The Avengers, Hammer And Jim Lee

I am a child of the 1960s. Granted I was born in the 1950s but my formative years (pre-teen and teenager) took place in the 1960s. I remember the counter-culture revolution in the United States brought on by the British Invasion, Pop and Op art, the Vietnam War, Woodstock and one of my favorite 1960s show (along with The Man From Uncle, The Wild, Wild West and Star Trek) was the British import: The Avengers.

I remember seeing the show for the first time when it starred Diana Riggs as the sultry, sexy and lethal Emma Peel and Patrick Macnee as the suave, debonair and quick-witted, bowler cap wearing and umbrella wielding John Steed.

Titan Books and author Marcus Hearn look back at the ground-breaking series that originally started out as a revenge tale and transformed into a Pop Culture phenomenon filled with tongue-in-cheek humor and innuendo that took the United States and the world by storm.

Patrick Macnee provides the forreword for this wonderful tribute to a true TV original. Filled with anecdotes and photos (some never seen before) the book follows the show from its genesis to its eventual end in 1969. The Avengers A Celebration is just that-a heartfelt dedication to 50 years of a Television Classic.

Another British import were the films of Hammer Studios that is known primarily as the 'other' studio that made Dracula, Mummy, Werewolf and Frankenstein films. But, Hammer Studios did much more than refurbish classic horror films.

The Art Of Hammer looks at the posters promoting the various film genres produced by Hammer Films. Marcus Hearn has compiled a full-color and black and white photo gallery of poster art broken down by decade, starting with the 1950s.

Look for war, horror, suspense and other exciting posters paying tribute to a film studio that made camp cool.

Comic book artist Jim Lee is a phenomenon, but that wasn't always the case. I remember the first time I saw Jim's work and while I considered his work 'adequate' at the time I had no idea he would go on to become one of the greatest come book artists of all time.

In Titan Books' Icons: The DC Comics And Wildstorm Art Of Jim Lee, readers are treated to page-after-page of gorgeous pencils, inks and color work of the proficient and imaginative artist.

Learn how Jim Lee took stalwart DC characters like Batman and Superman and made them his own and how when he split with Marvel in the early 1990s he would go on with other creators to form Wildstorm Studios.

As a designer and illustrator (although far less talented than Lee) I can appreciate the talent and craft that went into each and every piece of art Jim put his pencil to.

This is more than a book about an artist. It is an examination of a true creative genius and a peek inside the mind of a talented creator of people, places and things pulled form his fertile imagination and given two-dimensional life.