen only occasional excerpts of this seminal work. Now, IDW's Library of American Comics presents Scorchy Smith and The Art of Noel Sickles, a comprehensive, oversized volume that collects, for the first time, every Sickles Scorchy strip, from December 1933 through November 1936.


The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America

“Every once in a while, moral panic, innuendo, and fear bubble up from the depths of our culture to create waves of destructive indignation and accusation. David Hajdu's fascinating new book tracks one of the stranger and most significant of these episodes, now forgotten, with exactness, clarity, and serious wit, which is the best kind. He illuminates the lives of his protagonists -- from pompous, on-the-make censors to cracked comic book geniuses -- with his own graphic powers, as well as his intense intellectual curiosity. The book is a rarity, vividly depicting a noirish 1950's America but without a trace of irony or nostalgia.” --Sean Wilentz, Professor of History, Princeton University


Betsy and Me by Jack Cole

For Betsy and Me, featuring city dweller Chet Tibbit's day-to-day stuggles and achievements, Cole stripped his style down to its bare essentials, creating a strip that sparkles with economy, wit, and charm. What gave the strip its edge, however, was Cole's innovative storytelling. As R.C. Harvey writes in his introduction, "Cole's storytelling manner was unique: the comedy arose from the pictures' contradicting the narrative prose. Cole's fatuous protagonist and narrator would say one thing in the captions accompanying the drawings, but the pictures of his actions showed the opposite, revealing [him] to be a trifle pretentious and wholly delusional." Harvey's intro also serves as a biographical sketch and sheds light on the circumstances surrounding Cole's suicide.


Alex Raymond: His Life And Art

Complete with a foreword by George Lucas and an introduction by famed artist James Bama, Alex Raymond: His Life and Art delves deep into the history and work of this internationally famous artist, showcasing never-before-known facts and art that transcended the confines of a comic strip page and make him more than the renowned artist of Flash Gordon.


Men's Adventure Magazines

Paying homage to the American periodicals of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s that documented outrageous exploits, this hefty, comprehensive guide is packed full of colorful cover art, sumptuous sample spreads, and enlightening essays.


The Official Batman Batbook: The Revised Bat Edition

The Official Batman Batbook Revised Bat-Edition is the only official guide to the 1966 television series.(The original edition sold over 100,000 copies worldwide) Containing a detailed guide to every episode and the feature film. Obsecure batfacts, trivia, a complete list of Holy Words, Batfight words, BatEquipment. Interviews with cast and crew members. This newly updated edition contains hundreds of new photos, additional facts (like cast salaries), trivia and interviews with guest stars, henchmen, crew members and the producers.


The Avengers: The Inside Story

Patrick Macnee tells all! The secrets of the hit TV series The Avengers are laid bare by the man who was John Steed.

Lavishly illustrated, with many unpublished stills, behind-the-scenes photos, and snaps from Macnee's private collection, this is a very personal portrait of the world's best-loved cult action-adventure series, and its classic sequel, The New Avengers.

In unflinching detail, Macnee reveals the true story behind the show, including his relationships with all four Avengers girls — Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg, Linda Thorson and Joanna Lumley — on and off the set!



LOST Ultimate Guide Season III: The Unauthorized Guide to the ABC Hit Series Show LOST Season Three

Oceanic Flight 815 out of Sydney, Australia is mysteriously brought down out of the sky, crashing on an uncharted island somewhere out in the Pacific Ocean. The survivors quickly learn they must band together in order to have any hope of rescue, because the island is treacherous and holds many secrets. As they are about to learn, the survivors also have many secrets of their own! It's clear that ABC's LOST has captivated the minds of TV viewers all around the world. What isn't clear is what it actually means. This guide answers many of the questions you've been asking about ABC's series: LOST. From a complete analysis of the plot and its symbolism to hidden clues within the show, this book provides inside analysis and news that can't be found anywhere else. The book includes a complete summary, interpretation, and analysis for Season Three and unauthorized news. This is quite simply the Ultimate Unofficial Guide to ABC's Hit Series LOST. THIS BOOK INCLUDES: Analysis and Interpretation Predictions Hidden Messages Signs & Symbols Before they were LOST. DISCLAIMER: This book is unofficial and unauthorized. It is not authorized, approved, licensed, or endorsed by ABC, Lost, it's producers, writers, distributors, publishers, or licensors. Any use of the trademarks and character names is strictly for the purpose of analysis and news reporting.


The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo Vol. 2

For more than 40 years, Dan DeCarlo was best known for his definitive rendition of Archie Comics' Betty and Veronica, two of comics' most beloved icons.

But before joining Archie in the late 1950s and unbeknownst to many, DeCarlo was already honing his skills as a good girl artist for the Humorama line of digest magazines. Beginning in 1956, DeCarlo created hundreds of pin-up cartoons for titles such as Comedy, Jest, and Laugh Riot, where his line drawings and his exquisite ink-wash paintings shared the pages with pin-ups by Jack Cole, Bill Ward and Bill Wenzel, and photos featuring Bettie Page.

In contrast to the innocence that was Archie's Riverdale, DeCarlo's Humorama pin-ups portrayed a world populated by strippers, gold diggers, buxom secretaries, lecherous bosses, cheating spouses, and even the occasional "spanking daddy." These characters, who often bore an uncanny resemblance to Archie's snooty socialite and perennial girl next door, were clearly having sex and plenty of it.

Following the immensely popular The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo (which was featured in Playboy magazine and quickly sold out its first printing), this second volume once again displays DeCarlo's sexiest Humorama pin-up cartoons, and continues Fantagraphics' dedication to showcasing the best of the classic pin-up cartoonists.



Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated into What America Eats

Like most Americans, Steve Ettlinger eats processed foods. And, like most consumers, he didn’t have a clue as to what most of the ingredients on the labels mean. So when his young daughter asked, “Daddy, what’s polysorbate 60?” he was at a loss—and determined to find out.

From the phosphate mines in Idaho to the oil fields in China, Twinkie, Deconstructed demystifies some of the most common processed food ingredients— where they come from, how they are made, how they are used—and why. Beginning at the source (hint: they’re often more closely linked to rock and petroleum than any of the four food groups), we follow each Twinkie ingredient through the process of being crushed, baked, fermented, refined, and/or reacted into a totally unrecognizable goo or powder—all for the sake of creating a simple snack cake.

An insightful exploration of the modern food industry, if you’ve ever wondered what you’re eating when you consume foods containing mono- and diglycerides or calcium sulfate (the latter a food-grade equivalent of plaster of paris), this book is for you.



Q Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Go behind the scenes of the smash hit television show that just won't die! From its origins as a reviled movie to its seven-year reign on the WB and UPN, Buffy spawned a new generation of vampire lovers.


Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films

"There are two kinds of academic texts: the kind that contains photographs of Ursula Andress wearing a bikini, and the kind that do not. Licence to Thrill falls, fortunately, into the first category." -- Giles Coren, The Times (London)


Instamatic Karma: Photographs of John Lennon

John Lennon is the most famously photographed Beatle—everyone from Iain MacMillian to Annie Lebowitz took iconic images of him—but there have never been pictures of him like these taken by May Pang, Lennon’s girlfriend from 1973 to 1975. In INSTAMATIC KARMA, they’re collected for the first time. With very few exceptions, these photos are that rare thing: never-before-seen images of an icon. The photos here show Lennon in a variety of settings: at work, at play, at home, and away. They show a playful Lennon, a casual, unguarded Lennon; they’re the kind of photos one lover takes of another. May has written rich captions to accompany her photos--taken together, they tell a simple story of the time May and Lennon spent together; a time, according to legend, when Lennon was unhappy and unproductive, estranged from his family and bandmates. Pang’s photos clearly tell another story—they show Lennon clowning around, working on his hit album “Walls and Bridges”, embracing old friends and family, hanging out in their apartment on Manhattan’s East 52nd Street, relaxing in the country in upstate New York or spending peaceful days swimming in the waters of Long Island.


Cosmic Motors: Spaceships, Cars and Pilots of Another Galaxy

Come explore the vehicle designs of a far away galaxy called Galaxion where futuristic concepts exist in everyday life. Nine different spaceships, pods, race cars, giant trains, warships and balloons from various planets of the Galaxion system are shown from concept to completion. Daniel Simon is an established senior car designer who has spent the last several years focusing his talents on futuristic concepts for such automakers as Bugatti and Lamborghini. In his first book, Cosmic Motors, each chapter shows the design process of a unique vehicle, from the first ideation sketches to the stunningly detailed 3-D models to the final photorealistic full spread renderings. Join Daniel in this virtual world of visionary vehicles!

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