For the last article this year on great places to find illustrated books, I randomly polled illustrators about their favorite haunts. Peter Kuper, who was on his way to Brussels to promote his latest book, Stop Forgetting to Remember, just had time for a quick note about the Strand and Forbidden Planet. So then I invited every illustrator who emailed or phoned during the past week to contribute a paragraph for this issue. It's not exactly an omnibus - more of a polybus, I guess - with some nice surprises thrown in. Please check links for locations and hours.

Left to right: Argosy Bookstore; Strand Books; Forbidden Planet

Steve Brodner emailed to tell me about the videos he made with Gail Levin of him drawing the Presidential candidates and talking about the election campaigns. The combined live action and animation movies are now on The New Yorker website. And here is Steve's report on bookstores:

There never seems to be enough time anymore to just go walking around to find books, as an amusement. But my favorite bookstore has always been the Strand Bookstore, on Broadway and 12^th Streets. I love books on political cartoonists and comics and that's the place to find them. It's fun because you never know what you'll find there. Once I found a book by the British artist David Low, without doubt the most important political cartoonist of the World War II era. There was never a wit so British and a draughtsman so keen. He was absolutely against Hitler and Stalin, and full of the spirit of winning the war.

Another great find was a book of fantasy drawings by Windsor McKay, with these amazing flying machines and floating cities; it was like Coney Island, ca. 1903. Then there's the Don Quixote book by Gustav Dore, the most famous 19^th century artist - famous because he illustrated the English bible that everybody owned - and it was called the Dore Bible. I also have his book, Holy Russia, which has to be the first graphic novel in history. It's done in wood engravings, and it's completely scatological. In it the first Russian is born through the union of a polar bear and a seal. Then he delineates every Russian czar meeting his end in the most outrageous way, like vomiting to death, and much worse - all kinds of stuff you could never publish today.

Just a block north on Broadway is Forbidden Planet, where you can get an education on the history of graphic novels. All the graphic novels I have came from that place. Then there's Argosy Books on East 59^th Street. What a place for prints and maps - they have stalls out front with art books for ten bucks apiece. And it's just a few steps from the NRW, 4, 5 and 6 trains.

I finally met John Cuneo at the AI-AP launch party in November, and this week he emailed from his home in Woodstock to say that his latest book, nEuROTIC, is included in the "Favorite Comics and Art Books of 2007" on Drawn! One good turn deserves another:

I've never lived in Manhattan and when I'm in the city, I surrender to a kind of 'stumble upon' process of discovery that is entirely capricious and pathetically inefficient. I do however sometimes stay at a hotel on 32nd Street and found that right around the corner is the home of Jim Hanley's Universe. It's a sprawling space with enough cool stuff to lure even a repressed middle-aged comics geek out of the closet.

Graphic novels, imported curios, published sketchbooks, erotica, alternative press sections, comix industry magazines, and lots of that angsty small press autobiographical cry-for-help ephemera that I can't resist. Once, while furtively rummaging through 'how-to-draw-superheroes' tutorials, I bumped into Guy Billout, the famous illustrator, and we spent a half an hour talking about sketchbooks and comparing pen nibs - right there in the aisle, without shame. For that encounter alone, and for the fact that I can always find it, the place is special to me.

Fernanda Cohen, who just returned from doing a department store window project in Buenos Aires, took some time last week to tell about a spot in Soho she likes for a quiet browse:

I like the Housing Works Used Books Cafe, on Crosby Street. I like their focus on art books and that they have a fairly small selection, which makes it easier to browse and get lost in just a handful of them. Because of the way they're displayed, you can see most of the covers at a glance, and so I recently found a book on advertising design. Needless to say, what caught my eye was its illustrated cover, which looked like John Hendrix's work. I never found the credit, but I flipped through it for so long that I got into its content. I like the sense of privacy and quietness throughout the Housing Works Cafe, and especially on the balcony upstairs, where you can also take a peek at the people downstairs while remaining unnoticed.

I was glad to hear from Ted McGrath the other day, and very glad to have his report from Brooklyn:

Living in Greenpoint, it's convenient having a bookstore like Spoonbill & Sugartown, on Bedford Avenue, a pleasant 20 minute walk from home. Spoonbill has a well-stocked section of art and design books new and used, as well as pretty diverse consignment rack of limited edition books, 'zines, DVDs and print-based art objects by local artists.

The store is usually comfortably crowded, allowing for a fairly relaxed browsing environment. While certainly not as expansive as better known Manhattan shops like the Strand or St. Mark's Bookshop, Spoonbill is a great alternative when a trip across the river seems too daunting or time consuming, or is precluded by a sci-fi doomsday scenario involving the now "robot" controlled L trains rising up against their MTA overlords...But I digress...Moreover, the trip down Bedford Avenue always affords some interesting people-watching and a chance to sample the wares of numerous street sellers, pedaling their own worthwhile selection of rare books and records (and open to haggling to boot!).

Left and center: St. Marks Bookshop. Right: New York Central Art Supply

Istvan Banyai called this week to tell me about the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, in Amherst, MA, which, he said, has a great bookstore. The talk he had scheduled there was postponed due to the big ice storm, so instead, he wrote to me about his favorite bookstores:

Since I moved to the country, 100 miles north of the Big Apple, to Lakeville, CT, my book buying habits have changed a lot. When I get to the city, I still love to go to St. Mark's Bookshop in the East Village, where I always find something new and exciting, or irritating. They have almost everything: literature, philosophy, politics, art books, magazines...everything you can imagine, from Voltaire to Howard Zinn. You find books on architecture, photography, graphic design, books from all over, from Tokyo to Bosnia-Herczegovina. At the checkout counter, you can usually get a nice box of "impeach-mints." I love the place, I love the atmosphere, I love the location. The coolest sake bar in town is just around the corner. Also McSorley's Ale House, New York's oldest Irish pub, and New York Central Art Supply is just a few blocks away.

Meanwhile, back up here in the woods, we have Oblong Books in Millerton, for basics and a bit more. If I drive North from here to Hudson, I go to Spotty Dog Books & Ale, where you can drink beer, buy or read books and buy your art supplies, all in the same place. And I'd like to mention Johnnycake Books, here in Salisbury, a hidden gem where I got a first edition of William Steig's The Lonely Ones (1942) and a cartoon collection called The Ruling Claws, by Reinfield A. that was published in 1935 by the Daily Worker. Both are unique finds from the good old days.

So Happy Holidays, Peggy! Keep reading while the snow falls!
Istvan