Last month, when I was in San Francisco for work, I borrowed friend Lisa’s car for a day and drove up to Santa Rosa, home of the Charles M. Schulz Museum. (I am not ashamed to admit I kept tearing up as I walked the halls. I mean, seriously, dude died hours before his last strip ran! I’m such a softie.)
Anyway, in the gift shop, I picked up a copy of Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz, Chip Kidd’s gorgeous collection of strips. It made for great reading on the flight back to Dallas — it’s one of those books you want to treat as a work of art in itself.
I didn’t know at the time who Chip Kidd was, but he’s probably the top book-cover designer in the world, along with being perhaps the world’s top patron of the graphic novel. (He edited Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth and Daniel Clowes’ David Boring.)
Here’s an interview with Kidd in this week’s Onion AV Club.
Here’s a book about Kidd, by Veronique Vienne.
Here’s a blog devoted to the art of book-cover design.