this book is a collection of spreads from the early years of raygun and other magazines whose art direction was lead by david carson. there is a lot of controversy surrounding carson's work, and carson as a graphic designer. i find the work visually stimulating and closer to art than most design i've encountered. i personally admire the intuitive beauty of this book and have spent countless hours looking at it. while i do not recomend carson's other books i do recomend this one.

This book is for the Raygun collectors who admires clever typographic layout. A collector's item.

As the elite of contemporary typograhpy will tell you, Art Director David Carsons was neither type designer nor graphic designer, but instead adept collector of typefaces and free favors from young talent. This book is an attempt, on the eve of the sellout of the Ray Gun Empire, to solidify the merit of a magazine built on 2 things: hype, and the desire of the design community and its afficionados to find a voice for the explosion of creativity ignited by the early macintosh design pioneers and their disciple, Ed Fella,while, initially at least, disregarding the need for relevant indie music reporting. Don't buy it.

Use this book for ideas that will stun and amaze your staid audience whether it be in print or on the Web. I look at it as one giant idea book - it pushes the limit of type and design and gives us a new art form

"Out of Control?" I don't get it. Is this a picture book, or a book that is supposed to honor the magazine? Magazines are about content and design, but here all we get is design. Now, I like design, I like it a lot, and hope to one day get into magazine desiggn, but this book seems to undermine what the magazine should be about. Design vs. Content. How well does the design and presentation relate to the article? I have no idea from looking at this. This is a picture book. From looking at this from a distance (which you are apparently supposed to do) Ray Gun is a nicely laid out and designed magazine. But what's it about? I love design, but I don't give a damn about a publication about information (no matter hhow good the design) if I can't have access to that information. As far as I'm concerned, this collection should showcase and celebrate the representation of information. IAs I've said, I enjoy the design and designers, but Ray Gun was started as a great means of maing the aarticles fun to read...lure the reader in with the design and hook 'em with the words. This may or may not have worked, but the intention was there. No matter how much of a design magazine this is, Ray Gun is the bible of mushc ansstyle, not a graphic design monthly. I think that this collection is a slap in the face to the people who wrote the articles in the mag. Buy "Out of Control" if you want a picture book, but if you want to get any idea at all about what the actual magazine is about, bo to the periodicals section and pick it up.