Ben and I got a good review for the book we did together.
"Accompanying Wheaton's book are illustrations by Ben Claassen III. Like Wheaton's tales, each illustration is a story unto itself that serve well in accompanying the stories. If I could visualize what Wheaton is thinking along the way, these illustrations would be among those thoughts."
pokey [email] said at 11:36 PM 03-31-2004: I wish EVERYTHING looked like ben's drawings. The world would be a much better place if we were all cartoons.
Bendependent [email] said at 8:06 PM 04-02-2004: SO WIL WHEATON'S BOOK WAS ILLUSTRATED... And yeah, I know, that sounds like a dumb thing to say. But to be honest, I was so pumped to actually have his book (I haunted the Mysterious Galaxy booth in San Diego for the better part of four hours, waiting for the books' arrival -- then ended out getting a pre-autographed one, which was annoying but inspired the birth of the Awesome Celebrity Autographs Geek Pride Shirt, so it's all good) that I sat during the in-between panels time and moments on the train and a late night at the hostel tearing through the prose -- and then I wanted to preserve the wholesome First Edition, Signed goodness of the copy I have that I prompty wrapped it in the purple plasticky bag it came with and stored it in an extra safe, bending-pages-isn't-possible spot in my luggage. Then there was the whole getting back to my life thing, the fear of getting fingerprints on the cover, and the horrific prospect of a bent spine to worry about, and then there was a move across the Orange Curtain of Doom (or whatever it's called) and... well, I've just not opened that bag since last July.
Fast forward to today, when Wil posted another good review type message on his blog, and I said... "I don't remember anything about the illustrations except the cover; if my little sister Laura finds out about this she'll scream..." and went over to my bookcase (a gift from my friend Jackie, incidentally, who finally has a new armoir to re-equip her furniture supply...), and pulled the book out to take a look at the illustrations.
I have to say I agree with the folks in Wil's review, in that the illustrations really are stories unto themselves. They take a somewhat liberal approach with the content of the chapters they accompany (each chapter gets an illustration, plus the cover, the title page, and the Acknowledgements section -- there's a bunch more illustrations, including a funny comic block, in the Star Trek chapter). The illustrator, Ben Claassen, has a quirky style that I think fits really well with Wil's (you can tell he knows more than I do about Wil and his family, from the "Ataris" shirt Wil wears in one picture to the "I Love My Geek" shirt his wife Anne is depicted in). There's a touch of surrealism (the tornado for the first chapter, the numbers on the ground for the second), but it's all based on pretty concrete representations of reality (I'm personally a fan of the final illustration, of an empty Star Trek TNG uniform, andthe title page pair of shoes with socks stuffed in them).
Anyway, I think the illustrator really does deserve a lot of credit (after looking through them, I realized that the illustrations had made an impression the first time, I just didn't have a specific memory of it after eight months), and I also think his biography in the back of the book is better than Wil's author biography, if only because Ben's reminds me of the pools at the Disneyland Hotel...
For the sake of keeping everyone informed on boring technological matters relating to my weblog, I'd also like to let you all know that this is the first attempt I'm making to exercise my apparent Trackback capabilities. I really have missed a lot of improvements to Blogger blogging in the last six months...
posted by Sarah at 11:46 PM.
Bendependent [email] said at 8:07 PM 04-02-2004: SO WIL WHEATON'S BOOK WAS ILLUSTRATED...
And yeah, I know, that sounds like a dumb thing to say. But to be honest, I was so pumped to actually have his book (I haunted the Mysterious Galaxy booth in San Diego for the better part of four hours, waiting for the books' arrival -- then ended out getting a pre-autographed one, which was annoying but inspired the birth of the Awesome Celebrity Autographs Geek Pride Shirt, so it's all good) that I sat during the in-between panels time and moments on the train and a late night at the hostel tearing through the prose -- and then I wanted to preserve the wholesome First Edition, Signed goodness of the copy I have that I prompty wrapped it in the purple plasticky bag it came with and stored it in an extra safe, bending-pages-isn't-possible spot in my luggage. Then there was the whole getting back to my life thing, the fear of getting fingerprints on the cover, and the horrific prospect of a bent spine to worry about, and then there was a move across the Orange Curtain of Doom (or whatever it's called) and... well, I've just not opened that bag since last July.
Fast forward to today, when Wil posted another good review type message on his blog, and I said... "I don't remember anything about the illustrations except the cover; if my little sister Laura finds out about this she'll scream..." and went over to my bookcase (a gift from my friend Jackie, incidentally, who finally has a new armoir to re-equip her furniture supply...), and pulled the book out to take a look at the illustrations.
I have to say I agree with the folks in Wil's review, in that the illustrations really are stories unto themselves. They take a somewhat liberal approach with the content of the chapters they accompany (each chapter gets an illustration, plus the cover, the title page, and the Acknowledgements section -- there's a bunch more illustrations, including a funny comic block, in the Star Trek chapter). The illustrator, Ben Claassen, has a quirky style that I think fits really well with Wil's (you can tell he knows more than I do about Wil and his family, from the "Ataris" shirt Wil wears in one picture to the "I Love My Geek" shirt his wife Anne is depicted in). There's a touch of surrealism (the tornado for the first chapter, the numbers on the ground for the second), but it's all based on pretty concrete representations of reality (I'm personally a fan of the final illustration, of an empty Star Trek TNG uniform, andthe title page pair of shoes with socks stuffed in them).
Anyway, I think the illustrator really does deserve a lot of credit (after looking through them, I realized that the illustrations had made an impression the first time, I just didn't have a specific memory of it after eight months), and I also think his biography in the back of the book is better than Wil's author biography, if only because Ben's reminds me of the pools at the Disneyland Hotel...
For the sake of keeping everyone informed on boring technological matters relating to my weblog, I'd also like to let you all know that this is the first attempt I'm making to exercise my apparent Trackback capabilities. I really have missed a lot of improvements to Blogger blogging in the last six months...
