After posting a video of New York Times bestselling author Mark Albion discussing his new book MORE THAN MONEY yesterday, here’s a short animated movie based on the book.

“The Good Life” is about a chance meeting between an MBA and a fisherman on a small Greek island . As the MBA tries to teach the fisherman about business, the fisherman teaches him about life:

You can learn more about Mark Albion and MORE THAN MONEY at http://www.more-than-money.org

“Everybody needs money. That’s why they call it money.”

So says Danny De Vito’s thief Mickey Bergman in David Mamet’s Heist.

It’s true, everybody does need money. But, according former Harvard Business School professor Mark Albion, money and status are not the key to fulfillment. The single-minded pursuit financial gain often means we sacrifice our personal aspirations, and this is particularly so for risk-adverse MBA students who feel tremendous pressure to focus on material success once they graduate.

In his new book, MORE THAN MONEY, Albion asks MBAs to redefine how they think about success. Using his own life story, and those of the many entrepreneurs, executives and MBAs he’s met, he introduces a framework to consider when thinking about career choices, and encourages MBA students (and all the rest of us!) to give themselves permission to be who they really want to be.

As Albion explains in this new video, MORE THAN MONEY really sets out to answer the question of how to lead a more balanced life:

MORE THAN MONEY is published in September. Click here for an excerpt from the book. 

Eco design blog Inhabitat have reported on internationally acclaimed architect Tom Kundig’s wonderful ‘Rolling Huts’:

“Part pre-fab home and part RV, Tom Kundig’s mobile home ‘Rolling Huts’ are a tribute to the simplicity of rural Romanticism… Clustered together much like a herd, Kundig’s huts grant an unobstructed view of the mountains."

Characteristic of Kundig’s work, the huts do show remarkable sensitivity to their location. Mobile and raised slightly of the ground,
they sit lightly on the site, a flood plain meadow in an alpine river valley.

Evocative of Thoreau’s cabin in the woods, the construction of each hut is simple (they’re basically steel clad boxes on a steel and wood platforms) and the raw low-maintenance materials blend subtly into the surrounding landscape.

More of Tom Kundig’s projects can be seen at the website of his firm Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects (OSKAA) and, more specifically, in the breath-taking TOM KUNDIG: HOUSES, published by Princeton Architectural Press. An in-depth look at five of Kundig’s earlier residential projects, TOM KUNDIG: HOUSES includes early conceptual sketches and beautiful photographs of the exquisitely finished houses in their (often spectacular) environments.

TOM KUNDIG: HOUSES is available now. 

Although I enjoy lamenting the imminent end of summer, one of the best things about September (besides my birthday!) is that a lot of the big, new Fall season books are published. This week I finally got to see, read and hold one of the books I’ve been waiting months to see.

OVER AND OVER: A CATALOG OF HAND-DRAWN PATTERNS is exactly that. Two of my favourite things combined. There’s something mesmerizing about patterns: they’re so obsessive and claustrophobic and wonderful. I know I’m not alone in my admiration of patterns —just look at the recent trends in patterned hoodies and T’s, as well as wallpaper making a comeback among stylistas…

OVER AND OVER is a companion to last year’s HAND JOB: A CATALOG OF TYPE, which collected hand-drawn specimens of words and typography. Both books were compiled by Mike Perry, a designer in his own right. These are a couple of his patterns in the book:

So many talented artists and designers are featured in this book, including a good number of Canadians (yay!): Robin Cameron, Marco Cibola, Ray Fenwick (also the author of THE HALL OF BEST KNOWLEDGE), Luke Ramsey, and Ben Weeks.

Photos here are courtesy of the author, Mike Perry. You can see some other spreads from the book over on Mike Perry’s website as well as on the Design Related blog.

Ok, so I promise this is my last post about D+Q and all things comics for today, but self-confessed “lifelong Prose Guy” Bob Thompson has journeyed deep into the world of comics, graphic novels, manga, and “sequential art” for the Washington Post:

To a lifelong Prose Guy, whose idea of a good time involves a comfortable couch and a book full of nothing but words, the graphic novel galaxy can still feel far, far away.

Yes, I know comics can be ambitious and aimed at adults. Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” made this indisputable two decades ago, and there has been plenty of impressive work done since. But I can’t help wondering, even as I begin to explore the rise of what’s sometimes called “sequential art,” if I can ever overcome my personal bias toward prose.

Accompanied by a 4-part comic by Jonathan Bennett (that not only illustrates the article, but adds some nice nuance and self-depreciating humour to it) Thompson explores why there has been such increased levels in interest over the past couple of decades, talks to a lot of the big names in independent comics, and finds a lot to like along the way, including Adrian Tomine’s SHORTCOMINGS:

[Tomine’s] latest collection of little squares, “Shortcomings,” carries a blurb from novelist Jonathan Lethem that compares Tomine’s “mastery of narrative time” to that of short-story goddess Alice Munro. It’s a complex fictional stew of relationships and ethnicity, and while I don’t quite buy the Munro comparison, I’m captivated nonetheless. Tomine is published by a small but highly regarded Canadian outfit called Drawn & Quarterly, and I soon find myself bingeing on some of their other authors.

Other D+Q staples that catch Thompson’s eye are Guy Delisle’s PYONGYANG, Chester Brown’s epic LOUIS RIEL, and, of course, Rutu Modan’s EXIT WOUNDS:

I find a lot to like. When I ask myself why, however, it’s not easy to put the answer into words.

Take “Exit Wounds” by Israeli cartoonist Rutu Modan. An improbable love story built around a man’s disappearance after a terrorist bombing, its “spare, affecting lines and charged dialogue add up to a tragicomic take on family and identity,” according to The Post’s reviewer. Fair enough, but most of that description could serve a prose novel just as well. What haunts me is the way Modan’s lonely, angry lovers lock gazes across empty distance.

But Thompson is also refreshingly honest about his difficulties with the medium:

A few weeks into this project, I’m reading absolutely nothing but big fat comics with spines, and my inner Prose Guy is getting cranky. For one thing, they’re too darn short. I love being immersed in a narrative for days at a time, but even the fattest comics don’t take more than a few hours to read… I’m also reading far too many things that Prose Guy would have set aside after a few pages if finishing them weren’t part of the job at hand. 

Yet, Thompson perseveres:

My stack of graphic novels keeps getting higher. And some are good enough to make my prose itch disappear… I know there’s more and more good work out there that’s to my taste

And whilst there aren’t any great surprises here for die-hard fans or anyone who has been following this discussion for the last few years, Thompson is a better guide for being honest about his prejudices and his refusal to be starry-eyed, despite clearly falling for some of the mediums better work.

Overall Thomson offers a thoughtful and balanced primer for someone who has read Maus and Persepolis but is wondering what else is out there, and why there is so much fuss about life in little squares…

Click here for the full Washington Post article

Having pointed you to a great interview with Rutu Modan yesterday, here’s another D+Q cartoonist, Jason Lutes, talking to Comic Book Resources about his terrific multi-layered historical epic BERLIN:

As you’ve made a sizeable emotional investment in “Berlin,” did you have any personally significant experiences while visiting Germany?

The biggest emotional reaction I had was one of humility. What I had to come to accept was all it’s ever going to be is my imaginary version of that city in that time. It’s my highly idiosyncratic, American idea of that place. When I took a train into the city, I was afraid seeing the real place would change everything, my imaginary place would be shattered. The sun was going down as we went through outlying districts, and I remember feeling like I didn’t get it wrong, like a sense of relief. All my work had paid off. But there’s no way I could capture it. It’s this complex urban environment with lives intersecting, and what an amazing and scary thing that can be—that’s what a city is. When I actually enter into the real place today, there was just a sense of complete humility. There’s no way I could ever capture it.

Set in the Weimar Republic, Lutes’ saga follows the lives of Kurt and Marthe as Berlin, the most progressive city in Europe, descends into a maelstrom of political extremism and violence.

The second book in the series, BERLIN: CITY OF SMOKE is released in September.

Click here for the full interview.

The excellent Drawn + Quarterly blog (an invaluable resource for anyone interested in D+Q and Canadian independent comics) points to a fascinating indepth interview with award-winning cartoonist and New York Times Magazine contributor Rutu Modan, author of EXIT WOUNDS and the forthcoming JAMILTI AND OTHER STORIES, in Israeli newspaper Haaretz:

And how does life infiltrate illustration and writing?

“For me it stems from a desire to explain the disorder in which I live. There is no logic, after all, in all the events that befall us, and I have this desire to organize everything into something coherent and meaningful. The story takes reality and organizes it. I underwent a process until I arrived at this point, where I dare to tell the story. At first I illustrated the stories of others, and slowly but surely I gathered courage and began to write my own story. My sister Dana underwent a similar process. She began her career as an actress and then began to write film scripts. Just as I got tired of drawing for others, she got tired of playing roles that others had written and began to write on her own. The desire not to be only an instrument, but to tell our own story, is something we have in common.”

In EXIT WOUNDS, a young Israeli, Koby Franco, learns that his estranged father may have been a victim of a suicide bombing. Reluctantly joining a female soldier in searching for clues, Koby tries to unravel the mystery of his father’s death, and he finds himself piecing together not only the last few months of his father’s life but his entire identity.

JAMILTI AND OTHER STORIES is set to be in stores in September.

Click here for Haaretz’s interview with Rutu Modan.

Summer’s wrapping up (sigh!) and here in Vancouver the rain is already settling in (double sigh!). But if you’re not quite ready for summer to end, a good diversion is Suzy Lee’s adorable picture book WAVE, a wordless story about a girl’s day on the beach.

The artwork in this book is captivating and very capably expresses everything without the need for a single written word. I’d have to agree with this reviewer in The New York Times when she says:

I am in love with a nameless little girl made of charcoal dust. She is the sparingly drawn heroine of “Wave,” Suzy Lee’s wordless picture book about a day at the beach, and she bursts from the page with vitality.

And we’re not alone in our love. WAVE has just been awarded the Gold Medal in the annual Society of Illustrators Original Art Show, a juried exhibit that’s one of the highest honors in picture book publishing.

In the words of a contributor to The iSpot.com, “The Society of Illustrators in New York is host to so many wonderful shows throughout the year. But the hands-down, all-out, gotta-love-it, most charming is always the Original Art Show. This juried exhibition celebrates the fine art of children’s book illustration. And what a celebration it is: over 150 original works selected from the books themselves are on display.”

Sounds like a good excuse to visit New York. I hope it’s not raining there.

Chronicle has also created a cute little animated version of the book, which is a nice sneak peek at the story.

The Olympics is making me hungry… It is being widely reported that the phenomenal American swimmer Michael Phelps consumes 12,000 calories a day when in training, including lots of stuff that is yummy, but technically really really bad for you! (How I wish I’d been armed with this information when I was a kid! “BUT MOM! Michael Phelps eats THREE fried-egg sandwiches for breakfast and he won eight gold medals!” Celery-crunching parents of mini-Olympians are already sighing in collective desperation in the face of this indisputable logic...)

But if the thought of guilt-free fried-egg sandwiches doesn’t get you fist-pumping the air like an over-excited gymnast, and traditional food from Beijing is your thing, here are a couple of new books just for you....

In SERVE THE PEOPLE: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China food writer Jen Lin-Liu recounts what happened when she decided to enroll in a local Beijing cooking school.

As the author progresses from novice to noodle-stall, and dumpling-house apprentice to intern at a chic Shanghai restaurant (with recipes from along the way) SERVE THE PEOPLE is a cook’s tour of contemporary China.

Here’s what the reviewers are saying:

“Serve the People is a window on the China we don’t see in Olympic news, a hard-scrabble world that still exists to feed the insatiable appetite of a country of 1.3 billion people.”—The Edmonton Journal

“highly entertaining”—The Toronto Star

“Written like a novel, [Serve the People] is funny and engaging, with insights into contemporary life in Beijing.”—The Georgia Straight

“Serve the People is terrific. It might change your view of China, in a good way.”—January Magazine

For further practical guidance, pick up MARTIN YAN’S CHINA. The foremost expert on Chinese cooking (and James Beard Award-winning chef) Martin Yan introduces a hundred recipes for gorgeous Chinese dishes, accompanied by breathtaking photographs and fascinating information about the food, history and culture of China.

This is what January Magazine had to say about the MARTIN YAN’S CHINA:

“This is a really wonderful book. One of my favorite cookbooks thus far this year. Very good photographs are included throughout: not just great food and
food styling either but National Geographic-quality photos of a country currently undergoing great change."

But, you know, if you really must follow the (admittedly very attractive and appealing) Phelps Diet, here’s a little video to inspire you too:

Any suggestions on how to make the perfect fried-egg sandwich? Anyone? 

Avast, all you shark-baits, landlubbers, and squid kissers!

Paperrrrr engineerrrrrrrr and authorrrr Ray Marshall and illustratorrrr Wilson Swain have teamed up to create a stunning pop-up book, THE CASTAWAY PIRATES: A POP-UP TALE OF BAD LUCK, SHARP TEETH AND STINKY TOES.