A ramshackle set of rock portraits, charming though stingy with context.
Boston—home turf for photographer Grecco, whose work from the late 1970s through mid-’80s is showcased here—was an underrated punk and new wave epicenter. It boasted its own top-tier acts—most prominently, the Cars and ’Til Tuesday—and was often where U.S. and U.K. acts kicked off their tours. So one pleasure of this collection is that it spotlights a host of major artists in the early stages of their careers: Elvis Costello, the Plasmatics, New Order, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Devo, and more. Because most of the venues they played were smaller clubs, Grecco captures a distinctly uninhibited, before-they-were-famous vibe, shooting his subjects goofing off in grimy dressing rooms, snorting cocaine, or lounging in radio stations. The concert photos show Grecco’s knack for making his subjects look larger than life; shots of the Ramones and the Dead Kennedys have a live-wire energy, and Public Image Ltd’s John Lydon looks at once manic and imposing. Somewhat oddly, Grecco chooses to arrange his photos by venue, which gives a sense of the size and relative sleaziness of each club but little other information. (Frustratingly, captions are largely absent, though presumably any interested reader would recognize most performers on sight.) In the later pages, Grecco captures the Clash at the height of their fame and David Bowie at Foxboro Stadium (“It was the only time I saw him, but it was still magical”). Introductory essays by the B-52s’ Fred Schneider and longtime journalist Jim Sullivan set the scene well, convincingly positioning Boston as “a microcosm for a youthquake that was happening in cities across America, England, and Europe."
A ramshackle set of rock portraits, charming though stingy with context.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4854-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.
Portraits in a post-pandemic world.
After the Covid-19 lockdowns left New York City’s streets empty, many claimed that the city was “gone forever.” It was those words that inspired Stanton, whose previous collections include Humans of New York (2013), Humans of New York: Stories (2015), and Humans (2020), to return to the well once more for a new love letter to the city’s humanity and diversity. Beautifully laid out in hardcover with crisp, bright images, each portrait of a New Yorker is accompanied by sparse but potent quotes from Stanton’s interviews with his subjects. Early in the book, the author sequences three portraits—a couple laughing, then looking serious, then the woman with tears in her eyes—as they recount the arc of their relationship, transforming each emotional beat of their story into an affecting visual narrative. In another, an unhoused man sits on the street, his husky eating out of his hand. The caption: “I’m a late bloomer.” Though the pandemic isn’t mentioned often, Stanton focuses much of the book on optimistic stories of the post-pandemic era. Among the most notable profiles is Myles Smutney, founder of the Free Store Project, whose story of reclaiming boarded‑up buildings during the lockdowns speaks to the city’s resilience. In reusing the same formula from his previous books, the author confirms his thesis: New York isn’t going anywhere. As he writes in his lyrical prologue, “Just as one might dive among coral reefs to marvel at nature, one can come to New York City to marvel at humanity.” The book’s optimism paints New York as a city where diverse lives converge in moments of beauty, joy, and collective hope.
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781250277589
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
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