Neil Fein's Blog

Just received an order through Powells.com. Well, most of it.

The Book of Lame Excuses
by Dan Piraro

Like its title, this book is pretty disappointing... really, it's a collection of exactly what it says ("the check is in the mail", etc.) with the occasional illustration by Piraro.

The Best of Bizarro Volume 2
Also by Dan Piraro

Not bad, pretty funny. The color Sunday strips are definitely the highlight of the book; Piraro does his best work in a larger, more cinematic format. His mind seems to work kinda like a movie camera.

Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy
by Wayne Douglas Barlowe and Neil Duskis

Very good; it's a field guide to aliens, creatures and such from fantasy, legend and classic books. Barlowe has quite the imagination and is an excellent painter. This book is a follow up to

Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials
by Wayne Douglas Barlowe, Ian Summers, and Beth Meachum

Note: This book hasn't yet arrived, as it ended up on someone's desk at Powells; they've assured me it's on the way. Read on to see why I can review it before getting the book.

These two books are Barlowe's most well-known books. I have a copy of the original Guide to Extraterrestrials, autographed and given to me in 1981 by Ian Summers, the art director; that volume is falling apart from reading it so much, hence this replacement hardcover (and it's sibling). (What happened to Ian Summers? I can't find any references to work by him newer than this book. And I suspect his contribution to this volume was more than one might think.)

The Guide to Extraterrestrials was the book that, more than any other, caused me to be the science-fiction reader I am. After reading through the Guide for creatures from the few books I'd yet read, I perused the others and picked out aliens that looked interesting. In this manner, I was drawn to many classics of the genre such as Childhood's End, Ringworld, The Gods Themselves, and many others.

Barlowe's subsequent works are all fascinating, and I'm following his work with considerable interest. I've still not read all the books in Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials, but am aiming to do so. Eventually.