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Basquiat Edited by Mark Mayer (Merrell; $45)
For those who don’t know, Jean-Michel Basquiat was one of the superstars of the intensely vibrant New York City art scene of the 1980’s. Drawing his inspiration from graffiti, cartoons, street imagery, mythology, and
religious symbolism, Basquiat was also influenced by sources as divergent as Pablo Picasso and the emerging hip-hop culture. His work seemed chaotic yet was
actually tightly controlled, often exploring issues of race and identity. A teenage runaway and high school
dropout, he died at the age of 27, his fantastic but all-too-brief career regretfully lasting only eight years. If
you dig contemporary art, Basquiat is well worth the hefty price tag. It includes an abundance of first-rate reproductions of his most famous work, as well as some highly obscure pieces from private collections. Four superb essays illuminate several important topics, including Basquiat’s meteoric rise to fame, his lasting relevance, and his relationship to contemporary music,
especially hip-hop.—Justin Remus
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Chocolate Kisses
By Francis Ray, Maryann Reid & Renee Luke
(NAL Trade; $13.95)
Chocolate Kisses is an engaging collection of three steamy stories. Starting off with “A Chocolate Affair” by Francis Ray, a CEO gets back with his college sweetheart, but when her bitter mother catches word of their rekindled flame, drama ensues. Things take a sicker twist in “A Good Man Is Hard To Count” by Maryanne Reid. Sexually liberated Savannah slips a candy stick in a jar for each sexual conquest, choosing a different color for each lucky guy. However, when a handsome firefighter named Clinton steps into her life, her once-
dependable system is shattered. In the title story, Nicole yearns to take her relationship with her close friend Marcus to the next level, but the love they share has Marcus torn between his heart and a paycheck. All three stories are worth reading, but Reid’s tale is tops among the trio. Blending sex, romance, and candy in creative ways, Chocolate Kisses should give your lady something to savor this Valentine’s Day.—Blaine Martin
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Identity Crisis
By Brad Meltzer, Rags Morales & Michael Lloyd (Vertigo; $19.99)
With DC stealing some of Marvel’s box-office thunder (besides this summer’s Superman Returns and an upcoming Batman Begins sequel, there are also Wonder Woman and The Flash movies in the works), you might be tempted to see how your old superfriends are doing in the funny pages. But were you to pick up the average DC comic these days, you’d wonder when superheroing became so damned depressing. This epic miniseries (now collected in a handsome hardcover edition) is where it all started. Both adored and reviled, it was written by Brad Meltzer, who uses the skills honed from his day job as a bestselling writer of legal thrillers to create this suspenseful murder mystery. When Sue Dibny—wife of third-tier shapeshifter Elongated Man—is brutally killed, the stars of the DC Universe band together to solve the crime. In the process, heroes fall, betrayals are revealed, and for once, the promise that “things will never be the same” is upheld. Penciller Rags Morales lets us see the
anguish on some of comics’ most famous faces, upping the emotional ante of this gripping, powerfully adult tale that takes readers down dark and twisted streets that would make Spider-Man shit his tights.—Marcel Leroux |
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Continued In Issue #24 - GET IT HERE!
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