Books by Chip Kidd

The Learners: The Book After "The Cheese Monkeys"

by Chip Kidd

Fresh out of college in the summer of 1961, Happy lands his first job as a graphic designer (okay, art assistant) at a small Connecticut advertising agency populated by a cast of endearing eccentrics. Life for Happy seems to be -- well, happy. But when he's assigned to design a newspaper ad recruiting participants for an experiment in the Yale Psychology Department, Happy can't resist responding to the ad himself. Little does he know that the experience will devastate him, forcing a reexamination of his past, his soul, and the nature of human cruelty -- chiefly, his own. Written in sharp, witty prose and peppered with absorbing ruminations on graphic design, The Learners again shows that Chip Kidd's writing is every bit as original, stunning, and memorable as his celebrated book jackets.

The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters

by Chip Kidd

After 15 years of designing more than 1,500 book jackets at Knopf for such authors as Anne Rice and Michael Chrichton, Kidd has crafted an affecting an entertaining novel set at a state university in the late 1950s that is both slap-happily funny and heartbreakingly sad. The Cheese Monkeys is a college novel that takes place over a tightly written two semesters. The book is set in the late 1950s at State U, where the young narrator, has decided to major in art, much to his parents’ dismay. It is an autobiographical, coming-of-age novel which tells universally appealing stories of maturity, finding a calling in life, and being inspired by a loving, demanding, and highly eccentric teacher.

The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel In Two Semesters

by Chip Kidd

After 15 years of designing more than 1,500 book jackets at Knopf for such authors as Anne Rice and Michael Chrichton, Kidd has crafted an affecting an entertaining novel set at a state university in the late 1950s that is both slap-happily funny and heartbreakingly sad. The Cheese Monkeys is a college novel that takes place over a tightly written two semesters. The book is set in the late 1950s at State U, where the young narrator, has decided to major in art, much to his parents’ dismay. It is an autobiographical, coming-of-age novel which tells universally appealing stories of maturity, finding a calling in life, and being inspired by a loving, demanding, and highly eccentric teacher.

True Prep: It's a Whole New Old World

by Lisa Birnbach, Chip Kidd

“Wake up, Muffy. We’re back.”

From Lisa Birnbach, the author of The Official Preppy Handbook—and designer Chip Kidd—comes a whole new take on the prep world that Birnbach turned into an international best-selling phenomenon thirty years ago.

True Prep is a contemporary look at how the old guard of natural-fiber-loving, dog-worshipping, G&T-soaked preppies adapt to the new order of things. Birnbach considers the prep attitude towards money (ambivalent), schools (good investment), wardrobe (now your clothes fit), work (some careers will never be prep), decorating (ask mummy), scandal (including rehab and prison), and food and drink (with some classic recipes for both). She also looks at weekends (and what to do to get asked back), entertaining, sports (including sailing and shopping), weddings, etiquette, the Internet and electronic gadgetry, political correctness, reality TV, and . . . polar fleece. And last but not least: a do-it-yourself eulogy.

With more than 200 original illustrations and photographs, True Prep promises to be a whole new, old sensation.

True Prep: It's a Whole New Old World

by Lisa Birnbach, Chip Kidd

Now in paperback from Lisa Birnbach, the author of The Official Preppy Handbook, comes True Prep, which looks at how the old guard of natural-fiber-loving, dog-worshipping, G&T-soaked preppies adapts to the new order of the Internet, cell phones, rehab, political correctness, reality TV, and . . . polar fleece.

Chip Kidd: Book One: Work: 1986-2006

by Chip Kidd

Described as "the closest thing to a rock star" in graphic design today (USA Today), Chip Kidd is universally recognized as an American master of contemporary book design. At the forefront of a revolution in publishing, Kidd's iconic covers, with their inventive marriage of type and found images, have influenced an entire generation of design practitioners in many fields.Chip Kidd: Book One collects all of his book covers and designs for the first time, as well as hundreds of developmental sketches and concepts-annotated by Kidd and by many of the best-selling authors he's worked with over the years. The result is an important contribution to the design canon today as well as a visually dazzling (and often hilarious) insider's look at the design and publishing process.The book also showcases Kidd's work with comics and graphic novels, including his collaborations with leading artists and writers in the field. Featured are projects for DC Comics, including Batman and Superman, as well as Kidd's award-winning exploration of the art of Charles M. Schulz. Chip Kidd: Book One is sure to enthrall design aficionados, book lovers, pop-culture fanatics, comics fans, and design students.

Chip Kidd: Book One: Work: 1986-2006

by Chip Kidd

Described as "the closest thing to a rock star" in graphic design today (USA Today), Chip Kidd is universally recognized as an American master of contemporary book design. At the forefront of a revolution in publishing, Kidd's iconic covers, with their inventive marriage of type and found images, have influenced an entire generation of design practitioners in many fields.Chip Kidd: Book One collects all of his book covers and designs for the first time, as well as hundreds of developmental sketches and concepts-annotated by Kidd and by many of the best-selling authors he's worked with over the years. The result is an important contribution to the design canon today as well as a visually dazzling (and often hilarious) insider's look at the design and publishing process.The book also showcases Kidd's work with comics and graphic novels, including his collaborations with leading artists and writers in the field. Featured are projects for DC Comics, including Batman and Superman, as well as Kidd's award-winning exploration of the art of Charles M. Schulz. Chip Kidd: Book One is sure to enthrall design aficionados, book lovers, pop-culture fanatics, comics fans, and design students.

The Learners: A Novel

by Chip Kidd

A follow up to The Cheese Monkeys finds 1961 college graduate Happy embarking on his new advertising job in the middle of an eccentric team of co-workers, an effort that is marked by their struggles to land and keep promising clients and Happy's participation in a devastating Yale psychology experiment. 50,000 first printing.

Go Hardcover – Illustrated, 16 April 2014

by Chip Kidd

Reading books is a kind of enjoyment. Reading books is a good habit. We bring you a different kinds of books. You can carry this book where ever you want. It is easy to carry. It can be an ideal gift to yourself and to your loved ones. Care instruction keep away from fire.

Shazam!: The Golden Age of the World's Mightiest Mortal

by Chip Kidd, Geoff Spear

Shazam made his debut in Whiz Comics in 1940, and outsold his biggest competitor, Superman, by 14 million copies a month. It wasn’t long before a variety of merchandise was licensed—secret decoders, figurines, buttons, paper rockets, tin toys, puzzles, costumes—and a fan club was created to keep up with the demand. These collectibles now sell for outrageous prices on eBay or in comic book stores and conventions. Seventy years later, an unprecedented assortment of these collectibles are gathered together by award-winning writer/designer Chip Kidd and photographer Geoff Spear. Join Kidd, Spear, and the World’s Mightiest Mortal in this first, fully authorized celebration of ephemera, artwork, and rare, one-of-a-kind toys, and recapture the magic that was Shazam!

Praise for Shazam!:

"Superman has always gotten more press, but Captain Marvel may be the greatest expression of comics' optimism: A young boy says a magical word and turns into the World's Mightiest Mortal. Chip Kidd and Geoff Spear's gorgeous new book, Shazam! The Golden Age of the World's Mightiest Mortal (ABRAMS) pays tribute to the hero's bright colors and medium-spanning stories, all lovingly displayed in Kidd's signature style . . . It's a coffee-table book that provides a glimpse into a world where the powers of the gods are just an acronym away."
-The Onion's A.V. Club

"VERDICT: Despite the quite reasonable price, this features typical ABRAMS art and production quality. Fans will grab this Marvel-ous piece of Americana faster than you can say 'Shazam!'"
-Mike Rogers, Library Journal Express

"A handsome follow up to Bat-Manga!"
--ComicsAlliance.com

"This is a collector's dream: Page after page of Captain Marvel art, premiums, posters, toys, and ephemera from the biggest-selling superhero of all time . . . This book is a true time capsule and worthy of any comic fan's bookshelf."
--USATODAY.com

"Shazam! allows its rich imagery to tell the exciting story of this superhero. Between Kidd's glorious layout and Spear's highly detailed photography, the reader can feel the excitement and fabric that would eventually lead Captain Marvel to outsell Superman during the glorious Golden Age of comics!"
--Comic Book Resources

"Shazam! beautifully documents the creation and success of Fawcett's Captain Marvel franchise . . . Indeed, for non-Captain Marvel enthusiasts, the book may be most interesting as a compendium of historical documents, a glimpse not just of a bygone pop phenomenon but also of a larger cultural ethos."
-Forward.com

Shazam!: The Golden Age of the World's Mightiest Mortal

by Chip Kidd, Geoff Spear

Shazam made his debut in Whiz Comics in 1940, and outsold his biggest competitor, Superman, by 14 million copies a month. It wasn’t long before a variety of merchandise was licensed—secret decoders, figurines, buttons, paper rockets, tin toys, puzzles, costumes—and a fan club was created to keep up with the demand. These collectibles now sell for outrageous prices on eBay and in comic book stores and conventions. Seventy years later, an unprecedented assortment of these artifacts are gathered together by award-winning writer/designer Chip Kidd and photographer Geo Spear. Join Kidd, Spear, and the World’s Mightiest Mortal in this first, fully authorized celebration of ephemera, artwork, and rare, one-of-a-kind toys, and recapture the magic that was Shazam!

Chip Kidd: Book Two

by Chip Kidd

FOREWORD INDIES Book of the Year Awards — 2017 GOLD Winner for Art

According to the Huffington Post, “Chip Kidd is the Meryl Streep of book design.” At the forefront of a revolution in publishing, Kidd’s iconic covers, in large part inspired by memorabilia and comics, have influenced an entire generation of designers, artists, and the book world.

CHIP KIDD: BOOK TWO: WORK 2007-2017 picks up where Book One left offshowcasing his impressive body of work from the past decade as well as new works yet to be seen this year. We see not just hundreds of his recent projects, but the working processes behind them—thoughts, sketches, revisions, scrapped drafts, and triumphant final versions. The bestselling authors he has worked with include the likes of Cormac McCarthy, John Updike, David Sedaris, Augusten Burroughs, Mary Roach, Oliver Sacks, and Elie Wiesel. He has created movie art for entertainment powerhouses like J.J. Abrams, DC Comics, Universal Pictures, and Paramount Pictures, and, he is known by geeks worldwide for his comic book and graphic novel work. Alongside striking images of his work are witty essays by Haruki Murakami, Neil Gaiman, and Orhan Pamuk that are sure to delight any bibliophile.

Throughout this ten-year retrospective, Kidd leads readers through each step of his design journey culminating in a section on how to write and art-direct a graphic novel, using as an example his New York Times-bestselling Batman: Death by Design.

Displaying the master’s passion for unconventional and forward-thinking book covers, film work, and graphic novel projects, this volume is sure to bring fresh inspirations to design aficionados, book lovers, pop-culture fanatics, comics fans, and design students.

Marvelocity: The Marvel Comics Art of Alex Ross

by Chip Kidd, Alex Ross

FROM THE TEAM THAT BROUGHT YOU THE EISNER-AWARD WINNING MYTHOLOGY: THE DC COMICS ART OF ALEX ROSS

Here is the beloved Marvel Universe of comics characters, brought to thrilling life as only Alex Ross can. They’re all here: Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Black Panther, and many more—all seeming to leap, blast, and launch off the page.

For almost thirty years, Ross has been working nonstop to create some of the most astonishing images in comics, and while Marvelocity collects the very best of that oeuvre, it’s much more than that. Inside are hundreds of drawings, paintings, and photographs that have never been published before, including an original ten-page story featuring Spider-Man versus the Sinister Six, redesign proposals for the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, and a re-creation of an epic battle between the Sub-Mariner and Iron Man.

But this isn’t just the story of the Marvel characters—it’s also the incredibly inspiring true tale of a little boy who only ever wanted to draw and paint super heroes. And with enough determination, talent, and very hard work, that’s precisely what he did. Marvelocity is the result, and is sure to entrance and delight fans of all ages.

Batman: Death by Design

by Chip Kidd

A New York Times Bestseller

A June 2012 Amazon Best Book of the Month

In this new original graphic novel from superstar writer/designer Chip Kidd and artist Dave Taylor, Gotham City is undergoing one of the most expansive construction booms in its history. The most prestigious architects from across the globe have buildings in various phases of completion all over town. As chairman of the Gotham Landmarks Commission, Bruce Wayne has been a key part of this boom, which signals a golden age of architectural ingenuity for the city. And then, the explosions begin. All manner of design-related malfunctions–faulty crane calculations, sturdy materials suddently collapsing, software glitches, walkways giving way and much more–cause casualties across the city. This bizarre string of seemingly random, unconnected catastrophes threaten to bring the whole construction industry down. Fingers are pointed as Batman must somehow solve the problem and find whoever is behind it all.

Only What's Necessary: Charles M. Schulz and the Art of Peanuts

by Chip Kidd

Charles M. Schulz (1922–2000) believed that the key to cartooning was to take out the extraneous details and leave in only what’s necessary. For 50 years, from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, Schulz wrote and illustrated Peanuts, the single most popular and influential comic strip in the world. In all, 17,897 strips were published, making it “arguably the longest story ever told by one human being,” according to Robert Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University. For Only What’s Necessary: Charles M. Schulz and the Art of Peanuts, renowned designer Chip Kidd was granted unprecedented access to the extraordinary archives of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, California. Reproducing the best of the Peanuts newspaper strip,all shot from the original art by award-winning photographer Geoff Spear, Only What’s Necessary also features exclusive, rare, and unpublished original art and developmental work—much of which has never been seen before.

Only What's Necessary 70th Anniversary Edition: Charles M. Schulz and the Art of Peanuts

by Chip Kidd

From award-winning author/graphic designer Chip Kidd, Only What’s Necessaryis the Eisner Award–nominated tribute to Charles M. Schulz celebrating the art of Peanuts.

Introduction by Jeff Kinney
Preface by Jean Schulz
Essay by Paige Braddock and Karen Johnson

Charles M. Schulz believed that the key to cartooning was to take out the extraneous details and leave in only what’s necessary. For 50 years, he wrote and illustrated Peanuts, the single most popular and influential comic strip in the world. Chip Kidd was granted unprecedented access to the extraordinary archives of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, California.

Only What’s Necessary reproduces the best of the Peanuts newspaper strip, all shot from the original art by award-winning photographer Geoff Spear, and features exclusive, rare, and unpublished original art and developmental work—much of which has never been seen before.

Only What's Necessary 75th Anniversary Edition: Charles M. Schulz and the Art of Peanuts

by Chip Kidd

The Eisner Award–nominated tribute to Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz—repackaged for the beloved strip’s 75th anniversary

Reproducing the best of the Peanuts newspaper strip, all shot from the original art by award-winning photographer Geoff Spear, Only What’s Necessary also features exclusive, rare, and unpublished original art and developmental work—much of which has never been seen before.

Charles M. Schulz (1922–2000) believed that the key to cartooning was to take out the extraneous details and leave in only what’s necessary. For 50 years, from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, Schulz wrote and illustrated Peanuts, the single most popular and influential comic strip in the world.

In all, 17,897 strips were published, making it “arguably the longest story ever told by one human being,” according to Robert Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University.

For Only What’s Necessary: Charles M. Schulz and the Art of Peanuts, renowned designer Chip Kidd was granted unprecedented access to the extraordinary archives of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, California.

Judge This (TED Books)

by Chip Kidd

A fun, playful look at the importance of first impressions—in design and in life—from acclaimed book designer Chip Kidd.

First impressions are everything. They dictate whether something stands out, how we engage with it, whether we buy it, and how we feel. In Judge This, renowned designer Chip Kidd takes us through his day as he takes in first impressions of all kinds. We follow this visual journey as Kidd encounters and engages with everyday design, breaking down the good, the bad, the absurd, and the brilliant as only someone with a critical, trained eye can. From the design of your morning paper to the subway ticket machine to the books you browse to the smartphone you use to the packaging for the chocolate bar you buy as an afternoon treat, Kidd reveals the hidden secrets behind each of the design choices, with a healthy dose of humor, expertise, and of course, judgment as he goes.

Judge This is a design love story, exposing the often invisible beauty and betrayal in simple design choices—ones most of us never even think to notice. And with each object, Kidd proves that first impressions, whether we realize it or not, have a huge impact on the way we perceive the world.

The Avengers in the Veracity Trap!

by Chip Kidd

What happens when Earth's Mightiest Heroes learn who--and what--they truly are?

Writer Chip Kidd and artist Michael Cho have created a mind-bending, visually sumptuous saga that takes the Avengers--and you, the reader--to places that challenge everything we thought we knew about super heroes and the very nature of heroism . . . villainy . . . and existence.

It starts with an epic battle in Asgard, as Loki, the god of mischief, comes into possession of a weapon of unimaginable power and assembles an army of otherworldly monsters in an effort to carry out his evil plans. Cue the Avengers--Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Giant-Man, and the Wasp--who meet this horrifying throng of beasts head-on as a thrilling, knock-down drag-out fight ensues.

But when the smoke clears, what appears to be a typically raucous comic book take-down is revealed to be something very, very different--and very, very terrifying. And this discovery threatens to destroy the Avengers in a way that Loki or any other foe never has before. Because this time the enemy is . . . the Truth.

Oh, and did we mention that it's absolutely hilarious?

Welcome to The Veracity Trap, a truly profound, thought-provoking conundrum of a comic, where no one--not even the Avengers--can escape!

Includes a reversible, two-sided dust jacket featuring Giant-Man, Thor, Iron Man, and the Wasp with exclusive art by Michael Cho on the underside and Hulk and Captain America on the case--beautifully designed by Chip Kidd.

Spider-Man: Panel by Panel

by Stan Lee, Chip Kidd, Marvel Entertainment

Stunningly photographed by award-winner Geoff Spear, Amazing Fantasy no. 15 and Amazing Spider-Man no. 1 are showcased as you've never seen them before--oversize and up close--in this gorgeous celebration of the web-slinger.

Spider-Man first swung onto the comic book pages in August 1962 with the publication of Amazing Fantasy no. 15, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and with cover art by Jack Kirby. Sixty years after the comic's publication, award-winning graphic designer Chip Kidd reimagines the iconic first story also told in The Amazing Spider-Man no. 1 from March 1963 using original vintage copies of both comic books to present these classic tales in a whole new way.

This handsome book is perfect for both lifelong fans and the latest generation of Marvel enthusiasts. It's a panel-by-panel exploration of both entire issues that captures every single detail and nuance of Lee and Ditko's groundbreaking story, making it a must-have for every comic book collection.

The book also includes text by Chip Kidd, Marvel editor Tom Brevoort, historian Peter Sanderson, and Library of Congress curator Sara Duke.