R. Crumb Creates Illustrated Genesis

And predictably, it’s controversial. (I mean, seriously, people–who didn’t see this coming?)
Famous for his Zap Comix back in the 1960s, which also featured the art of famed psychedelic poster artists such as Rick Griffin and Victor Moscoso, Crumb has set forth his own vision of the first book of the Bible, which has drawn some [...]

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Iran Demands “Loan” of Cyrus Cylinder

Ever eager to throw around their weight these days in whatever way possible, it appears the Iranians are now threatening to cut all ties (forgive me, I just had an image of “Casual Friday” Ahmadinejad) with the British Museum if the latter does not “loan” the Cylinder of Cyrus the Great to Iran. [...]

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Carl Jung’s Red Book

For the first time ever, Carl Jung’s Red Book is going on display at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York. This magnificent volume is a genuine illuminated manuscript created by Jung over 16 years.
A hardbound copy of the book has been published by W.W. Norton, and it’s available on Amazon for the rather [...]

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Book of Kells Facsimile Edition

The Library Shop of the New York Public Library has an incredible limited edition facsimile edition of the Book of Kells available for purchase. From the website itself:
Facsimile Limited Editions are works of art in their own right. The Book of Kells is composed of two volumes, the facsimile itself and a scientific commentary, [...]

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Photo: Michigan City, Indiana

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Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages

There’s only one reason why I occasionally wish I lived in New York and not Chicago, and that’s the ability to see the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s fantastic medieval manuscript exhibitions, which, at least from my vantage point, seem to happen rather often.
The most recent one is called Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle [...]

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Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk)

This morning I came across what may be the last word in finding the best fantasy books possible, a very comprehensive British site that’s aptly named Fantasy Book Review.
Of particular note is their listing of the best 100 fantasy books of all time, a list that’s sure to provoke some intense discussion. (The list has already won [...]

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The Voynich Manuscript (XKCD)

Above is a funny comic from last week from XKCD concerning the Voynich Manuscript, which is, in fact, a real object. When I was doing some research at the Beinecke Library at Yale, it was one of the manuscripts that I most wanted to get my hands on. Unfortunately, when I arrived, someone else apparently [...]

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Creating Men of Steel the World Over

Largely by accident, I came across the Women of the DC Universe series of busts (ahem) this morning.  As I flipped through them, I couldn’t help but notice how oversexed everything with comic books seems to be these days.  When I was younger, my grandfather used to give me the old jibe about how I [...]

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Earning the Achievements

This might be a pathetic thing to admit, but I sometimes think of things that I must do in real life along the lines of achievements in World of Warcraft.  It’s a way of motivating myself to get them done.  Indeed, sometimes this is pushed to such a nerdy limit that I wish that there [...]

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