{"id":23719,"date":"2021-02-16T08:00:31","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T08:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=23719"},"modified":"2021-02-15T11:45:17","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T11:45:17","slug":"hip-hop-family-tree-book-1-1970s-1981-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2021\/02\/16\/hip-hop-family-tree-book-1-1970s-1981-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Hip Hop Family Tree Book 1: 1970s-1981"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Ed Piskor<\/strong> (Fantagraphics)
\nISBN: 978-1-60699-690-4 (PB)<\/p>\n

Comics is an all-encompassing narrative medium and – even after 40-plus years in the game – I’m still amazed and delighted at innovative ways creators find to use the simple combination of words and pictures in sequence to produce new and intoxicating ways of conveying information, tone, style and especially passion to their audience.<\/p>\n

A particularly brilliant case in point was this compulsive compilation of strips and extras from self-confessed Hip Hop Nerd and cyber geek Ed Piskor (author of the astonishing Hacker graphic novel Wizzywig<\/strong>) which originally appeared in serial form on the website Boing Boing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In astounding detail and with a positively astounding attention to the art styles of the period, Piskor detailed the rise of the rhyme-and-rhythm musical art form (whilst paying close attention to the almost symbiotic growth of graffiti and street art) with wit, charm and astonishing clarity.<\/p>\n

Charting the slow demise of the disco and punk status quo by intimately following fledgling stars and transcendent personalities of the era, ‘Straight Out of the Gutter’<\/em> begins mid-1970s with South Bronx block parties and live music jams of such pioneers as DJ Kool Herc<\/em>, Grandmaster Flash<\/em>, Grandwizard Theodore<\/em> and Afrika Bambaataa<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The new music is mired in the maze of inescapable gang culture but as early word-of-mouth success leads to first rare vinyl pressings and the advent of the next generation, the inevitable interest of visionaries and converts leads to the circling of commercial sharks\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The technical and stylistic innovations, the musical battles, physical feuds, and management races by truly unsavoury characters to secure the first landmark history-making successes are all encyclopaedically yet engaging revealed through the lives – and, so often, early deaths – of almost-stars and later household names such as Furious 4-plus-1<\/em>, Kurtis Blow<\/em>, The Sugarhill Gang<\/em>, the Furious Five<\/em>, and those three kids who became Run-DMC<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The story follows and connects a bewildering number of key and crucial personalities – with a wealth of star-struck music biz cameos – and ends with Hip Hop on the very edge of global domination following the breakout single Rapture<\/strong> (from new wave icons and dedicated devotees Blondie<\/strong>) as well as the landmark TV documentary by Hugh Downs and Steve Fox on national current affairs TV show 20\/20 <\/strong>which brought the new music culture into the homes of unsuspecting middle America\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

To Be Continued\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Produced in the tone and style of those halcyon, grimily urban times and manufactured to look just like an old Marvel Treasury Edition<\/strong> (an oversized – 334x234mm – reprint format from the 1970s which offered classic tales on huge and mouth-wateringly enticing pulp-paper pages), this compelling confection (available in very large paperback and variably-proportioned digital formats) – also includes a copious and erudite ‘Bibliography’<\/em>, ‘Discography’<\/em> and ‘Funky Index’<\/em>, an Afterword: the Hip Hop\/Comic Book Connection<\/em> (with additional art by Tom Scioli) and a fun-filled Author Bio<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Moreover, there’s also a blistering collection of ‘Pin Ups and Burners’<\/em> with spectacular images from guest illustrators including The Beastie Boys <\/em>by Jeffrey Brown, Afrika Bambaataa<\/em> by Jim Mahfood; Fat Boys<\/em> by Scioli; Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five<\/em> by Ben Marra; Vanilla Ice<\/em> by Jim Rugg; Run-DMC<\/em> by Dan Zettwoch; Eric B. and Rakim<\/em> by John Porcellino; Salt-n-Pepa<\/em> by Nate Powell; KRS-One<\/em> by Brandon Graham & Snoop Dogg<\/em> by Farel Dalrymple, to get your pulses racing, if not your toes tapping\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Cool, informative and irresistible, Hip Hop Family Tree<\/strong> is wild, fun and deliciously addictive: sparking a revolution and sub-genre in comics creation. This is what cultural cross-pollination is all about and you should dive in right now\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6
\nThis edition \u00c2\u00a9 2013 Fantagraphics Books. All Hip Hop comic strips by Ed Piskor \u00c2\u00a9 2013 Ed Piskor. Pin ups and other material \u00c2\u00a9 2013 their respective artists. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ed Piskor (Fantagraphics) ISBN: 978-1-60699-690-4 (PB) Comics is an all-encompassing narrative medium and – even after 40-plus years in the game – I’m still amazed and delighted at innovative ways creators find to use the simple combination of words and pictures in sequence to produce new and intoxicating ways of conveying information, tone, style … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Hip Hop Family Tree Book 1: 1970s-1981”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[115,122,127,138],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography","category-historical","category-nostalgia","category-webcomics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-6az","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}