Contemporary Italians touch it for luck before placing a bet. Americans are having it cosmetically enhanced at rates approaching breast enlargement surgery. The female butt, tush, culo, or derrière has always inspired awe, fantasy, and slavish devotion.Curiously, its primary purpose is functional rather than aesthetic: butts balance our bodies while running, according to biologists. But ask any pygophiliac—as fundament fans are clinically termed—and you'll get the same answer: female hindquarters exist to please the eye, the hands, and parts south. A pert posterior causes instant arousal, as Zora Neale Hurston observed in Their Eyes Were Watching God: "The men noticed her firm buttocks like she had grape fruits in her hip pockets." Or, as rapper Sir Mix-a-lot proclaimed, "My anaconda don't want none, unless you’ve got buns, hun."Having all but disappeared from western culture in the breast-obsessed second half of the 20th century, the fully formed fanny is currently enjoying a massive resurgence, attributed by some to American actress Jennifer Lopez, by others to the rise of booty-centric hip hop culture. Yet this rage for shapely butts is nothing new. The ancient Greeks worshipped at the temple of Aphrodite Kallipygos, Goddess of the Beautiful Buttocks, while a womanly rump has always been an object of worship in most of the southern hemisphere.The Big Butt Book explores this perennial fascination with female booty—from small and taut to large and sumptuous—in the fourth installment of Dian Hanson's critically acclaimed body parts series. Over 400 photos from 1900 to the present day are contextualized by interviews with porn icon John (Buttman) Stagliano, filmmaker Tinto Brass, artist Robert Crumb, bootylicious butt queens Buffie The Body, Coco and Brazil's Watermelon Woman, plus Eve Howard and her life-long spanking obsession.

    From Ridley Scott's elegant horror masterpiece and James Cameron's visceral and heart-pounding Aliens, to David Fincher's nihilistic Alien³, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's twisted Alien Resurrection, these are the films that birthed a monster and a cultural phenomenon.Alien: The Archive is a beautiful celebration of these landmark films, delving deep into the process of how all four films were created. From the earliest script ideas to final cut, this book showcases the making of the series in exhaustive and exclusive detail. Featuring storyboards from Ridley Scott, exclusive concept designs from Ron Cobb and Syd Mead, behind-the-scenes imagery of the Xenomorphs being created, deleted scenes, unused ideas, costumes, weapons, and much more.This must have retrospective also includes brand new interviews with Ridley Scott, Sigourney Weaver, H.R. Giger, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Jenette Goldstein, and those whose vision and originality created a cinema legend.This book is for all fans of Alien, art lovers, and cinema and science fiction historians. Alien: The Archive is the final word on the series and showcases the breathtaking creation of a terrifying and beautiful filmic nightmare.

    Nita Leland brings logic and intuition together to create a foundation for color selections that allow you to be more inventive, break out of old habits and experiment with new colors. Her approach eliminates time-wasting trial and error while giving you the freedom to use color in personal, meaningful and exciting ways.Features:Artwork from more than 50 contributing artists that illustrates many personal approaches to color85 -Try It- activities that will help to develop your awareness of the colors and combinations that resonate with youStep-by-step demonstrations that show how 7 different artists choose palettes and make color decisions as they paint a range of subjectsLearn to use harmonious color schemes, dynamic contrasts and compatible colors to say what you want in your art. With engaging instruction, as well as art and lessons and applicable to any medium, this book will show you how to take your work to the next level.

    Brandon Graham (born 1976) was widely acclaimed for his book "King City," with "Publishers Weekly" calling Graham "one of the most inventive action cartoonists working." "Walrus," his first art book, serves as a handbook to his visual and verbal world, a punning, humorous and sexy metropolis comprised of machines, logos, women and bumbling men, all cast in an alternate sci-fi universe.

    Minutes to Midnight is the ambitious photographic record of that adventure, in which Parke presents a proud but uneasy nation struggling to craft its identity from different cultures and traditions. Minutes to Midnight merges traditional documentary techniques and imagination to create a dark visual narrative portraying Australia with a mix of nostalgia, romanticism and brooding realism. This is not a record of the physical landscape but of an emotional one. It is a story of human anxiety and intensity which, although told from Australia, represents a universal human condition in the world today.

    She claimed the police had inserted a stick inside her… Swaranpreet realised that she had been cruelly violated; He spoke a single sentence but repeated it twice in chaste Punjabi: ‘Please give me a turban? I want nothing else…’ These are voices begging for deliverance in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination in October-November 1984 in which 2,733 Sikhs were killed, burnt and exterminated by lumpens in the country. Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay walks us through one of the most shameful episodes of sectarian violence in post Independent India and highlights the apathy of subsequent governments towards Sikhs who paid a price for what was clearly a state-sponsored riot. Poignant, raw and most importantly, macabre, the personal histories in the book reveal how even after three decades, a community continues to battle for its identity in its own country.

    Williams ** An armed assault force raids the marble halls of the British Museum. The target – the most heinous relic of all time – the last surviving coin of the blood money paid to Judas Iscariot for his betrayal of Christ.For over a thousand years the cursed pieces of silver cut a swath of famine, pestilence and ruinous destruction wherever they were carried. To save humanity from the malevolent power of the coins, the Knights Templar were given a Papal Blessing and sent on a pilgrimage to the holy lands to find and hide the thirty pieces of silver.A sinister organization has unlocked a chilling secret—the ability to control the power of the coin and use it as a terrifying weapon, posing the greatest threat to mankind in history.Sanford Carter, antiquities thief and ladies’ man, has been ensnared by the secret service and forced to execute a daring burglary on their behalf. His mission is simple – steal the coin first.Sarah Hudson, the studious and law-abiding archaeologist who doesn’t believe in curses, only science, is in the wrong place at the wrong time and refuses to hand over the coin or allow Carter to get away with his bold crime.With ruthless dark forces closing in, the brazen thief and the scholarly archaeologist must unlock the hidden history of the coin if they are to safeguard humanity from its evil curse.From the cobbled streets of London to the spectacular volcanic landscapes of Iceland, The Judas Conspiracy sets a cracking pace from the start and never lets up. For fans of James Rollins, Matthew Reilly, Michael C. Grumley, A.G. Riddle, Rob Jones, Matt Rogers, James D. Prescott, Brad Thor, Douglas E. Richards, Clive Cussler and David Baldacci

    Printed in full color, this hardcover book is bound in faux-leather paper and stamped with the official seal of the Comstock House Re-Education Center. Featuring artwork by Jorge Lacera and Zoe Brookes, approximately 48 pages long and decorated with concept art as well as inked illustrations, Mind in Revolt is a true artifact of Columbia. **

    Now, Valve joins with Dark Horse to bring three critically acclaimed, fan-favorite series to print, with a collection of comics from the worlds of Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress, and Portal. With over two hundred pages of story, Valve Presents: The sacrifice and other Steam-Powered Stories is a must-read for fans looking to further explore the games they love or comics readers interested in dipping their toes into new mythos!

    The veteran game journalist takes you inside the curious experience of life and work in video games -- through the lens of one week spent at the incredible Game Developers Conference.Available in epub, mobi (kindle compatible), microsoft word, and pdf formats.

    II: Visions of Darkness" is the second book in the series. It continues the story of the "Horus Heresy," the dark time in human history when the Imperium was rent by the internal war, as the forces of Chaos strove to turn brother against brother. This book is full of color images from Sabertooth's fantastic collectable card game, depicting famous characters, places and warriors from the dim history of the Imperium. Also included are many of John Blanche's amazing concept sketches that did so much to inspire the other artists in their own work.The text accompanying all the art is written by Allan Merrett, who has been instrumental in creating the background that forms the basis of the Horus Heresy and the Warhammer 40,000 universe. This book is a wonderful showcase for the talented artists who work for Sabertooth, Game Workshop and the Black Library.

    Each collection sparkles with pieces seen on book covers from around the world. Fantasy, science fiction, eroticism, etc... Royo has devised a special personal mix of media that makes his work so uncannily real, so beguilingly engaging as to make him a best-selling star.

    Movies defined the 20th century but games are now pushing them aside as the medium that captures our time, fascination and money. Generation Xbox digs into the love-hate relationship between games and cinema that has led us to this point. It's a story of disaster, triumph and Angelia Jolie in hot pants. Learn how Steven Spielberg's game-making dreams fell apart and why Silicon Valley pioneers wooed Stanley Kubrick. Discover the story behind the failed Halo movie, how videogame tech paved the way for Avatar, and what companies like Ubisoft and Valve are doing to take gaming to the next level. Based on more than 100 interviews with leading figures from videogames and Hollywood, Generation Xbox is the definitive history of an epic power struggle that has reshaped the entertainment landscape. Are you ready to play?

    P. Wolf and Bernard Perron, is both a close analysis of the first three Silent Hill games and a general look at the whole series. Silent Hill, with its first title released in 1999, is one of the most influential of the horror video game series. Perron situates the games within the survival horror genre, both by looking at the history of the genre and by comparing Silent Hill with such important forerunners as Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil. Taking a transmedia approach and underlining the designer's cinematic and literary influences, he uses the narrative structure; the techniques of imagery, sound, and music employed; the game mechanics; and the fiction, artifact, and gameplay emotions elicited by the games to explore the specific fears survival horror games are designed to provoke and how the experience as a whole has made the Silent Hill series one of the major landmarks of video game history.

    This design workshop begins with an examination of the fundamental elements of game design; then puts you to work in prototyping, playtesting and redesigning your own games with exercises that teach essential design skills. Workshop exercises require no background in programming or artwork, releasing you from the intricacies of electronic game production, so you can develop a working understanding of the essentials of game design.Features:* A design methodology used in the USC Interactive Media program, a cutting edge program funded in part of Electronic Arts. * Hands-on exercises demonstrate key concepts, and the design methodology* Insights from top industry game designers, including Noah Falstein, American McGee, Peter Molyneux