Zoom

By the creator of The Other Side, Istvan Banyai‘s Zoom is not your mother’s picture book. Publisher’s Weekly: “This provocative wordless volume can be ‘read’ either from front to back or even from back to front. Either way, it’s a startling experience. Its illustrations ‘zoom’ out, as though a viewer has rapidly backed away from each. For example, the first painting, of a jagged-edged red shape, turns out to be a detail of a rooster’s comb; as the pages turn, the bird diminishes in importance, until the barn where he stands is shown to be a toy on a magazine’s cover. That magazine dangles from the hand of a dozing boy, who himself becomes but a smudge on an advertising billboard. These shifts in perspective repeat until the book abandons earth altogether. The last image is a tiny white sphere-our planet-against a night sky. The bold color and level of detail in Banyai’s cartoons recall ‘Prince Valiant’ or another of the ‘realistic’ Sunday comics. If the concept is not wholly new, the execution is superior.” Giggle factor: not applicable; has a “wow” factor instead. Adult enjoyment: likely. Illustrations: five jelly jars.

~ by kaychubbuck on February 14, 2011.