Edited by Monte Beauchamp Conceived, edited, and designed by five-time New York Festival of Advertising award-winner, Monte Beauchamp, BLAB! has been an annual coffee-table showcase of fine art, illustration and comix for over a decade. Pop Art virtuoso Lou Brooks delivers the front and back covers, while Juxtapoz magazine favorite Christian Northeast does the inside covers. Also: Sue Coe takes a look at the so-called Bird-Flu; Matti Hagelberg's tale of an undead President of Finland; Jeffrey Steele's story about the Black Dahlia; Peter Kuper's four-page, full-color, Little Nemo -inspired fantasy; plus, more from Blab! regular Gary Baseman ( Teacher's Pet ).This volume also includes Beauchamp's long-awaited piece on Kilroy (of "was here" fame), originally slated for Volume 14. SC, 10x10, 120pg, PC Given the conservatism of the comic-book marketplace, cutting-edge anthologies are extremely iffy. That makes the would-be annual Blab!' s 15-number run all the more remarkable, especially since, over the years, it has published more and more noncomics graphics. This edition moves back toward comics narratives, albeit unconventional ones. Standouts include Peter Kuper's succinct depiction of the corruption of the American dream; Sue Coe's harrowing indictment of the food industry for the rise of avian flu; another of Mark Landman's Fetal Elvis adventures; and Spain's autobiographical account of the artistic path that led him to become a 1960s underground cartoonist. The avant-garde is represented by two-page spreads by such Blab! stalwarts as Gary Baseman, Blanquet, David Goldin, and the Clayton brothers. Editor Beauchamp provides a too-brief look at the World War II-era "Kilroy was here" phenomenon, and Lou Brooks' vibrant, Ben Day-bedecked covers give a nod to comics' mainstream roots. Besides its longevity, Blab!' s lavish and elegant large format, which shows the art to full advantage, sets it apart from most other comics anthologies. Gordon Flagg Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "BLAB! presents work that it multi-layered, not just illustration, and not just comics, but work that crosses both boundaries into a new kind of pictorial art form." Monte Beauchamp edited The Life & Times of R. Crumb from St. Martin's Press, and the popular Blab! series. His work has appeared in Print, Communication Arts, American Illustration , and the New York Festival's Annual of Advertising. He lives in Chicago, IL. Used Book in Good Condition