Borin Van Loon: The Introducing... series

"Borin van Loon? This talented and incisive illustrator is featured in many of the books in the "Introducing ..." series. In this book, collage and illustration are used with short, pithy text to introduce the concepts..." (see Introducing Genetics review)
"...what pictures they are! Borin Van Loon's clever and exhaustive illustrations should be the required text for anyone who wants to design educational graphics."(see DNA for Beginners review)
"I am beyond over the moon and somewhat beyond belief that someone with your talent has captured so well what I have conveyed in text. Your images immensely flatter my text, and far better than any other image by any other person could have ever done. As I went through the illustrations this morning, I chuckled with delight (actually, laughed out loud)..." Eileen Magnello (author of Introducing Statistics)

The Introducing... Borin Van Loon: Glam girl series

Borin Van Loon has created sixteen Beginners-style books over the years: a groundbreaking series of illustrated guides to topics such as Freud, Marx, Darwin and Einstein.

The series is a unique blend of authoritative text by notable authors and stunning visuals, comic strip, typography and illustration creating the perfect introduction to abstruse, 'difficult' and jargon-ridden topics. Van Loon's eclectic approach is perhaps best exemplified by the Mathematics and Sociology books which are pure collage works from a myriad sources. It's the fulfillment of a long-held ambition to create one of these books in this way - barely picking up a pen or brush - and now he's done two. Elsewhere dip-pen and brush drawings enrich the mix. Psychotherapy turned out to be an exclusively hand-drawn book (apart from one image of the energy map of the sole of a foot).

Richard Appignanesi, poet, novelist, impressario and series editor of the 'Introducing' series, took the precursor of these books, 'Marx for Beginners' by the Mexican artist, Rius and - working with writers, designers and illustrators - established a whole new genre in publishing: the documentary comic book. The series now comprises nearly a hundred titles - a remarkable achievement. Richard's novel has a cover-painting 'Domestic Interior' by Borin Van Loon.

Reviews

Reviews of individual titles gleaned from the Web appear on relevant pages.

<< ... the "Introducing . . ." series surveys a number of heady topics in a lavishly-illustrated format. Readers wanting light but not insubstantial overviews of such topics as postfeminism, postmodernism, and semiotics will find them herein. [They] tend to be written from a British point-of-view, but for North Americans that can be enlightening. >> (The Cultural Construction Company Book Club Queue)

The Beginners / Introducing Books -- "Their cartoon format and irreverent wit make difficult ideas accessible and entertaining."- Newsday

I was led to graduate studies by a fascinating comic book that raised intellectual questions within a fun format. So, I place a lot of stock in illustrated books -- sort of like hefty comic books with thought-provoking content. For a fun exploration of some of the ideas presented above, try the illustrated/comic book series "Introducing..." or "...For Beginners." Some of these include:
Introducing the Enlightenment, by Lloyd Spencer and Andrzej Krauze. Cambridge: Icon. 2000.
Introducing Media Studies, by Ziauddin Sardar and Borin Van Loon. New York: Totem. 2000.
Introducing Cultural Studies, by Ziauddin Sardar and Borin Van Loon. New York: Totem. 1998.
Postmodernism for Beginners, by Jim Powell. New York: Writers and Readers. 1998.
(Excerpt from "A Guide to Philosophical Discussions of Community Media" by John W. Higgins, "Community Media Review", 25:2 (Summer 2002).

A verbal 'review'...
While attending the launch of The Health Matters Gallery in London's Science Museum in 1994 (opened by Dr James Watson), Borin was standing near to his huge mural on DNA (executed in 'Introducing...' style using collage caricature and cartoon), he met a genetics researcher who had first become inspired to study and graduate in the subject by reading Borin's 'DNA for Beginners'. Such is the power of books; this chance meeting somehow makes it all worthwhile.

Capitalism
Darwin...
Genetics...
Buddha...
Eastern Philosophy...
Sociology
Cultural Studies...
Mathematics...
Media Studies...
Critical Theory...
Science...
Psychotherapy...
Hinduism
Statistics
DNA