{"id":46622,"date":"2026-08-04T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=46622"},"modified":"2026-07-31T09:03:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:03:25","slug":"home-matthias-buchinger-the-greatest-german-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/home-matthias-buchinger-the-greatest-german-living\/","title":{"rendered":"Home \/ Matthias Buchinger: \u201cThe Greatest German Living\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HOME \u2013 A QUIRKY ODE TO THE MANY STRUCTURES WE LIVE IN ACROSS THE WORLD<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Home<\/em>
by Carson Ellis
Candlewick
2015, 40 pages, 10.2 x 12.1 x 0.4 inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Home<\/em>, the quirky triumphant solo debut of Carson Ellis, might look oddly familiar. You\u2019re not mistaken \u2013 you\u2019ve seen this charmingly wholesome artwork before. And it\u2019s not because it looks as if it fell out of a Wes Anderson movie set and into your lap. Carson Ellis is the illustrator for children\u2019s classics like Lemony Snickett and The Benedict Society. She\u2019s also well known for her artwork in Wildwood<\/em>, a children\u2019s fantasy novel written by her husband, Colin Meloy, the lead singer for the Decemberists. You\u2019ll recognize Carson\u2019s contributions on the band\u2019s album covers and merchandise, full of blossoming colors and quaint patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home<\/em> is an ode to the many structures across the world that we dwell in, from the messy riotous nest of a sparrow to the peaked roof of the artist\u2019s own humble abode. Carson gives a nod not only to the cheerful graffiti and clustered bricks of urban sprawl but also the domed turrets of white marbled eastern palaces and the cozy cottages of the countryside. She indulges in the silly and the fantastic at every turn, with houses fashioned out of shoes that spill mischievous children across the yard or the Spartan spatial quiet of a lunar landscape. Peculiar characters people her pages; knights in armor astride seahorses, a Norse god in a winged, gold helmet, and a Slovakian duchess peeking grimly from beneath her hat while anchoring twins in her iron grasp. The final page is a culmination of the detailed illustrations that have preceded it, with an element from each scene included as a component of the artist\u2019s own studio. \u2013 Kaz Weida<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ONLY 29 INCHES TALL, MATTHIAS BUCHINGER\u2019S ARTISTIC ACCOMPLISHMENT WERE GIGANTIC<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Matthias Buchinger: \u201cThe Greatest German Living\u201d<\/em>
by Ricky Jay
Siglio
2016, 160 pages, 8 x 9.8 x 0.8 inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

When Matthias Buchinger was born in 1674, he arrived without arms or legs. As an adult, he was under 2.5 feet tall. He lived to the age of 65, outliving three wives (his fourth wife outlived him, and he was rumored to have as many as 70 mistresses), and he sired 14 children. Most remarkably, Buchinger was an accomplished artist, magician, sharpshooter, and calligrapher. Buchinger\u2019s specialty was micrography: the art of writing tiny letters. He was famous throughout Europe. According to Wikipedia, \u201cBuchinger\u2019s fame was so widespread that in the 1780s the term \u2018Buckinger\u2019s boot\u2019 existed in England as a euphemism for the vagina (because the only \u2018limb\u2019 he had was his penis).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The author is Ricky Jay, a famous magician, performer, historian of unusual performers, and writer. Jay\u2019s biography of the extraordinary Buchinger includes many reproductions of Buchinger\u2019s exacting pen and ink drawings, which he made holding a pen in his small fin-like appendages. Jay is a longtime collector of Buchinger original art, and this book includes several entertaining chapters about Jay\u2019s personal interest in collecting Buchinger\u2019s work and his interactions with other Buchinger-philes. \u2013 Mark Frauenfelder<\/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. 129<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47588,"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\/46622"}],"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\/47588"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46638,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46622\/revisions\/46638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}