Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Graffiti

I've shown you a few things I've found in the books I buy at the thrift store. Today, here's something I found on one of my books.

First, the front cover, from Michael Crichton's Andromeda Strain. You can tell it's all 1970s, because if it were written today, it would have a much cooler cover with eye-spearing graphics and such, not this lousy alphanumeric kitsch (not that I mind the alphanumerics; I think they're kinda nifty; certainly more creative than just splashing color all over the place). And clever, since the man is shown with low light from above and just behind him, so as to conceal rather than reveal:


It's an edition of the book published to coincide with a movie based on the book, so the person on the front cover -- not quite sure who it is but it looks like Martin Landau -- is actually in the film, apparently in one of the sequences when these intrepid people are going through a decontamination process to enter a secret government germ warfare lab.

Now the back cover, with the image of the man repeated:


Then a blow-up of the upper left corner of the back cover. It's a bit dog-eared, but the message is clear:


It's a bit lost under the dog-ear, but I can extrapolate. Iit says "Where are my pants?" A fair question, I think. I giggle each time I see it.

1 comment:

Maaike said...

That is a good question. I did a series of artwork called "Où est son pantalon". It in the archives of my blog somewhere...and posted on my facebook account. You'll have to check it out.