Fame / Fame 2
(1980 / 1984 - Harmony Books / Indigo Books) 
(by Brad Benedict) Well, when these books came out in the early 1980s, nostalgia was surely not the intention, but that's where they fall now, three decades later. Having said that, I'm fascinated how the preservation of pop culture has kept a majority of the spotlighted personages well fixed in the public consciousness (some of them are still entertaining us . . .). I'm imagining that a Wikipedia visit would rarely be needed by the young adults of today to suss-out who most of the people included were. The incredible diversity of styles on display make these books a real treat. Each piece is captioned with the name of the artist who produced it and the famous person being honored or parodied.
Sub-titled "Portraits of Celebrated People", the first volume is square and 120 pages, with 20 of them being large full-page reproductions. Over 300 other images are spread out over the remaining pages. The 'well-presented' artists are: Richard Amsel, Richard Bernstein (2), David Edward Byrd, David Croland, Mick Haggerty, Philip Hays, Doug Johnson, Antonio Lopez, Cynthia Marsh, Neon Park, Robert Risko, Pater Sato, Todd Schorr, William Shirley, George Stavrinos, John VanHamersveld, Charles E. White III, Kim Whitesides David Willardson, and Bob Zoell.
The second book, sub-titled "Portraits and Pop Culture" is the better of the two, by a bit. It's more rectangular and only 112 pages, but gives more of its pages, 35 in total, over to large reproductions (and nearly half of those are full-bleeds). It also has a one-page index in the back that collates both subject's and artist's names. There is one double-page spread that works o.k. and a couple of sideways images that don't. There are more 'well-presented' artists, namely: Richard Amsel (2), Regina Argentin, Cathy Barancik, Richard Bernstein, Lou Brooks, Wendy Burden, Paul Cemick, Tom Edinger, Jeff Gold, Mick Haggerty, Malcolm Harrison, Bush Hollyhead, Patrick James, Robert Kopecky, Bette Levine, Roy Lichtenstein, Paul Lieberman, Marvin Mattelson, Ben Osto, Gary Panter, Neon Park, Robert Risko, Gary Ruddell, Kathy Staico Schoor, Todd Schorr, Nick Taggart, Paul Tankersley, Kyoko Tsuchihashi, Pam Wall, Ed Wexler, Kim Whitesides, Ian Wright, Harumi Yamaguchi and Katsu Yoshida (2), .
another Brad Benedict book (with many of the same artists)
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