{"id":44847,"date":"2025-09-23T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=44847"},"modified":"2025-09-18T16:16:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T23:16:51","slug":"heart-and-brain-formica-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/heart-and-brain-formica-forever\/","title":{"rendered":"Heart and Brain \/ Formica Forever"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HEART AND BRAIN HAVE EXTREMELY DIFFERENT VIEW POINTS BUT ALWAYS REMAIN BEST BUDS<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Heart and Brain: An Awkward Yeti Collection<\/em>
by Nick Seluk
Andrews McMeel Publishing
2015, 144 pages, 6.5 x 8 x 0.4 inches (softcover)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heart and Brain<\/em> is a wonderful collection of the lovable characters from Nick Seluk\u2019s The Awkward Yeti<\/em> webcomic. This special print edition features over 75 exclusive comics, as well as dozens of previously published fan favorites. The exclusive comics are the real draw, since they\u2019ll be totally new to you even if you\u2019ve read every single comic online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re new to Heart and Brain<\/em>, the title says all you need to know about the characters. Brain is the rational one, always looking out for the logical, safe thing to do, while Heart is all about passion and seeking out the things he loves. Seluk creatively captures the constant push-and-pull between these forces in us all and externalizes them in some of the most endearing characters in comics. It\u2019s hard to not fall in love with Brain\u2019s neurotic over-worrying, and Heart\u2019s blissful aloofness. They\u2019re a perfectly matched odd couple because they come from such extremely differing viewpoints, but they always manage to meet in the middle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comics themselves are hilarious. I don\u2019t think a single joke misses the mark in the entire book, which is pretty incredible. Seluk understands his characters on such a fundamental level that everything they do and say feels authentic. They\u2019re just as endearing as other comic duos like Calvin and Hobbes<\/em>, and their stories have the every day simplicity of Peanuts<\/em>. The Awkward Yeti<\/em> is an extremely modern comic, constantly addressing technology and common modern life issues. It can do the office humor of Dilbert<\/em>, the slice-of-life ease of Peanuts<\/em>, and the simple punchlines of Garfield<\/em>. The main appeal to the comic is thinking \u201cI know that feeling!\u201d after seeing Brain humorously stress about past regrets just before going to sleep, or Heart being overly excited about something silly. Seluk\u2019s ability to poke fun at his hang-ups on just about everything makes it easy for the reader to relate their own idiosyncrasies. Seluk will be releasing another collection in October and you can be sure I\u2019ll be picking up a copy. \u2013 Alex Strine<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FORMICA FOREVER CELEBRATES THE SLEEK CENTURY-OLD MATERIAL AND ITS INDESTRUCTIBLE BEAUTY<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Formica Forever<\/em>
by Formica Corporation
Metropolis Books\/Formica Corporation
2013, 408 pages, 6.5 x 9.4 x 1.2 inches (softcover)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This handsome book on Formica is really a love letter written to itself. Formica Forever<\/em> celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Formica Group with interesting histories, rich visuals, a little chemistry lesson, and cleverly excerpted quotes from literature all in a witty format designed by Pentagram. You\u2019ll learn of Formica\u2019s origins as an industrial material developed as a synthetic electrical insulator (substituting \u201cfor mica\u201d), its evolution to a durable and decorative finish material in ships, trains, and, most famously, its use in post-war American homes. That\u2019s when and where the \u201cwipe-clean world\u201d reached its pinnacle, with Formica saving mankind from eons of grime, crud, germs and smells \u2013 and looking great, too, due to its indestructible beauty. The spectrum of colors, foils, wood grains, patterns and finishes are well represented in these gorgeous graphics. As a bit of an inside joke, the images of ads, ladies magazine photo spreads, pattern sample chips and endless uses of Formica are printed on pages that have been perforated, just like a tear-out catalog or sample book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll leave it to you to pick your favorite of all the images of Formica in action. I loved Lee Payne\u2019s giant Neapolitan ice cream and Frank Gehry\u2019s illuminated fish sculpture. Sprinkled throughout are short quotes (printed on the back of Formica \u201csample chip\u201d cartouches) from famous authors who have used Formica in their writing: John Updike, Sue Grafton, Ian Flemming, Harlin Ellison, and Margaret Atwood. Formica is everywhere!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

America\u2019s taste in kitchen countertops has largely moved on to marble, but these classic Formica ads and colorful swatches are still a treat for any fan of mid-century modern design or Americana. \u2013 Robert Knetzger<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Books That Belong On Paper<\/strong>\u00a0first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair.<\/em>\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to get the issues a week early in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Issue No. 85<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[31],"tags":[2398],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44861,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44847\/revisions\/44861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}