Washington, D.C., 1957: “Val Thor landed in Alexandria and met with the President to discuss the world’s problems and offer advice and counsel on how to deal with them and eliminate them… Val Thor stayed on Earth until March 16, 1960, and then disembarked to his home planet Venus. He indicated that his race of people lived and dwelled underground… He also mentioned waves of aliens who would land around the world to help with the Earth’s seemingly insurmountable problems… Val Thor spoke of Christ’s presence in the universe and that it was heartwarming to see Christ’s advanced teaching continuing.” Bonus: Watching the RFK assassination on TV aboard Thor’s spaceship, and an explanation of how Venusian toilets work. GR

Publisher: Inner Light
Paperback: 128 pages
Illustrated

If one can remember the music from a film, it used to be said, the composer has failed. The author traces the evolution of the thankless task of scoring Hollywood’s films. Meet the maestros behind the movies’ most memorable music: Max Steiner (King Kong, Gone with the Wind), Bernard Herrmann (Citizen Kane, Taxi Driver), Miklos Rozsa (Spellbound, Quo Vadis), Henry Mancini (Touch of Evil, Breakfast at Tiffany’s), Elmer Bernstein (The Ten Commandments, Walk on the Wild Side), and dozens more in a comprehensive volume of essays detailing the musical careers of Hollywood’s greatest composers. Seventy-five years of filmmaking has left the cinema with a huge musical legacy: Steiner’s “Tara’s Theme” from Gone With the Wind, John Williams’ shark motto in Jaws, Bernstein’s “Marlboro” music from The Magnificent Seven, the haunting “Laura,” Mancini’s “Pink Panther Theme,” the first three notes of John Barry’s “Goldfinger,” all popular music from famous films. But isn’t it all just syrup stolen from the classical guys? The authors ask—and answer—the question: Can film music actually be enjoyed outside its immediate context? GR

Publisher: McFarland
Hardback: 605 pages
Illustrated

Movie-by-movie “reference book for the casual viewer and the committed fan alike,” with listings of anime films and made-for-video works released since 1983, arranged by year and by title. It features all the lusty production details Japanamaniacs adore: plot summaries, credits, key personnel, star ratings, year of release, etc. GR

Publisher: Titan
Paperback: 288 pages
Illustrated

Superdeluxe, revised and updated souvenir story of the Disney Empire, from the Alice comedies of 1923 (the cheerful cheese-eater was Walt’s third idea), to Hercules, the animated feature now in production. Here are the hits (Snow White, The Little Mermaid), the flops (Fantasia, Black Cauldron), the innovations (Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Mary Poppins), the panic years (WW II, the unions), the “nine old men,” the Eisner “revolution,” the parks, the rides, Paris Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, the works. Loaded with background art, preliminary character sketches, and anecdotes, like this critique of Fantasia: “Frank Lloyd Wright was shown sections of the movie and was outspoken in his dislike for it. It was absurd, in his opinion, to illustrate music.” GR

Publisher: Abrams
Hardback: 464 pages
Illustrated

“You have a unique opportunity,” Dr. Alfred Kinsey told the author. “This is too good a chance to miss.” So the author, who had abandoned a university job to become a tattoo artist, took notes. Lots of notes—on sailors’ buddy-buddy conversations, hustler personalities, and observations on the macho men strutting in colored ink. The result is an anecdotal history of the “dermagraphics” of mid-century America, including an analysis of 25 sexual reasons why people got tattooed. Guilt and punishment is one: “It’s easier to give you a couple of bucks… than go to confession,” said an adulterous husband of getting his wife’s name inscribed. Advertisement is another: “Within the pubic hair of a male hooker, I put the figure of $10; above the mons veneris of a whore, I wrote ‘Pay as You Enter’”. GR

Publisher: Haworth
Paperback: 204 pages

“I desperately tried to convince myself that looks didn’t matter,” says the author. “But beauty was too wonderful to be resented or dismissed. I fantasized more about profiles than sex. And I never stopped wanting to be beautiful. Beauty was not goodness, but a visible purity nonetheless. To be made beautiful, free of all flaws, would be a kind of liberation.” So, it’s off on a liberating journey. “Supermodels, fashion designers, photographers, bodybuilders, Playboy playmates, plastic surgeons, and strippers—these are just some of the new cultural icons” visited by the author as “he searches for roots of the culture of beauty.” Conclusion? Looks aren’t everything, but they can be! And you don’t have to be beautiful to be stupid. GR

Publisher: Pocket
Paperback: 176 pages
Illustrated

Chronicles the “posing-strap era” of male nude photography and art, in all its campy, beefy glory. All the stars are here: cinema idol Ed Fury; Jim Stryker, the blond god of the beach; Paul Ferguson, who murdered silent star Ramon Navarro with a golden dildo; kitsch fantasy painter Etienne; the young and hung Joe Dallesandro; and plenty of unknown and undressed muscle men, glorifying the American male. In this age of full-color fuck books and porn videos, it’s hard to believe that a photographer could be arrested for publishing or distributing naked male genitalia back in the ‘50s. Many were; that’s the way it was until the fig leaf fell in 1965. GR

Publisher: Taschen
Paperback: 159 pages
Illustrated

Corporate secrets, free for the taking. What’s in chorizo, the Mexican “mystery meat” (“Pig salivary glands, lymph nodes, cheeks and tongues, plus an otherwise unspecified thing called ‘pork’”); what’s the formula for Play-doh (“Wheat flour, water, kerosene”); and how do they put ships in bottles (“The mast is collapsible”). Plus—STOP READING NOW if you like being tricked by muscular German illusionists—how Siegfried and Roy make their white tigers disappear! GR

Publisher: Morrow
Hardback: 272 pages
Illustrated

“At his peak, he was the highest-paid solo performer in the world-bigger than Elvis, Paul McCartney and Elton John. He was the star of one of the most successful shows in television history, took everything he recorded to the top of the charts, and was overwhelmed by money, fame—and especially women—while still in his early 20s.” Result? “… nights of desolation after the fans went home… the singing career that sold over 20 million albums—and brought him a grand total in royalties of less than $15,000… the endless cavalcade of groupies that invaded his bed… his passionate, often stormy relationships with fellow stars Susan Dey and Meredith Baxter.” Happy? C’mon! GR

Publisher: Warner
Paperback: 256 pages
Illustrated

Essays on camp, featuring such immortal icons of this camp century as: Dusty Springfield, Ronald Firbank, Mae West, The White Negro, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Jerry Lewis, Tennessee Williams, Lypsinka, Mötley Crue, Twisted Sister, Ratt, Andy Warhol, Carmen Miranda, Dean Martin, Liberace, Raquel Welch, Tom Cruise, Susan Sontag, Kristy McNichol, AIDS! The Musical!, Norma Desmond, and et al. Plus these flaming camp slogans, suitable for bumper sticker or T-shirt: “Art From Pain,” “The Re-creation of Surplus Value from Forgotten Forms of Labor,” “A Drag Queen’s Genitals Must Never Be Seen,” “Fascinating Fascism,” “The Lie That Tells the Truth,” “It’s So Bad, It’s Good,” “Humor in Leftovers,” and “Outrage Against a Homophobic Mass Culture!” Conclusion for the 21st century-Camp is an attitude you visit. GR

Publisher: University of Massachusetts
Paperback: 300 pages
Illustrated