"Our culture embraces the skull: apparel and products with skulls abound. Popular Skullture features the oddest, creepiest, and weirdest skull covers from 1930s to mid-'50s comics, pulps, and paperbacks."--

"The image of the human skull is a universal icon, common throughout human civilization since time immemorial. "Skullture" takes a comprehensive approach to portraying how the image manifests in contemporary art, design and popular culture. This analysis includes visual and conceptual considerations of the skull throughout history, connecting the dots between Aztec religious iconography, Punk Rock and eighteenth century funerary practices without ever losing sight of the fact that, while fashion my change, the skull remains the same. "Skullture" presents diverse aesthetic uses of the skull as well as its various cultural resonances throughout all disciplines of art and design."--Back cover.

Fans of Castlevania will covet this opportunity to learn all there is to know about the development of the animated series with this beautifu, expertly designed, full color, hardcover art book featuring concept art and commentary from all four seasons of the hit animated series. Gothic adventure and horror abound in Netflix's Castlevania. Now explore the work behind the scenes of the popular show that was originally inspired by the classic video games! Hundreds of pieces of ultra-detailed artwork are contained in these pages, including stunning, never-before-seen illustrations of monsters, characters, and environments. Experience the labor of love expressed while adapting the design for Dracula's castle, and get a closer look at the intricacies of each prop's fastidiously created components!

In 1974, legendary Marvel Comics publisher Stan Lee approached underground pioneer Denis Kitchen and offered a way for them to collaborate. Their resulting series was called Comix Book and featured work by many of the top underground cartoonists including Joel Beck, Kim Deitch, Justin Green, Harvey Pekar, Trina Robbins, Art Spiegelman (first national appearance of Maus), Skip Williamson, and S. Clay Wilson. The Best of Comix Book showcases 150-pages of classic underground comix (printed on newsprint, as they originally appeared), many never before reprinted.

Skull Sourcebook explores the symbolism, meaning, and breathtaking, cultural art of the human skull, one of the most iconic symbols in the world.

There is something morbidly fascinating about the dark and grotesque. Although it is human nature to tiptoe around the uncomfortable (or avoid it altogether), some artists are inspired by the unsettling to create intriguing works of art that push the boundaries of normality and provoke viewers into exploring their fears and taboos. There are also others who use them as springboards of the imagination to express their innermost feelings and question the often-grim realities of existence. In conjunction with Victionary's 20th anniversary, the new edition of 'DARK INSPIRATION' combines most of the projects from the first two best-selling titles of the same name along with new work into one meaty celebration of the macabre. Featuring chilling depictions of childhood reveries, folklore, mysteries, and death in a variety of styles and interpretations, each project serves unconventionally as a celebration of life in all its gruesome glory. With contributions from: Aitch, Akino Kondoh, Aleksandra Waliszewska, Alessandro Sicioldr Bianchi, Alex Garant, Alice Lin, Amandine Urruty, Audrey Kawasaki, Bene Rohlmann, Dadu Shin, Dan Hillier, Daniel Martin Diaz, Danny Van Ryswyk, David Ho, dromsjel, Eero Lampinen, Eika, Elisa Ancori, Erik Mark Sandberg, Evelyn Bencicova, Fabian Mérelle, Fiona Roberts, Francesco Brunotti, Francois Robert, Fuco Ueda, Gabriel Isak, Giacomo Carmagnola, Guim Tió Zarraluki, Hannes Hummel, Heiko Müller, James Jean, Januz Miralles, Jeff Mcmillan, Jesse Auersalo, Jim Johnson Tsang, Jon Beinart, Jules Julien, Justin Nelson, Kate Macdowell, Katy Horan, Kayan Kwok, Kim Simonsson, Kotaro Chiba, Lala Gallardo, Lola Dupre, Lostfish, Mariana Magdaleno, merve morkoç (Lakormis), Mia Mäkilo, Michael Reedy, Miranda Meeks, Nadja Jovanovic, Nicoletta Ceccoli, Oleg Dou, Olivia Knapp, Paola Rojas H & David Perez, Paul Hollingworth, Raffaello De Vito, Raul Oprea aka Saddo, Richard Colman, Ryan Oliver, Sergio Mora / Agency Rush, Tara McPherson, Till Rabus, Tim Lee, Yido, Yoshitoshi Kanemaki, Yuka Yamaguchi, Yury Ustsinau, and Zhou Fan

Highlights the role of anthropologists in revealing the histories and contemporary social facts that are reflected in dead bodies.

Memento mori is a broad and understudied cultural phenomenon and experience. The term “memento mori” is a Latin injunction that means “remember mortality,” or more directly, “remember that you must die.” In art and cultural history, memento mori appears widely, especially in medieval folk culture and in the well-known Dutch still life vanitas paintings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Yet memento mori extends well beyond these points in art and cultural history. In Death in Documentaries: The Memento Mori Experience, Benjamin Bennett-Carpenter suggests that documentaries are an especially apt form of contemporary memento mori. Bennett-Carpenter shows that documentaries may offer composed transformative experiences in which a viewer may renew one’s consciousness of mortality – and thus renew one’s life.

When Kate, a white Australian foster mother, takes her 18-year old Torres Strait Islander foster son back to Brisbane to meet his sick birth mother, Kate's own mother has a homecoming of a very different kind planned for her daughter. Paydirt paints a portrait of contemporary Australia that is that is anything but black versus white.