Massimo Listri The World's Most Beautiful Libraries

All Hail the King of Fantasy Art. Frank Frazetta finally gets the big beautiful book he deserves. Frank Frazetta has reigned as the undisputed lord of...

The Strangest Super-Heroes of All. The foundation of a pop-culture phenomenon. When Marvel publisher Martin Goodman asked Stan Lee to deliver another new team book for his line of comics, he had no idea he’d be getting something like The X-Men. In fact, nobody could have imagined the extraordinary phenomenon the X-Men would eventually grow into—not Goodman, not Lee, not even the forward-thinking futurist Jack Kirby. What they started out as was a charming, ragtag team of misfits, devised by Lee and Kirby to be mutants—youngsters born with “X-tra” powers thrust upon them not by accidentally crossing paths with cosmic rays or a nuclear blast, but by the fate of birth—led by a no-nonsense professor who trained them to become heroes that could protect the world from menaces, mutant and otherwise. The first years of storytelling laid the foundation for much of what has put the X-Men at the crossroads of comics and popular culture: Hounded by a public that fears and misunderstands them, mutantkind find themselves at the heart of their own civil rights struggle; Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Beast, and Iceman found safety amongst themselves despite the challenges that set them apart from others in society; and Professor Xavier lined up against his ideological foe, Magneto, who had assembled a Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to take the fight for their self-preservation directly to humankind. Along the way, Lee and Kirby—who were on fire taking comics into the Marvel Age—introduced a menagerie of villains and supporting characters that would become mainstays of Marvel and its lore: the super-powered siblings Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch; the formidable Blob; the unstoppable Juggernaut; the jungle dweller from the Savage Land, Ka-Zar; the demigod from the stars, the Stranger; and Bolivar Trask and his army of mutant-hunting Sentinels. And as Lee and Kirby gave way to new talents so they could move on to new corners of the Marvel Universe, Atlas era art veteran Werner Roth teamed with writing newcomer and future X-Men legend Roy Thomas...

All Hail the King of Fantasy Art. Frank Frazetta finally gets the big beautiful book he deserves. Frank Frazetta has reigned as the undisputed lord of...

Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Assembling the definitive Marvel Age Avengers anthology By early 1963 the foundations of the Marvel Universe had been laid. Following the introduction of the Fantastic Four in 1961 came the amazing (Spider-Man), the astonishing (Ant-Man), the strange (Doctor, that is), the incredible (Hulk), the invincible (Iron Man) and the mighty (Thor). Still, Marvel editor in chief Stan Lee realized something was missing. “I was writing these characters and I thought it would fun to put them together in a team,” he recalled. So Lee and artist Jack Kirby assembled Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Thor, and the Hulk...

The First Family of the Marvel Age. The ultimate collection of the world’s greatest comic magazine. Hoping to break out of a sales slump at Marvel in the early 1960s, veteran comic...

The Strangest Super-Heroes of All. The foundation of a pop-culture phenomenon. When Marvel publisher Martin Goodman asked Stan Lee to deliver another new team book for his line of comics, he had no idea he’d be getting something like The X-Men. In fact, nobody could have imagined the extraordinary phenomenon the X-Men would eventually grow into—not Goodman, not Lee, not even the forward-thinking futurist Jack Kirby. What they started out as was a charming, ragtag team of misfits, devised by Lee and Kirby to be mutants—youngsters born with “X-tra” powers thrust upon them not by accidentally crossing paths with cosmic rays or a nuclear blast, but by the fate of birth—led by a no-nonsense professor who trained them to become heroes that could protect the world from menaces, mutant and otherwise. The first years of storytelling laid the foundation for much of what has put the X-Men at the crossroads of comics and popular culture: Hounded by a public that fears and misunderstands them, mutantkind find themselves at the heart of their own civil rights struggle; Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Beast, and Iceman found safety amongst themselves despite the challenges that set them apart from others in society; and Professor Xavier lined up against his ideological foe, Magneto, who had assembled a Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to take the fight for their self-preservation directly to humankind. Along the way, Lee and Kirby—who were on fire taking comics into the Marvel Age—introduced a menagerie of villains and supporting characters that would become mainstays of Marvel and its lore: the super-powered siblings Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch; the formidable Blob; the unstoppable Juggernaut; the jungle dweller from the Savage Land, Ka-Zar; the demigod from the stars, the Stranger; and Bolivar Trask and his army of mutant-hunting Sentinels. And as Lee and Kirby gave way to new talents so they could move on to new corners of the Marvel Universe, Atlas era art veteran Werner Roth teamed with writing newcomer and future X-Men legend Roy Thomas...

Great Modern Architecture: The World's Most Spectacar Buildings Hardcover – January 1, 2009 by Bill Price. From the Publisher "All architecture is shelter...

Skyscrapers: A History of the World's Most Famous and Important Skyscrapers. By Judith Dupre, Published by Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, New York, N.Y., 1996. 1st Edition, 1st Printing. Extremely tall elephant folio (18 inches tall x 8 inches). Large hardcover coffee table book. Now, bigger than ever, this long-awaited revised edition of Judith Dupré's best-selling Skyscrapers is a giant celebration of today's most significant superstructures. It features an all-new design with full-color photographs, 10 new buildings, and informative updates throughout. Includes Foreword; Introductory Interview with Philip Johnson. List of One Hundred Tallest Buildings in the World. Profusely illustrated with black-and-white photographs. The lower front left jacket corner contains a repaired one inch closed tear; the jacket is otherwise in fine condition. ".This magnificent tour presents a fascinating look at fifty of the greatest skyscrapers in the world. Breathtaking photographs capture details often missed by the naked eye; architectural drawings and pictures of works-in-progress take you behind the scenes and enrich your understanding of the efforts involved in erecting many of the buildings; facts-at-a-glance charts give you the vital statistics, including the locations of the structure, its height, the primary architect, the date of completion, materials used, and information about its place in architectural history.You'll encounter such architectural pioneers as William Le Baron Jenney, who took advantage of new technologies like fireproofing, elevators, and electrical lights to create, in 1885, the Home Insurance Building in Chicago, generally acknowledged to be the first skyscraper; Daniel Burnham, who, inspired by the irregular building site, designed NewYork's Flatiron Building, a dramatic triangular structure that exuberantly mixes Gothic and Renaissance motifs; and Miles van der Rohe, whose elegant, monumental Seagram Building epitomizes the ideals of the modernist movement.From the ancient pyramids of Egypt...

Eating with the Chefs documents the daily meal shared by chefs and front-of-house staff at eighteen top restaurants including Noma, Le Chateaubriand and The French Laundry. Capture...

An unrivaled survey of the most exciting contemporary interior design across the globe, curated by the editors of ten international editions of Architectural Digest. Since 1920, Architectural Digest has celebrated design talents, innovative homes, and products--providing endless decoration, lifestyle, and travel inspiration. With ten global editions, the magazine is an authority renowned all-over the world for publishing only the very best of today's interior design. In this new volume--spearheaded by AD France's editor in chief, Marie Kalt...

The definitive collection of this year's most inspiring — and acclaimed — new buildings and spaces around the world The Architizer A+Awards honor the year's most extraordinary architecture and building...

Is apartment living the way of the future? According to some, it's the only way to live. For most apartment-dwellers, beautiful views, functional floor plans, low maintenance and convenient, inner-city locations far outweigh the attributes of the traditional quarter-acre suburban block. This book presents, through text, superb floor photographs and floor plans, 50 of the best apartments from around the world. Focusing on fabulous interiors, this book is a digest of the myriad ways to fit out spaces that often begin as concrete shells, but are transformed, through the talents of the best interior architects and designers, into luxurious penthouses, funky lofts, hip apartments, sleek bachelor pads and sumptuous family homes. An inspiring sourcebook for all lovers of beautiful interiors. Title Fifty of the World's Best Apartments Editor Robyn Beaver...