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Apparently, someone can’t take a joke.

British comedian, Ricky Gervais hosted the 2010 Golden Globes award ceremony last month and raised eyebrows with some of his off-color quips.  A few days later we learned that twelve thousand copies of his latest Flanimals Pop-up book was reported missing from the publisher’s warehouse.

There are a few theories of who may have hijacked the shipment.  It’s possible that the cargo just disappeared like lost luggage at an airport.  Or maybe thieves stole to merchandise thinking they lifted Plasma TVs and ended up with boxes of books.  Some folks suggest that Ricky had a hand in this as an elaborate publicity stunt.  He countered with his own suspicions when he stated, “This is obviously a misguided Flanimal Rights Group or an organized gang of eight-year-olds,”  Personally, I have my eye on an evil consortium of slighted actors that wanted revenge on Gervais after his remarks at the Globes.  Ringleader, Steve Carell was even quoted telling Gervais, “I will break you.”

Well played Mr. Carell, well played.

More details of the heist can be found in this article in Publishers Weekly.

Despite the lost, a full release of Flanimals Pop-Up will hit U.S. bookshelves on March 9.  If you can’t wait that long you can get a quick sneak peek of the book in this YouTube video starring Ricky himself.

-Kyle

In the year 2000, as Matthew Reinhart was completing his second pop-up book, Pop-up Book of Nightmares, he was asked by Melcher Media to do some paper engineering experiments with a new plastic paper.  Melcher Media is book production firm or packager and acts as a small publishing house imprint to develop new books in a variety of formats.  Once the book is developed they bring it to various publishers who will then take on the product and get it to the bookshelves.

Taking advantage of the obvious properties of the plastic paper, Reinhart was able to create a few early models of boat hulls before moving onto new projects.  Just think of it – paper boats in dazzling colors and shapes that can have a lifetime of action on both bathtubs and backyard ponds.

The book found new life under paper engineer Willy Bullocks (credited for the design of the excellent Max’s Machines Pop-up Book) and the final result was released in 2001.

The Amazing Book of Paper Boats boasts 18 different boat patterns printed on waterproof paper for the viewer to cut, “fold and float”.  The book also provides some history to the boat designs as well as explicit directions for constructing your watercrafts.  Since I just received my copy this week, I have yet to test the buoyancy of the designs but I can always start with the ‘Ocean Liner’ which bears a resemblance to the Titanic so if I spring a leak it will look planned.

-Kyle

I know this is a little late but I just received a Youtube link to an excellent pop-up advertisement.  This is a holiday spot for UPS that builds on the ingenious animated cardboard campaign that was created by Psyop, a multimedia design firm that takes it’s name from the mysterious government organization.  [Be sure to view the other amazing UPS Store animations at their website or Youtube channel.]

What I love about many of the current digitally animated pop-ups are the attention to details and the creator’s desire to follow the physics of actual books.  Psyop found a good middle ground when they developed these explosive environments and then asked me to consult on merging them with traditional paper engineered mechanics.  It was exciting to work with the team and I can take no credit for the imaginative vision and impeccable execution, but you bet I will be keeping an eye on them to see what magical worlds they create next.

-Kyle

A few years ago I met a gifted young paper engineer named Colette Fu.  She showed me a series of oversized pop-ups that she had completed for graduate study that exploded with food and surreal imagery.  These two-foot tall cloth bound spreads definitely left an impression and I knew that when we parted that was not the last I would hear from her.

We recently bumped into each other at Sally Blakemore’s book reading and Colette let me know that she has been hard at work since we last meet.  In fact, she received a Fulbright scholarship to travel back to her mother’s hometown in China and document the ethnic minorities found in the Yunnan Province.  The result is currently being displayed at the Asian Arts Initiative in a show titled, We Are Tiger Dragon People.  A press release about the show and Colette can be found here.

We Are Tiger Dragon People will be at the Asian Arts Initiative from October 20 – December 23, so if you are in the Philadelphia area I suggest you stop by and see these monumental works for yourself.

If you cannot make it in the next few weeks, be sure to visit her newly updated website to see photos and videos from the project.  Plus, you can witness her gigantic 36×53″ pop-ups of Haunted Philly or keep tabs on Colette and her new work with her blog.  That’s where I just learned about the custom pop-up engagement cards she creates.  This is one busy lady.  I can’t wait to see what she will be up to in the future!

-Kyle

First we lost the King of Pop, now the King of Pop-ups.

I learned last week from David Carter that Waldo Hunt had passed away on November 6^th in California.  Wally Hunt went by many titles and nicknames, most recently proclaimed as the “King of Pop-ups”, “The Forefather of Pop-ups” and the “Paterfamilias of Pop-ups”.  All these labels begin to emphasis the important role Wally Hunt had in the mid-1960’s when he fell in love with the pop-up books of Vojtech Kubasta on a trip to Europe and determined to bring movable books to the American audience.  He began companies like Graphics International and Intervisual Communications/Intervisual Books that became wildly successful over the following decades and delivered many noted pop-up titles like Bennett Cerf’s Book of Riddles, Jan Pienkowski’s Haunted House, Ron van der Meer’s Monster Island and many, many more.  The list of contemporary pop-up artists that worked with Hunt is long and those of us that did not have the opportunity were greatly influenced by his vast output of movable books.

After a book event last week where I sat with Matthew Reinhart, Bruce Foster, Chuck Fischer, Sam Ita and others, it was David A. Carter that summed it up best: “None of us would be here today without Waldo Hunt”

Here are some offerings from the L.A. Times and Publishers Weekly.

-Kyle

The 4^th Annual Pop-up Celebration! at the wonderful Books of Wonder Bookstore.

Join me next week for a Baby Signs presentation and book signing at one of the best independent bookstores in New York.  I will be sharing the stage with many famous pop-up book makers like Matthew Reinhart, David A. Carter, Chuck Fisher, Bruce Foster, Sam Ita and more.

Saturday, November 14th from 12:00 – 2:00pm.

Books of Wonder

18 W. 18th St

New York, NY 10011

212-989-3270

Visit the Books of Wonder website for more information.

-Kyle

I recently received some great photos from a pop-up exhibition that occurred a few months ago in Japan.  They were sent from the good people at Arima Toy Musuem [Note: website is in Japanese.]  The show included over 450 works including Lothar Megendorfer, Ernest Nister, Vojtech Kubasta and Robert Sabuda.  Many of these titles came from the collection of Mr. Hisashi Tate Emi Nishida Akio Omachi, who is also the director of the Arima Toy Museum.

The exhibit ran from July 18^th to August 9^th at the Kitanoda Festival (Sakai City Hall East House of Culture) and was organized by the Sakai City Cultural Hall East and Mainichi in cooperation with Arima Toy Museum and additional sponsorship by the Movable Book Society.

Besides the excellent displays of numerous noteworthy pop-up books, they also held a pop-up workshop where children could create their own pop-up masterpieces.  Hopefully the next generation of Japanese paper engineers were inspired by classic books on display, maybe learned a technique or two at the workshop and will create some amazing pop-ups in the future.

And if I ever find myself in Japan I hope to make it to the Toy Museum to wander the three floors of toys, automata and train sets.  Very cool!

-Kyle

Last month, I announced my initiation into the world of paper toys when two of my models were included in Papercuts.  Around that time I received a cool gift from my sister that she brought back from a quick trip to Korea.

According to the information on the back of the postcard:

“guan jian shou was two generals endangering the world but were intimidated by Dizang Wang’s Buddhism and Dizang Wang’s guards.  These two observed good and evil in the world and in turn they prolong good people’s life and shorten bad people’s life.”

These little guys came from the Answer Ideas Studio, which is based out of Taiwan.

The Studio has developed dozens of paper toys ranging from figures to everyday objects with varying degrees of difficulty.  Each model is cut from a single card and does not require any glue, and constructing my tiny guards took little more than an hour.

Now as they guard my messy table I catch myself glancing over at them and hoping they are prolonging my life.  If I stay good I may have more time to make a few more paper models.

-Kyle

A few weeks ago I had a chance to meet famous book creator/funny man, Mo Willems.  I literally cornered him at a signing and asked about his latest book.  After developing successful picture book series involving pigeons, piggies and pachyderms, Mo has set his sights on the humble frog.  Not just any frog but a frog SO big she can’t fit inside the book.

Mo teamed up with Bruce Foster to create the first ever “Pop Out” book.  Big Frog Can’t Fit In was released this week by Hyperion and I was fortunate enough to get a copy for myself.  The nine-inch by nine inch book comes in a tall resealable bag with an additional orange box that protects the dangling froggie toes from getting smashed on the bookshelf.  The six spreads feature oversized pop-ups and playful pull tabs designed out of sturdy heavyweight paper.  (This book has the potential to stand up to some very curious little hands.)  I am also very impressed with how the positive storyline is integrated with the pop-ups.  You can tell Mo and Bruce really had fun making this book.

In fact when I asked Bruce about his experience with the book and the collaboration he had this to say. “Mo was great to work with. Very funny guy.  When they called me with his idea I had to slap my head like in the V-8 commercials, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?!!’ Ha.”

One of my favorite details of the book involves Big Frog flashing a gold tooth as she shrinks on the page.  It’s the little things like this that make the book worthy of reading over and over at bedtime. (or playtime, or anytime!)

Now that the pop-out book is out Mo and Bruce are had at work in a variety of different projects.  Keep an eye on Mo’s blog to get a taste of what’s to come out of his studio. As for Bruce Foster, well he is the most prolific paper engineer I have ever met. This month FOUR new titles he paper engineered are coming out: Big Frog Can’t Fit In, The Sound of Music, Angels and the Sports Illustrated Kid’s Wow! The Pop Up Book of Sports.  I’m looking forward to seeing them all!

-Kyle

I recently received a pleasant surprise in the mail. One of my favorite paper artists, Matthew Shlian, has just released his latest self-published title, Papercuts. This cool papercraft book has over 15 models that you can copy, cut and create. The templates are well laid out and include some instructions and smaller diagrams to identify all those little cuts and folds. The designs range in complexity but should not take more than an hour to build. The characters are quirky and make a welcome addition to a few of the other papercraft collections that have hit the shelves this year.
I was able to get a sneak peek of some of these critters a few months ago when Matthew asked me and a select group of designers to adapt and design some additional papercraft figures that are included in the accompanying bonus disc. Drawing inspiration from his Chef and Sasquatch designs, I developed my first two papercraft designs.

Radiohead is a classic cathedral radio from the 1930s. Twist his nose dial to change the frequency and watch his eyes roll around in his head.

Pinhead comes with adjustable arms and four different moods allowing you to customize and build ten pins before knocking them over in a few frames of desktop bowling.

If you are interested in these little guys and many more fun papercraft projects, the signed Papercuts books can be purchased directly from Matthew’s excellent website.

-Kyle