BIZARRE ROMANCE: STORIES BY AUDREY NIFFENEGGER ILLUSTRATIONS BY EDDIE CAMPBELL

New York City, NY: Abrams Comic Arts, 2018. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. As New/No Dust Jacket, As Issued.. New York City, NY: Abrams Comic Arts, 2018. Hardcover. As New/None, As Issued. First Edition/First Printing. 160 pages. Retrospective collection of short stories, brilliantly illustrated. One of the most beautiful literary-cum-art books of our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. A brilliant production by Audrey Niffenegger and Eddie Campbell: Regular-sized volume format. Pictorial hard boards with red cloth overboards and titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Stories by Audrey Niffenegger. Herself an artist, she also collaborated on some of the illustrations. Art by Eddie Campbell. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper to the highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Presents Audrey Niffenegger's and Eddie Campbell's "Bizarre Romance". Irrefutable proof, because it is needed, that the art of the illustration is a full-fledged genre that has been unjustly relegated to second-class status. One could even go so far as to say that, in the end, the illustrated book (at least in Eddie Campbell's hands) is visually, a superior achievement compared to the typical graphic novel/comics. That's because Campbell deploys a singular visual style to capture the tone and substance of each of Niffenegger's thirteen stories. There is no "unifying" style that binds them all because part of what he, as an artist/illustrator, must do - and does so well - is to evoke a near-infinite range of visual styles, choices, and nuances in order to serve each specific text. In contrast, the graphic novel is necessarily a finite - and often deliberately crude - visual style that must readily be identified with the graphic artist. "Explores the idiosyncratic nature of relationships in a variety of genres from fractured fairy tales to historical fiction to paper dolls. The debut collection by two of the most important storytellers of our time" (Publisher's blurb). Who, happily, are the ideal artistic team for the subject of romance, bizarre and otherwise, because they are husband-and-wife in real life. An absolute "must-have" title for Audrey Niffenegger and Eddie Campbell collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed and dated (shortly after publication) in black pen-marker on the flyleaf (their preferred page) by the authors: "Audrey Niffenegger [heart] Eddie Campbell June 9, 2018". It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. The signatures were obtained during their special appearance at the 2018 Printer's Row Book Fair Lit Fest. This title is a contemporary classic. As far as we know, this is the only such signed and post-publication dated copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. A rare signed copy thus. Two of the most brilliant artists and writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER AUDREY NIFFENEGGER TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 1419728539.