We continue reviewing the latest pop-up book releases! This time a (USA) pre-release review of Creatures of the Deep: The Pop-Up Book by artist and paper engineer Maike Biederstaedt (a.k.a. Biederstädt). A beautiful and elegant pop-up book based on the Art Forms in Nature book by Ernst Haeckel. In this review we will take a closer look at both the paper engineering and the artwork. We also had the opportunity to ask Maike about her work and how she created Creatures of the Deep.

Creatures of the Deep: The Pop-Up Book is available at Amazon.

Maike Biederstaedt is a German freelance pop-up designer who lives and works in Berlin. She’s an illustrator and a very talented paper engineer. She creates the most wonderful books, greeting cards and advertising materials and recently won the coveted Louie Award (an American greeting card industry award) with her MoMA Snowflake pop-up card. She also teaches a pop-up class at AID Berlin and organizes pop-up workshops. Creatures of the Deep is her first commercial pop-up book publication and what a great introduction that is to the world of pop-ups!

This is one of those pop-up books you want to open slowly, to see the pop-ups pop-out in slow motion. Every pop-up is viewable from all sides what makes this book a perfect presentation tool for educational purposes and also a great item to display in a pop-up book collection. Creatures of the Deep is a large luxurious-looking book that contains 7 pop-up spreads with three-dimensional pop-ups from Ernst Haeckel’s illustrations. A unique combination of art, science and paper engineering.

Paper engineering

The 3D transformation of Haeckel’s illustrations works great with pop-ups. Because of the sophisticated and detailed cut-outs, all creatures seem to pop-out of the artwork. This, combined with the almost invisible way of paper engineering, makes it look like something magical happens in front of you. The creatures comes to life with subtile movements without revealing any supporting paper or mechanics. The octopus for example is a very clever pop-up design with combined V-folds and spirals that work together to make the tentacles curl up in a natural way. The detailed radiolaria pop-up (some kind of mineral skeleton) almost looks like something alien from outer space. It’s a globe shaped spine structure pop-up, centered in the middle of the spread. The symmetrical way it opens is hypnotic and elegant. It’s unique to see Haeckel’s artwork this way.

Artwork

So what can we tell about the artwork? For those who are familiar with the work of Ernst Haeckel, this book will be a fun read. All the bright details with dark colored backgrounds, printed on matt paper are a delight to the eye. It does right to the artwork in every way. If you’ve never heard of Ernst Haeckel, you’ve probably seen his work before without knowing. Among other things, he was a famous biologist, philosopher and artist from Germany. His legacy of illustrations is a beautiful fusion of both science and art. His artwork looks like it came right out of a Jules Verne novel. It’s 19th century science at its best. Creatures of the Deep is a real dedication to Haeckel’s work and it shows that this, as a pop-up book subject, works great when you know how to preserve the details and respect the artwork. In this pop-up book the artwork speaks for itself and the pop-ups literally add an extra dimension to the already spectacular images.

Creatures of the Deep is a great addition to the category of pop-up art books. The neat finish of both paper and prints, combined with subtile and delicate engineering, make this book a gem for every pop-up book collection.

Order Creatures of the Deep: The Pop-up Book at Amazon.

Paper engineering: Maike Biederstaedt

Illustrated by Ernst Haeckel
Published by Prestel Pop edition

The Raven: A Pop-Up Book is a dark and sinister, but beautiful pop-up title created by designer and paper engineer David Pelham. David Pelham, know from Trail: Paper Poetry Pop-Up, has done a great job creating pop-ups from the stunning illustrations of Christopher Wormell. It seems to be a more basic pop-up book but that’s not the case. The complex animation of pop-up’s and the clean style of engineering contributes in a modest way to the story and illustrations.

Amazon link: The Raven: A Pop-Up Book

The Raven is a poem about love, loss and madness written by Edgar Allan Poe. It’s beloved and known for its stylized use of language and mysterious atmosphere. It tells the story a mournful man who’s slowly falling into madness because of the dead of his love Lenore. Hurt by the loss of Lenore he has locked himself up in a mansion. It seems like he’s losing his mind when he starts to see the raven. The raven only speaks in one word as an answer for every question: “Nevermore”. The Raven poem goes deep, is dark and has all the ingredients of a classic folk story with a Gothic flavor.

Engineering

It seems to us that David Pelham engineered this pop-up book with great respect for both the story and artwork. In this book, all three segments are balanced and in proportion. The variation of used techniques and the effect of paper animation make this book a pop-up premium. Nowadays, when most pop-up books are stuffed with mini pop-up’s in pop-up spreads, you’ll almost forget how beautiful clean engineering can be. And that’s exactly what The Raven proves. The way pop-up’s merge with the backgrounds is almost seamless. Every spread is solid and pop’s in-and-out perfectly. The final page, that displays the mansion surrounded by waves, is spectacular and already one of our favorite pop-up spreads we’ve ever seen. Hidden behind the artwork, the story literally unfolds when you lift and read the flaps.

Artwork

Christopher Wormell’s illustrations are breathtaking! His classic technique of etching and engraving fits this 1845 poem perfectly. The deep black shadows and almost symmetric compositions create a surreal atmosphere. It’s not just the graphic style of crosshatchings that makes this book unique and gothic, but also the use of light, which creates extra depth to the pop-up’s is magnificent. Apart from the fact that this pop-up version of The Raven is unique, this must be the most beautiful illustrated version of this story ever made.

It will be no surprise that The Raven is no pop-up book for younger children. We think it’s a bit to dark for that. As an adult, you’ll enjoy The Raven even more. It brings the story to life in a way you’ve never seen before. Or should we say “nevermore”?

Special thanks to Abrams Books!

Order The Raven: A Pop-Up Book at Amazon: The Raven: A Pop-Up Book

Author: Edgar Allan Poe

Book design by David Pelham
Illustrated by Christopher Wormell
Published by Abrams Books

Based on the popular hit HBO series Game of Thrones, paper engineer and pop-up book creator Matthew Reinhart engineered this gigantic and impressive pop-up book that should be part of every Game of Thrones or pop-up book fan collection.

Game of Thrones: A Pop-Up Guide to Westeros takes you on a tour through the world of Westeros, passing by several iconic locations such as the Castle of Winterfell, King’s Landing and the Wall’s Stark Majesty. All this over a total of 5 large pop-up spreads, which also feature multiple mini pop-ups showing us even more well known elements from the series like Direwolves, White Walkers Giants and dragons. Each pop-up is provided with a clear text that tells us more about the history of the Seven Kingdoms, forming an extensive reference guide to the world of Game of Thrones.

Pop-up animation

There’s a lot of animation going on in this book. The large pop-ups unfold beautifully as buildings slide and lock into place. A true visual spectacle and impressive piece of paper engineering. The mini pop-ups also contain a wide variety of pop-up animation.  Like the Tourney of the Hand with dueling knights, the Justice of the Moon door that opens like a real mechanical gate and a raven, spreading his wings in an elegant and symmetrical way. Reinhart’s spectacular paper engineering together with Michael Komarck’s illustrations ensure you a visually stunning and interactive Game of Thrones experience like never before.

We’ve asked Matthew Reinhart about how he created the complicated map of Westeros:

I’m not really sure how I got the idea for the transformable book. I was inspired by the opening sequence of the Game Of Thrones and how the clockwork structures grow and spread into a map. It seemed natural to me that a book could do that, too, so I immediately worked out a rough sketch model to test it out. Initially, my publisher Insight Editions didn’t want to include the transformable book/map feature – even though I knew THAT was what would make the book really interesting.  So I went ahead and built a prototype with castle pops taken from other books to demonstrate the concept in person at HBO in New York City. Needless to say, after the meeting, they were sold on the idea!

Unfolding the map

One of the most impressive features of this pop-up book is the map of Westeros that connects all spreads into a giant kingdom landscape. It’s important to follow the steps described in the guide that comes with this book. It’s a very solid book and the unfolding technique is very clever designed. But still, you have to be very careful. Before you know it you’ve turned this book into a Game of Torn… Anyway, to make life easy, we have also made a separate video guide that shows, step-by-step, how to unfold the map the right way. Make sure that you have a clean and open space in your room or a large table that’s big enough to unfold all pages and enjoy the view of Westeros in 3D.

A great addition

We have to admit, this book review was a bit of a struggle. We needed a lot more space in our studio to capture the unfolding of the map. A book like this demands a lot of space to capture a decent overview. The size of the book but also the number of mini pop-ups and gigantic spreads resulted in the longest video we’ve made so far. Another great addition to our collection of pop-up books engineered by Matthew Reinhart.

Amazon link: Game of Thrones: A Pop-Up Guide to Westeros

Author: Matthew Reinhart
Illustrations: Michael Komarck
Publisher: Insight Editions

After many requests from our followers and YouTube subscribers, we decided it was time to do a review about the wonderful Alice in Wonderland pop-up book. The Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Pop-Up Book, created by paper engineer Robert Sabuda, is definitely one of our favorite pop-up books in our collection. It’s the number 1 pop-up book on our top 10 list!

This book tells us the story of Alice, originally written by Lewiss Carroll, through over 6 impressive and very well engineered pop-up spreads. Each spread contains a mini booklet in which the story is told together with multiple mini pop-ups. Sabuda’s maintained John Tenniel’s classic style of drawing for this pop-up book, but with the addition of his own personal details, the book gets a nice and fresh look at it. Each pop-up is designed en created with care and attention to detail what makes it highly enjoyable to read.

The large pop-up spreads show us some well-known scenes that everyone will instantly recognize from the story. We see Alice grow and shrink, we see her falling down the rabbit hole,  she meets the White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat,  plays croquet with the queen, and we experience her nightmare in which all playing cards turn against her. Thereby the book is filled with surprising mini pop-ups that make the story even more complete.

If you are looking for a very special and original gift for someone or if you just want to buy this book for yourself visit the following Amazon link: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Story telling in paper

The engineering of this book fits so well with the story, we gave it a 9 for storytelling. For example, it’s amazing how the “victorian peepshow” technique creates a real Rabbit Hole. The next spread shows a complete house with details like a chimney and dormers. This is by far one of the most beautiful 3D pop-up houses we’ve seen so far. Not to mention that this house also contains a giant Alice, with her arms and legs growing out of the windows and doors. If you look closer, you’ll see her face through the front window, another great detail. Every pop-up fits the story perfectly and shows how much paper engineering can contribute to an already great story.

The grand final is the last spread where you’ll find Alice surrounded by a fountain of playing cards. It’s not only the amazing technique, used to make this spread work, that blows your mind. It’s also the way it pops in-and-out. This is guaranteed the only impressive “card trick” in the world that everybody can perform. It’s a unique 360 experience. Like every spread in this book, you can view this creation from all angles, making it a perfect spread to display in your collection.

All pop-ups in this book are solidly engineered and pop in-and-out with ease. Some rotate, some use transparent sheets, some just snap in place and all spread pop-ups are spectacular to see unfold.

This breathtaking pop-up book is exciting and entertaining for all ages and an absolute must-have for everyone who loves pop-up books. We definitely recommend it!

Author: Lewis Carroll
Paper Engineering and illustrations by Robert Sabuda
Published by Little Simon: Pop edition

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Commemorative Pop-up by Robert Sabuda is one of our favorite pop-up books. This wonderful and amazing edition celebrates the 100th anniversary of the original Wizard of Oz publication by L. Frank Baum. A pop-up book that contains the short version of Baum’s original story and beautiful artwork in the style of W.W. Denslow. It’s a family book for all ages and feels like magic every time when you open up a spread. The combination of classic artwork and the contrast with holographic foil on every spread and mini pop-up gives an extra dimension to this already impressive piece of pop-up art.

Make flowers grow

This already classic pop-up book title by Sabuda contains all kinds of innovative techniques to make paper pop-out. One of the highlights in this book is the scene where the Wizard of Oz floats in a balloon above Dorothy and her friends. It’s an impressive mix of design and paper engineering. This book takes you into a world full of depth, surprises and green adventure. Visit the palace of the Wizard of Oz, build a hot air balloon, make flowers grow and watch out for the flying monkeys. It’s all in this book that will blow your mind. A must have for everyone who loves advanced pop-up books!

Author: L. Frank Baum
Paper engineering: Robert Sabuda

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz pop-up book by Robert Sabuda is number 4 on our top 10 favorite pop-up books list of all times. Check out the rest of our top 10 here.

Find out more about Robert Sabuda and his amazing work at our pop-up book authors page.

Order this book at Amazon: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Commemorative Pop-up

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