Ralf Daab is an art book publisher with a focus on finding young, up-and-coming talent for a worldwide audience. Along with the artist Feyyaz, Daab started his publishing and distribution house in November of 2003, transforming his last name into a convenient acronym for “design art architecture books.” His unique collection of design, architecture, and photography books can now be found in bookshops, furniture stores, clothing boutiques, and design shops worldwide; the Germany-based company goes way beyond the traditional markets of New York and London, spanning distribution throughout 120 countries and printing in five languages. And daab produces more than mere books--in addition to edaab, a web community for creative people, there are two daab club cds out, with Volume 3 available in June. This summer, look for daab releases from three artists--Argentinian photographer Fabio Borquez’s presentation of nude females, entitled Chicas, and self-titled monographs from both Japanese freelance designer Nendo Oki Sato and Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola. 

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The one who started it all. The Japanese Walt Disney. The guy responsible for your childhood memories of Astro Boy: Long after his time, Osamu Tezuka’s enduring creations continue to receive critical acclaim and widespread readership not only in Japan, but across the globe. As of April, Vertical Inc. has released the Godfather of Manga’s series Dororo in English for the first time. There are three volumes and each graphic novel retails for US$13.95. The third will be out August 26th.

Dororo originally ran in the Japanese magazine Shonen Sunday from 1967-1968 and then was turned into a 26 episode anime series in 1969. It’s historical, supernatural, adventure fiction that takes place during Japan’s Warring States Period (1467-1573). It begins when Hyakkimaru’s own power-hungry samurai father promises 48 of his son’s body parts to demons in order to gain control over Japan. Hyakkimaru’s deformed body is thrown into the river and is subsequently discovered by a doctor/father figure who cares for him and gives him prosthetics. After he grows big enough to leave home, the blind and deaf (Yes, conveniently his eyes and ears are missing..) Hyakkimaru can intuitively feel the presence of others and communicate with them.

He journeys to find and vanquish each of the 48 demons who possess his body parts in order to win them back and become whole.  Along the way he meets Dororo, a street smart child thief who is after the sword attached to Hyakkimaru’s shoulder underneath his prosthetic arm. They become friends—sort of—and travel together to search for demons. The series is entertaining, grotesquely funny, at times depressing, and suspenseful. Tezuka uses his characters to show the good and the bad sides of people and it comes off as not just a comic, but a deeper look into the human condition—but it’s Osamu Tezuka, so you knew that already. 

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Move over propaganda poster art book, and make room for the firecracker label art book. Books on a single, myopic subject are perversely pleasurably, and FIRECRACKER! published by Ten Speed Press doesn’t disappoint. With 112 page of “eye-popping” firecracker labels from the 1950s to 1960 in China, this book is a good desk reference for any visual artist looking to rip off a genre of art style. Go ahead, be the new Shephard Fairey.

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Teenage life in Tokyo can be as harrowing as any US innercity teen’s—and definitely more bizarre according to writer Kirino Natsuo in her new summer release Real World.

Available in the US on July 15th, Natsuo’s new novel follows the friendship of four Tokyo teenage girls. There’s Toshi, the dependable one; Teruchi, the straight-A student; sad Yuzan, coping with her mother’s suicide and homosexuality in secret; and sweet Kirarin who lives a secret life of promiscuity. The book opens as these friends indifferently wade through the boredom of summer cram schools until Toshi’s next door neighbor is murdered and the prime suspect is the neighbor’s teenage son nicknamed Worm. The four girls find themselves suprisingly sympathetic towards Worm (whose mother was an insufferable nag), and find themselves accomplices to his act as they help him escape the police. The results are devastating as one girl is killed and another commits suicide out of guilt.

The most palpable sensation throughout the book is the suffocating Tokyo summer heat which becomes the metaphor for the insufferable and mind-numbing lives these teenagers lead. In this context, the one act of rebellion—matricide—as awful as it is, is almost a welcome relief in their lives.

Like all of her previous novels, Kirino Natsuo is scathingly critical of the limitations of Japanese society on women. There’s no happy ending in her novels, just anger and despair. Despite this, they’re always fast-paced, well-crafted thrillers, and this one’s no exception. So when you’re feeling the NYC heat insufferable, and your life mind-numbing, go pickup this novel and feel better about your predicament.

Read Theme’s interview with Kirino Natsuo in Summer of 2007 here.

TAGS: Reviews, Book Reviews