From Booklist
Given the conservatism of the comic-book marketplace, cutting-edge anthologies are extremely iffy. That makes the would-be annual Blab!'s 15-number run all the more remarkable, especially since, over the years, it has published more and more noncomics graphics. This edition moves back toward comics narratives, albeit unconventional ones. Standouts include Peter Kuper's succinct depiction of the corruption of the American dream; Sue Coe's harrowing indictment of the food industry for the rise of avian flu; another of Mark Landman's Fetal Elvis adventures; and Spain's autobiographical account of the artistic path that led him to become a 1960s underground cartoonist. The avant-garde is represented by two-page spreads by such Blab! stalwarts as Gary Baseman, Blanquet, David Goldin, and the Clayton brothers. Editor Beauchamp provides a too-brief look at the World War II-era "Kilroy was here" phenomenon, and Lou Brooks' vibrant, Ben Day-bedecked covers give a nod to comics' mainstream roots. Besides its longevity, Blab!'s lavish and elegant large format, which shows the art to full advantage, sets it apart from most other comics anthologies. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Print
With superior printing, an overwide magazine size, a perfect-bound spine, and eclectic content, BLAB! pushes the limits of the form.

Graphis
[W][ork that is multi-layered...work that crosses both boundaries into a new kind of pictorial art form.

Book Description
The preeminent anthology of the graphic design and illustration arts. Conceived, edited and designed by five-time New York Festival of Advertising award-winner Monte Beauchamp, BLAB! has been an annual coffee-table showcase of fine art, illustration and comix for over a decade. It is an objet d'art that has become a standard-bearer in the world of the professional visual arts. Every volume of BLAB! features an eclectic mix of the world's most exciting artists from the underground and counterculture, fine arts community, and commercial fields, but this volume is exceptional, with the introduction of many new contributors in addition to familiar favorites like Gary Baseman, whose hit TV show, Teacher's Pet, was recently turned into a critically acclaimed Disney animated feature. Pop Art virtuoso Lou Brooks delivers the front and back covers, while Juxtapoz magazine favorite Christian Northeast does the insides covers. Also: Sue Coe takes a look at the so-called Bird Flu in "Fowl Plague," now rapidly spreading across Asia and almost certain to cause a world wide pandemic; Matti Hagelberg's "Shoes Say U.K.K.," wherein the President of Finland dies and rises from his grave; autobiography from Nightmare Alley's Spain Rodriguez; Jeffrey Steele's story about the Black Dahlia murder and the man who believes his father was the murderer; Peter Kuper's four-page, full-color, Little Nemo-inspired fantasy titled "Dream Machines"; Peter Hoey's "discovered" episodes from a long-lost newspaper serial featuring the Victorian adventurer Lt. Blade, in "The Mystery of the Empty Mirage;" Douglas Fraser's "Jumbo Shrimp," a two-pager about many things, including the ongoing, quiet grind of the common place, the gray of specific generics, and the times when God or Science just don't cut it; Tim Biskup paints up "Great Ghost Walk," wherein spirits hunt for robot souls; and Laura Levine relates a story about one autumn morning in Sept., 1945 when Farmer Lloyd Olsen went out to the henhouse and decapitated a robust Wyandotte rooster for that evening's dinner only to discover that it just wouldn't die, in "The Story of Mike the Headless Chicken." New contributors include Xavier Robel, Helge Revmann, Geoffrey Grahn, Nicolas DeBon, Don Collie, Owen Smith, and Gary Taxali. This volume also includes Beauchamp's long-awaited piece on Kilroy (of "was here" fame). 120 pp. (54 in color), 10" x 10".

About the Author
Monte Beauchamp has also edited New & Used BLAB! from Chronicle Books. His work has appeared in Print, Communication Arts, American Illustration, and the New York Festival's Annual of Advertising. He lives in Chicago, IL.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The preeminent anthology of the graphic design and illustration arts.

Conceived, edited and designed by five-time New York Festival of Advertising award-winner Monte Beauchamp, Blab! has been an annual coffee-table showcase of fine art, illustration and comix for over a decade. It is an objet d'art that has become a standard-bearer in the world of the professional visual arts. Every volume of BLAB! features an eclectic mix of the world's most exciting artists from the underground and counterculture, fine arts community, and commercial fields, but this volume is exceptional, with the introduction of many new contributors in addition to familiar favorites like Gary Baseman, whose hit TV show, Teacher's Pet, was recently turned into a critically acclaimed Disney animated feature. Pop Art virtuoso Lou Brooks delivers the front and back covers, while Juxtapoz magazine favorite Christian Northeast does the insides covers.