The Curse Of Lono: Taschen Edition
Yesterday while browsing in Kinokuniya, the English language Japanese bookshop, my jaw dropped when I saw displayed prominently on the art shelves a truly huge and glorious new edition of Hunter S. Thompson and Ralph Steadman’s classic collaboration, The Curse Of Lono. Chronicling their visits to Hawaii in 1980, The Curse Of Lono was an expensive book to print due to the number of colour illustrations from Steadman’s pen, so it remained out of print through much of the last couple of decades. Now it’s been given the most lavish reprint possible by Taschen - the book’s about the size of a small child and the same weight to boot. You’d know about it if a stack of these fell on you. As a representation of Steadman’s work, it is spectacular - huge colour pages for his inimitable viciousness to spew across, aided by Thompson’s vitriol which does, frankly, take the back seat here. I was tempted to buy it again just to enjoy it all over again.
My own edition of Lono was brought back from that America by graphic novelist Antony Johnston when we used to work together, a long time ago - he found it for $30 in San Francisco when the going rate on Abebooks was $200 plus. Sigh. And he didn’t lie to me about the price he paid. Which is surprising. Because he’s an evil bastard normally.
There’s Craig’s interview with Ralph Steadman from a few months ago, my appreciation of HST after his death, Nathan Cain’s assessment of HST’s Fear And Loathing In America and Screwjack, plus a more prosiac assessment of Lono at Gonzo.org
More on The Curse Of Lono:
Spike | Google | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Wikipedia
Open Directory | Technorati: The Curse Of Lono
Other Splinters posts of interest:
- The Hunter S Thompson Death Industry Swings Into Action
- Ralph Steadman: the Spike interview
- Black Planet There is something peculiar about …
- Heavenly Fear And Loathing
- The Anatomy of Melancholy One of the best thing…
