Incredibly detailed and illustrated books wanted.

June 13, 2008 7:31 PM

I've recently become a fan of fiction books with immersing, at times overly detailed but precise illustrations, fold-outs, maps, ads, newspaper clippings. And they're part of the storyline, not just an oh-by-the-way illustration of something that's already fully explained in the text. The only ones I've come across so far are Eric Chase Anderson's Chuck Dugan is AWOL, Joshua Mowll's Operation Red Jericho and its sequel (these are literally overflowing with fantastic foldouts), and maybe even Hans Jurgen Press's Black Hand Gang books. Although Chuck Dugan is AWOL and the Black Hand Gang books don't have foldouts and maps, they nonetheless have illustrations just stuffed full of detail, and on nearly every page too! Surely there are plenty of others in the same line? Help, summer is here and I must read/see/devour them all.

Please excuse my overly breathy tone. I really love these books.

No, not comics or manga - that's different.

posted by Xere to grab bag (9 comments total)

You might be interested in the books of Nick Bantock.
posted by ssg at 7:56 PM on June 13

Seconding Nick Bantock.
posted by bassjump at 8:09 PM on June 13

3rding Nick Bantock; Griffin and Sabine is fairly extraordinary.

My memory is going but there was the very popular book in the 80s with the clues in the illustrations and the prize that turned up buried in the church garden in the UK. There was also an AMAZING series of I think three books where everything could be pulled out: newspaper clippings, letters, receipts and all manner of ephemera. At least one was a 40s mystery, and had a green cover. This would probably knock your proverbial socks off.

I really, really loved these books as a child but I was young when they were mine and the titles just escape me. I'm sure someone will be along shortly to fill in the blanks, or my brain will spike.
posted by DarlingBri at 9:04 PM on June 13

Barbara Hodgson's The Tattooed Map. I think some of her other books might also fit the bill.
posted by Razzle Bathbone at 10:14 PM on June 13

"Time and Again" by Jack Finney perhaps (but not the sequel, it's horrible.)
posted by Jahaza at 11:35 PM on June 13

You want books with "false documents" in them, don't you?
posted by Monochrome at 6:25 AM on June 14

Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan comic book might fall vaguely into your category.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 7:55 AM on June 14

Thanks everyone.

DarlingBri, I think the clue book is Masquerade. I'd very much like to know what the three-book series is.

Any other suggestions from anyone else?
posted by Xere at 5:43 PM on June 14

I'm coming a little late to this thread, but I love books like this too. You should check out Journal: The Short Life and Mysterious Death of Amy Zoe Mason by Joyce Atkinson and Kristine Atkinson. Such a cool random little book. The "hook" of the book is that the authors found this journal in the drawer of some dresser at an estate sale. The whole book is just the scrapbook journal of a woman who went missing. Really cool and creepy. because you can see how at first the journal is all neat and cheerful with recipes and photographs and drawings from her kids, and then as it goes on, you see stuff like prescriptions for anti-depression meds, sinister notes, etc.
posted by silverstatue at 11:41 AM on June 17