{"id":46827,"date":"2026-09-01T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=46827"},"modified":"2026-08-28T00:21:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T07:21:51","slug":"street-craft-fantastic-amazing-incredible-a-marvelous-memoir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/street-craft-fantastic-amazing-incredible-a-marvelous-memoir\/","title":{"rendered":"Street Craft \/ Fantastic, Amazing, Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

STREET CRAFT: YARNBOMBING, GUERILLA GARDENING, LIGHT TAGGING, LACE GRAFFITI AND MORE<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

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Street Craft: Yarnbombing, Guerilla Gardening, Light Tagging, Lace Graffiti and More<\/em>
by Riikka Kuittinen
Thames & Hudson
2016, 224 pages, 7.2 x 9 x 1 inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Beyond graffiti. The artists featured in this book apply non-paint to the urban landscape. Instead of spray cans they use yarn, cloth, plastic, plants, and sculpture. This \u201cstreet crafting\u201d is full of surprises in ways that are original and brilliant, witty and profound. The craftmanship is excellent. The concepts can be subversive, or uplifting. Think of it as public art without permission. The book is a glorious catalog of some of the best pieces which have appeared on streets of the world. No matter what you create, they\u2019ll be some great ideas here. \u2013 Kevin Kelly<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FANTASTIC, AMAZING, INCREDIBLE: A MARVELOUS MEMOIR BY STAN LEE<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

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Fantastic, Amazing, Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir<\/em>
by Stan Lee (author), Peter David (author) and Colleen Doran (illustrator)
Touchstone
2016, 192 pages, 6.9 x 10.4 x 0.8 inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

It\u2019s only right that Stan Lee\u2019s memoirs arrive in comic book form. The 93-year-old ambassador\/mascot of Marvel Comics has been in the funnybook business since 1939 – back when they still were called funnybooks. Back then, the medium was seen as silly at best, vile at worst. But today, comics, or graphic novels as some highfalutin folks call them, have attained a status of near respectability. People of all ages read and love them, and their characters generate billions of dollars via their appearances on TV and in films. Lee, along with other key figures, has been at the forefront of this evolution. And though he\u2019s interviewed almost daily, it\u2019s interesting to hear what he has to say about his career and all the changes he\u2019s seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This book, penned with the help of veteran comics writer Peter David and zippily illustrated by Colleen Doran, does a fine job of charting Lee\u2019s trajectory to the top of his field. We see how the stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle seized Lee\u2019s early imagination, making him want to become a writer. And we observe him in his early years at Atlas Comics, the company that became Marvel, and how he, in collaboration with artists such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, helped create the Marvel Universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee is often criticized for stealing the spotlight and not giving due credit to Kirby, who co-created the Fantastic Four<\/em>, Avengers<\/em>, X-Men<\/em>, Thor<\/em>, Captain America<\/em> and many others, and Steve Ditko, who co-created Spider-Man<\/em>, Doctor Strange<\/em> and more. Lee doesn\u2019t get into the nitty gritty here about who deserves credit for what. However, he does acknowledge Kirby and Ditko\u2019s crucial contributions via full-page, dynamic tributes, drawn by Doran to highlight the stylistic hallmarks of each of these artists. While more insight into the creative process behind the comics would\u2019ve been nice, at least these vital collaborators get a good mention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee, David and Doran make excellent use of graphic storytelling to move the story along. The book is framed as a speech Lee is giving at a comics convention and the visuals transport us through different phases of his career, from the early days of creating a new type of superhero \u2013 one with human flaws despite great powers \u2013 through his promotion to Marvel publisher and his move to Hollywood. The scene in which Lee first meets his wife, Joan, is imaginatively staged, paying visual tribute to the panel in the Spider-Man<\/em> comics where Peter Parker first lays eyes on Mary Jane Watson. And a sequence that tells how Lee and his wife lost an infant daughter is told with great sensitivity and emotion \u2013 as dark shadows surround Stan as he shares the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much as he does in his real-life appearances and interviews, Lee quickly brushes aside other tough topics, such as the financial and legal tribulations faced by Marvel and his own Stan Lee Media company in the 1990s. The panels devoted to those topics say, in essence, \u201cthe less said, the better.\u201d The tone of the book is mostly bright and optimistic. Lee celebrates his joy in being able to do what he loves, knowing that others love it, too. Anyone expecting something deeper from Lee, particularly in his own book, isn\u2019t being realistic. So, while it\u2019s not the most detailed or definitive look at Lee, it\u2019s his own version, told in the medium he helped transform. \u2013 John Firehammer<\/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. 133<\/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\/46827"}],"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=46827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46844,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46827\/revisions\/46844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}