Check this out! Here’s the front page of the Dagens Nyheter Newspaper Culture section as it appeared on September 22nd. The cover story is about Alfred A. Knopf Book Designer, Chip Kidd, with the headline, "In The Mind of a Cover Boy". In the interview ( by Pontus Dahlman, not available online ) Chip Kidd states, concerning e-books, "And when it comes to the experience of reading, there will always be a market for paper books. I myself am a print person. A printing ink person." This is really great foreign publicity ( and we love that ) but the really fun part is that they used Book Cover photos from our GALLERY PAGE to illustrate the story… Awesome!

Bradalmanac, over at the Flickr website, just posted some very excellent photos he shot at the Charles Burns, Chip Kidd, & Chris Ware event at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, MA on October 11th, 2012. This was in connection to the Harvard Book Store and to see more pics please CLICK HERE!

YES! Excellent! There’s a big buzz today over at the Los Angeles Times HERO COMPLEX Blog all about the new BEFORE WATCHMEN “Rorschach” No. 3 Variant Cover that was designed by Chip Kidd for DC Comics. The Reporter, Noelene Clark, got the scoop to present the exclusive 1st photo of the cover at the HERO COMPLEX website!!

For the few people who don’t know, DC Comics recently started publishing a fresh comic book series called BEFORE WATCHMEN that is sort of a “prequel” to the now-iconic WATCHMEN Graphic Novel Book that was originally published back in 1986-87. The new comics are being published with both a regular Standard Cover and a Variant Cover. Chip Kidd was asked to “do the Variant design” for the Rorschach character ( Issue #3 ) which comes out around November 21st, 2012.

Also, The new "Before Watchmen" series is written by Brian Azzarello, with art by Lee Bermejo. For more details, please visit the HERO COMPLEX site and, if you could, please “share or tweet” about it! Thanks.

Shown up above is one of Chip Kidd’s biggest fans. Her name is “Hope” and she is totally crazy about Graphic Design, Book Covers, Typography, and Chew Toys. She visits CHIPKIDD.COM every single day and said she always loves the amazing content. Well, except for one recent post we did on David Quamman’s new book, “SPILLOVER: Animal Infections and the Next Pandemic”. To see that online article just CLICK HERE!

She wrote to tell us that this blog posting caused her much stress and worry ( just look at the expression on her face ). She said it was NOT the design of the book cover. She thought it was well executed and she’s totally crazy about all the FONTS that were used. She also said that the photo of the raging crazy Baboon Monkey didn’t even bother her. No, her stress was caused by the actual book. As an “Animal” herself, she said she’s worried about the content of the book. Well, we wish to apologize for any discomfort she may be feeling right now. Hope, if you’re reading this right now, please know that you have nothing to be worried about. In fact, we will be sending you a free copy of this new book for to enjoy & you’ll see that everything is completely fine. So, please relax and also remember to keep an eye out on your mail box.

The reason for this post is two-fold. First, it’s cover was designed by Chip Kidd. Second, this new book written by DAVID QUAMMEN, “Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic”, is getting quite a bit of serious attention since it’s Oct 1st release and is quickly becoming a very important book in the world-wide Scientific community. We have included 2 videos down below: The first one is from the Author & the second one is the Official Book Trailer. The basic premise of the story is this:

The emergence of strange new diseases is a frightening problem that seems to be getting worse. In this age of speedy travel, it threatens a worldwide pandemic. We hear news reports of Ebola, SARS, AIDS, and something called Hendra killing horses and people in Australia-but those reports miss the big truth that such phenomena are part of a single pattern. The bugs that transmit these diseases share one thing: they originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover. David Quammen tracks this subject around the world. He recounts adventures in the field-netting bats in China, trapping monkeys in Bangladesh, stalking gorillas in the Congo-with the world's leading disease scientists. In Spillover Quammen takes the reader along on this astonishing quest to learn how, where from, and why these diseases emerge, and he asks the terrifying question: What might the next big one be?

If you truly LOVE Books then you have done this, admit it!!

Here’s a beautiful image that I thought would be fun to share. This is a photo from a Vogue Magazine fashion shoot where, by accident, they also feature the Book Cover for David Sedaris’ Novel, NAKED. Of course this Sexy Book Cover was designed by Chip Kidd. The Model’s name is Doutzen Kroes. Also, Thank you to Fashion Editor Elissa Santisi, who styled this “Summer Accessories” photo shoot.

In this Author History Lecture Video, recorded at the 92nd Street Y back in November, 2009, Martin Amis, Brian Boyd and Chip Kidd pay tribute to Vladimir Nabokov and read from his posthumous work, “The Original of Laura”. Biographer Brian Boyd begins with a presentation on the novel's place within Nabokov's canon; Martin Amis discusses Nabokov in relation to tragedy and the Holocaust; Chip Kidd discusses the design history of Nabokov's book covers from the past in reference to his own design of “The Original of Laura” Book Jacket ( shown up above ). A reading from Laura follows. Also, for more 92Y event information please visit: 92Y.org

YES YES YES! Here’s the latest movie trailer for the film-adaptation of, THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, based ( of course ) on the classic children’s book written by J. R. R. Tolkien in 1937. Now, while the main focus of this post is the trailer, I thought it would also be fun to share this photo of the original FIRST EDITION Book Jacket ( front & back ). This beautiful cover is a total art masterpiece!

Shown here are just a few of the many different Cover Designs for George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, or simply, “1984″ . Published in 1948 ( the title is a reversal of those numbers ) this book has become an international classic. Seriously, it should be a “must read” on anyone’s book-reading list. The story is both political fiction and dystopian science-fiction. It has also introduced many terms and concepts still used today, stuff like: Big Brother, Doublethink, Thoughtcrime, etc… In fact, many subjects considered to be Censorship, Mind Control or Government Surveillance is thought of as being “Orwellian”.

The 1st photo shown way up above is the original UK FIRST EDITION Hardback with Dust-Jacket as it appeared in England, 1948. Then, we get to see what the FIRST EDITION US VERSION looked like. Following these, down below, are many examples of the book’s cover over the years ( both hardback & paperback ). Oh, there have been many many more than these, this is just a small sample. The very last cover shown, plain white with a blue eye pupil, is just one of the most recent modern-day versions.

In closing, here is a recent photo taken at the real-life “George Orwell House” in England. The irony of it? Check out the Police Camera, ha!!