Alberto Vargas: Varga
(1991 - []) 
There could be a lot of confusion about the books that bear this title, authored by Tom Robotham, gathering artwork that appeared in Esquire magazine. Without clear delineation, the publications group into three different editions, which someone smarter than me labeled by the primary color of the covers of the American versions - namely, Red, White and Blue. Believe it or not, this site would recommend getting both the Blue & Red editions for your bookshelf.
BLUE - This book scored the best (if only slightly) for it's overall compilation and presentation of Vargas's work. It is the biggest of the three at 14.5 x 10.5 inches. It has 112 pages and the publishers Thunder Bay Press and Bison Group are associated with it. Note that that the cowgirl cover seems to grace some of the foreign editions. The particular French version was entitled BABY DOLL - LES PIN-UP DE VARGA (though the book's cover does not sport the artist's shortened Esquire name . . .) published by Ed. Hors Collection. Let's mention here that all of these books put a lot of dependence on presenting these females across double-page spreads - this one has an even dozen of those, with a little more than half working well with the central gutter. Those are among the 91 pages featuring large reproductions. There are another ten pages that have two or three smaller images. Robotham's biographical essay makes up the remaining pages. Two large George Petty pieces appear as illustrations in the text about the beginning of Vargas's relationship with Esquire magazine. Note that this edition does not seem to gather the captions into an additional list of plates.
RED - This edition collects enough different pieces of art than the Blue edition that you will want to buy it as well. It sports 16 more pages than the one above and 108 of the total pages are dominated by the art, almost everyone of them being a large reproduction. I think the more important statistic is that while it repeats many (but nowhere near all) of the artworks in VARGA Blue, it has 36 large reproductions not featured there (as well as giving seven artworks found there an even slightly better presentation). A large number of the book's extra pages are given over to creating chapters to group the pieces into. Those chapters are Sweet Innocence, The Art Of Seducation, Patriotic Fever, and Faces. In addition to the individual captions, the presented plates are also listed on a single page. Robotham's information is presented here in the form of a different essay, illustrated with different photographs (I would say it's not as effective). You'll find a whopping 18 double-page-spreads here, but to its credit, only seven are somewhat distorted at the center. At least three of the pieces are detail-extracts without being accompanied by the full art-work. World Publications, Grange Books, Brompton Books and Smithmark Publishers are associated with this edition.
WHITE - There's no reason to get this smaller book (only 44 pages) as it really has nothing that isn't already appearing in the Blue or Red editions. 38 pages are large art reproductions, but, in the main, it doesn't hold its double-page spreads very well. The text presented here is a shortened version of the essay appearing in the BLUE edition. Same captioning going on here, along with the separate index of plates. Brompton Books and Chartwell Books are publisher names found here.
Related Books
Varga - The Esquire Years - A Catalogue Raisonné
Alberto Vargas - Works From The Max Vargas Collection
Vargas Girls - Pin-Ups books 1 & 2
Varga Girls I & II (Artist Archives) [BELOW THE LINE]
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