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 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
PERSPECTIVES
A smart, rewarding consideration of football’s popularity—and eventual downfall.
A wide-ranging writer on his football fixation.
Is our biggest spectator sport “a practical means for understanding American life”? Klosterman thinks so, backing it up with funny, thought-provoking essays about TV coverage, ethical quandaries, and the rules themselves. Yet those who believe it’s a brutal relic of a less enlightened era need only wait, “because football is doomed.” Marshalling his customary blend of learned and low-culture references—Noam Chomsky, meet AC/DC—Klosterman offers an “expository obituary” of a game whose current “monocultural grip” will baffle future generations. He forecasts that economic and social forces—the NFL’s “cultivation of revenue,” changes in advertising, et al.—will end its cultural centrality. It’s hard to imagine a time when “football stops and no one cares,” but Klosterman cites an instructive precedent. Horse racing was broadly popular a century ago, when horses were more common in daily life. But that’s no longer true, and fandom has plummeted. With youth participation on a similar trajectory, Klosterman foresees a time when fewer people have a personal connection to football, rendering it a “niche” pursuit. Until then, the sport gives us much to consider, with Klosterman as our well-informed guide. Basketball is more “elegant,” but “football is the best television product ever,” its breaks between plays—“the intensity and the nothingness,” à la Sartre—provide thrills and space for reflection or conversation. For its part, the increasing “intellectual density” of the game, particularly for quarterbacks, mirrors a broader culture marked by an “ongoing escalation of corporate and technological control.” Klosterman also has compelling, counterintuitive takes on football gambling, GOAT debates, and how one major college football coach reminds him of “Laura Ingalls Wilder’s much‑loved Little House novels.” A beloved sport’s eventual death spiral has seldom been so entertaining.
A smart, rewarding consideration of football’s popularity—and eventual downfall.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593490648
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 24, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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