Taschen have announced the impending re-release of The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ by science and technology writer Piers Bizony, designed by the M/M partnership.
2001 is one of those films that has has had a lasting impression on me for decades now, and I fondly remember reading the Jack Kirby Marvel Treasury comic that adapted the film, which, published in 1976, would have been about the time I saw the film on a UK re-release. Although baffling, it was and remains inspirational (and one of the few films my Dad went to see twice). Reading the novel led me to more of Clarke’s work, and helped encourage my love of SF.
More than that, though,m the design of the film has had a lasting impact on many, and from the look of the some of the pages of this book, there’s plenty of coverage for that in it.
Previously available as part of the multi-volume and instant sell-out Collector’s Edition, this behind-the-scenes spectacular sheds light on the ground-breaking SF film’s lead actors, senior production designers, special-effects experts and masterminds of Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, who together revolutionized science fiction and the art of cinema.
The book includes on and off set photographs, pre-production paintings, and conceptual designs from the Kubrick archives, plus numerous fold-outs, offering a wealth of dazzling images offering insight both into Kubrick’s meticulous directorial methods, and into the mysteries and magnetism of a film at once vast in scope and intricate in its exploration of our relationship to technology.
Written and researched over several years by the outer space, special effects, and technology journalist Piers Bizony, whose books include The Rivers of Mars, nominated for the Nasa Eugene M. Emme Award for Astronautical Writing in 1998, Atom, The Man Who Ran the Moon, Starman, this compendium is both an exhaustive labour of love and a monument to a masterpiece of 20th century culture.
M/M (Paris) is an art and design partnership consisting of Mathias Augustyniak and Michael Amzalag. Their portfolio includes art direction and collaborations with Björk, Balenciaga, and Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, as well as with magazines including Vogue Paris, Interview, and Purple Fashion.
• The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ by Piers Brozny, published by Taschen, is available from 25th August 2015
• Sequart: On Jack Kirby’s 2001: A Space Odyssey Adaptation by Julian Darius
Before Jack Kirby continued the story of 2001, he adapted the film into a 70-page comic. Although the comic adapts the film — it uses Jupiter, for example, whereas the novel used Saturn — it does incorporate some dialogue from the novel. Strangely, it also incorporates elements from the screenplay, in which the computer HAL spoke more colloquially. Such inconsistencies with the finished film are common in adaptations produced in time for the motion picture release, but they’re rarer in adaptations produced long after the fact, as this one was.
• The Dissolve: In the comic-book pages of 2001, two sorts of genius collided Noel Murray
Kirby wrote, drew, and served as his own editor on Marvel’s 2001 adaptation (with inks by Frank Giacoia and colouring by Marie Severin), but, Murray argues, doesn’t bring much personal feeling or “transcendent mastery of the medium” to the Treasury.
• The Jack Kirby Collector #33 features an entire article devoted to Kirby’s 2001 book by John Alexander
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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