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All Over Coffee
In February 2004, the San Francisco Chronicle began printing an enigmatic feature called “All Over Coffee.” Almost immediately, letters of love and hate, confusion and praise poured in. Accustomed to the familiar formats of comic strips and cartoons, some readers struggled to understand a creation that seemed to live both within and beyond those boundaries.
All Over Coffee blends the timing of comics with the depth of poetry. Artist and writer Paul Madonna has fused art, literature, and comics by pairing timeless cityscapes with philosophical musings and poignant stories in masterfully rendered ink-wash drawings that surpass the art of Ben Katchor in elegance and architectural detail. His work has been compared to “a meeting of the tone of Edward Gorey, the uniqueness of Chris Ware, and the artfulness of Raymond Pettibon.”
Quirky, whimsical, and often profound, All Over Coffee’s stunning imagery and thoughtful writing combine to create a conceptual world, both dreamlike and familiar. This selection will delight anyone who has ever lived in or visited San Francisco—or dreamed of doing so—with its original, off-the-beaten-path view of the city and its inhabitants.
Paul Madonna moved to San Francisco and began to self-publish comics after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University’s fine arts program and an internship at MAD magazine. In 2002 he launched his incredibly popular website, www.paulmadonna.com, posting a new cartoon each week. In 2004 the San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com picked up his strip “All Over Coffee,” which continues to appear weekly.
All Over Coffee blends the timing of comics with the depth of poetry. Artist and writer Paul Madonna has fused art, literature, and comics by pairing timeless cityscapes with philosophical musings and poignant stories in masterfully rendered ink-wash drawings that surpass the art of Ben Katchor in elegance and architectural detail. His work has been compared to “a meeting of the tone of Edward Gorey, the uniqueness of Chris Ware, and the artfulness of Raymond Pettibon.”
Quirky, whimsical, and often profound, All Over Coffee’s stunning imagery and thoughtful writing combine to create a conceptual world, both dreamlike and familiar. This selection will delight anyone who has ever lived in or visited San Francisco—or dreamed of doing so—with its original, off-the-beaten-path view of the city and its inhabitants.
Paul Madonna moved to San Francisco and began to self-publish comics after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University’s fine arts program and an internship at MAD magazine. In 2002 he launched his incredibly popular website, www.paulmadonna.com, posting a new cartoon each week. In 2004 the San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com picked up his strip “All Over Coffee,” which continues to appear weekly.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2007
16 people are currently reading
556 people want to read
About the author
Paul Madonna
17 books136 followersPaul Madonna is an award-winning artist and author whose unique blend of drawing and storytelling has been heralded as an “all new art form.” He is the creator of the series All Over Coffee, which ran in the San Francisco Chronicle for twelve years, and the author of seven books,
All Over Coffee
,
Everything is its own reward
(winner of the 2011 NCBA Award for best book),
On to the Next Dream
,
You Know Exactly
(finalist for the 2022 Golden Poppy Book Awards), and the Emit Hopper Mystery Series,
Close Enough for the Angels
,
Come to Light
, and
The Commissions
. Paul also collaborated with award-winning author Gary Kamiya on the best-selling book
Spirits of San Francisco
.
Paul's drawings and stories have appeared internationally in numerous publications such as the Believer and zyzzyva, as well as in galleries and museums, including the Oakland Museum of California, the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum, The San Francisco International airport, and the William Blake Association in France. Paul was a founding editor for therumpus.net, has taught drawing at the University of San Francisco, and frequently lectures on creative practice. He holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University and was the first (ever!) Art Intern at MAD magazine.
Paul's drawings and stories have appeared internationally in numerous publications such as the Believer and zyzzyva, as well as in galleries and museums, including the Oakland Museum of California, the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum, The San Francisco International airport, and the William Blake Association in France. Paul was a founding editor for therumpus.net, has taught drawing at the University of San Francisco, and frequently lectures on creative practice. He holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University and was the first (ever!) Art Intern at MAD magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
July 5, 2022
Is this a book of comic strips? Yes. Is it a haunting and thoughtful coffee table book that I adored? Also yes. Books are weird, y’all.
January 10, 2024
This is absolutely amazing. If you live in San Francisco, you are probably already familiar with the strip in the newspaper. Madonna has juxtaposed images with text which seem at first to have no context. Many readers were indeed frustrated by the format.
It took me until page 16 for the concept to click into place. The text and the images are working together to help us work out a conclusion which transcends them. It's a strip for the thinkers, the philosophers, the observers, and all those who wonder if we are missing out on life, as we go about our daily lives.
Each person will have a completely different reaction to the text and image, in terms of what they might be saying. A person's experiences are a part of the process. Some strips were too enigmatic for me, but most of them conjured some kind of amazing reflection.
This experimental graphic novel might not suit everyone, but its uniqueness makes it a treasure.
It took me until page 16 for the concept to click into place. The text and the images are working together to help us work out a conclusion which transcends them. It's a strip for the thinkers, the philosophers, the observers, and all those who wonder if we are missing out on life, as we go about our daily lives.
Each person will have a completely different reaction to the text and image, in terms of what they might be saying. A person's experiences are a part of the process. Some strips were too enigmatic for me, but most of them conjured some kind of amazing reflection.
This experimental graphic novel might not suit everyone, but its uniqueness makes it a treasure.
March 29, 2025
The artistry… the prose… the realism… need I say more?
{Found this at a small/vintage book store in Sutter Creek, CA.}
{Found this at a small/vintage book store in Sutter Creek, CA.}
August 2, 2016
In February 2004, the San Francisco Chronicle began printing an enigmatic feature called “All Over Coffee.” Almost immediately, letters of love and hate, confusion and praise, poured in. Accustomed to the familiar formats of comic strips and cartoons, some readers struggled to understand a creation that seemed to live both within and beyond those boundaries.
All Over Coffee blends the timing of comics with the depth of poetry. Artist and writer Paul Madonna has fused art, literature, and comics by pairing timeless cityscapes with philosophical musings and poignant stories in masterfully rendered ink-wash drawings that surpass the art of Ben Katchor in elegance and architectural detail. His work has been compared to “a meeting of the tone of Edward Gorey, the uniqueness of Chris Ware, and the artfulness of Raymond Pettibon.”
Quirky, whimsical, and often profound, All Over Coffee’s stunning imagery and thoughtful writing combine to create a conceptual world, both dreamlike and familiar. This selection will delight anyone who has ever lived in or visited San Francisco – or dreamed of doing so – with its original, off-the-beaten path view of the city and its inhabitants.
"I can't believe how Paul Madonna can make you feel so mighty to be human at one moment, and then so completely humbled the next. This is my favorite poetry book of the year." – Beth Lisick, author of Everybody Into the Pool
"The architecture of residential San Francisco is about detail, willful eccentricity, an almost rococo approach to line, and a steadfast devotion to art for its own sake, beauty as its own reward. Paul Madonna's work gives itself fully to all of these notions, and to the city as a whole, and in doing so reminds us why, block by block and view by view, this is one of the most beautiful cities in the world." – Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and What is the What
“Paul Madonna does amazing work, very precise but loose. He puts a lot of thought into waiting for just the right moment to stop looking around. These strips are a reminder to stop now and then and admire a corner of a room, a window or a rooftop. There are lovely details everywhere, at any time, no matter where you live.” – Tony Millionaire, author of Maakies
"Paul Madonna's collection All Over Coffee evocatively demonstrates the evolution of his eponymous San Francisco Chronicle strip. The juxtaposition of floating scraps of overheard, disconnected conversations and masterful pen and ink drawings of San Francisco, the city he lovingly documents, reminds us of the serendipity of city life, its physicality and atmosphere, its unanticipated discoveries, its random intersections, its coincidences and ironies. Madonna opens a window into the specificity of place, time and circumstance, providingan articulate perspective and critique of where and how we live." – Cathy Jensen Simon, Principal, SMWM Architects
All Over Coffee blends the timing of comics with the depth of poetry. Artist and writer Paul Madonna has fused art, literature, and comics by pairing timeless cityscapes with philosophical musings and poignant stories in masterfully rendered ink-wash drawings that surpass the art of Ben Katchor in elegance and architectural detail. His work has been compared to “a meeting of the tone of Edward Gorey, the uniqueness of Chris Ware, and the artfulness of Raymond Pettibon.”
Quirky, whimsical, and often profound, All Over Coffee’s stunning imagery and thoughtful writing combine to create a conceptual world, both dreamlike and familiar. This selection will delight anyone who has ever lived in or visited San Francisco – or dreamed of doing so – with its original, off-the-beaten path view of the city and its inhabitants.
"I can't believe how Paul Madonna can make you feel so mighty to be human at one moment, and then so completely humbled the next. This is my favorite poetry book of the year." – Beth Lisick, author of Everybody Into the Pool
"The architecture of residential San Francisco is about detail, willful eccentricity, an almost rococo approach to line, and a steadfast devotion to art for its own sake, beauty as its own reward. Paul Madonna's work gives itself fully to all of these notions, and to the city as a whole, and in doing so reminds us why, block by block and view by view, this is one of the most beautiful cities in the world." – Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and What is the What
“Paul Madonna does amazing work, very precise but loose. He puts a lot of thought into waiting for just the right moment to stop looking around. These strips are a reminder to stop now and then and admire a corner of a room, a window or a rooftop. There are lovely details everywhere, at any time, no matter where you live.” – Tony Millionaire, author of Maakies
"Paul Madonna's collection All Over Coffee evocatively demonstrates the evolution of his eponymous San Francisco Chronicle strip. The juxtaposition of floating scraps of overheard, disconnected conversations and masterful pen and ink drawings of San Francisco, the city he lovingly documents, reminds us of the serendipity of city life, its physicality and atmosphere, its unanticipated discoveries, its random intersections, its coincidences and ironies. Madonna opens a window into the specificity of place, time and circumstance, providingan articulate perspective and critique of where and how we live." – Cathy Jensen Simon, Principal, SMWM Architects
October 26, 2007
This would have been an easy 5 stars were it not for the at times unbearable pretentiousness of the texts that accompany the drawings. But I get ahead of myself.
This is a collection of a comic strip that appears in the San Francisco Chronicle. Each strip consists of a jaw-droppingly gorgeous pen-and-ink drawing of a building or park or view from different parts of the city, paired with a snippet of dialogue written in the style of overheard conversation. There's the rub.
Madonna (the author/artist) is a stellar artist, with an amazing command of line and clarity of composition. His drawings showcase a San Francisco absent of non-vegetable life (there might be a few birds in there--can't remember), a city stripped to the bones of its infrastructure, eerily luminous and completely haunting. And his invented conversations, all occurring, we presume, over coffee, are for the most part really bad. Pretentious. Obvious. Precious. Worst of all, boring. He would have done so much better to just follow the conceit of the work and actually capture real conversations, which always have the potential to be weirder than any imaginative fancy.
That said, I gripe because its hard to do anything else with my jaw this close to the floor. These are amazing drawings, presented beautifully by City Light Books--this is one of those books you buy just because you fall so deeply in love with the very feel of its cover and pages. Even some of the captions are interesting, even good.
I bought this book as a present for my Dad's 59th birthday, with a caveat: "I'm afraid the book might be a little pretentious, but I loved its drawings too much to pass up. Ah well." Dad responded: "Thank you for the dandy birthday book. Back in the day, everything was that pretentious, so it felt just right, and they are nice pictures. I especially liked the distortions of painted lady houses."
This is one of the most beautiful books I've seen in years, and if you can tolerate pretentiousness that felt comfortable to a child of the '60s, I can't recommend it highly enough.
This is a collection of a comic strip that appears in the San Francisco Chronicle. Each strip consists of a jaw-droppingly gorgeous pen-and-ink drawing of a building or park or view from different parts of the city, paired with a snippet of dialogue written in the style of overheard conversation. There's the rub.
Madonna (the author/artist) is a stellar artist, with an amazing command of line and clarity of composition. His drawings showcase a San Francisco absent of non-vegetable life (there might be a few birds in there--can't remember), a city stripped to the bones of its infrastructure, eerily luminous and completely haunting. And his invented conversations, all occurring, we presume, over coffee, are for the most part really bad. Pretentious. Obvious. Precious. Worst of all, boring. He would have done so much better to just follow the conceit of the work and actually capture real conversations, which always have the potential to be weirder than any imaginative fancy.
That said, I gripe because its hard to do anything else with my jaw this close to the floor. These are amazing drawings, presented beautifully by City Light Books--this is one of those books you buy just because you fall so deeply in love with the very feel of its cover and pages. Even some of the captions are interesting, even good.
I bought this book as a present for my Dad's 59th birthday, with a caveat: "I'm afraid the book might be a little pretentious, but I loved its drawings too much to pass up. Ah well." Dad responded: "Thank you for the dandy birthday book. Back in the day, everything was that pretentious, so it felt just right, and they are nice pictures. I especially liked the distortions of painted lady houses."
This is one of the most beautiful books I've seen in years, and if you can tolerate pretentiousness that felt comfortable to a child of the '60s, I can't recommend it highly enough.
November 14, 2011
Paul Madonna rocks! His drawings are excellent and his words are quite often very inspiring and thought-provoking, which are two things I prize highly :) I borrowed this book from the library and read all the works and also the short auto-biography at the back (which is really a valuable and interesting part of the book and I highly suggest everybody make sure to read it-- he talks about his creative process and how he came to be a comic-strip artist for the SF Chronicle. It was also really interesting to read the mixed reviews he got and some of the difficulties he had to overcome. Artists should look at this, it's always helpful to hear up-and-down success stories).
I copied out several of these comics to stick on my wall. I only saw Paul Madonna's work in the actual SF Chronicle like once or maybe twice before, but those times definitely stayed in my mind and I got really excited to see a compendium.
I don't like *all* of his comics to the same degree, but of course not all can be jems, and he's said that he's not as enthused by all of his comics to the same level either.
I'm sure lots of other people will have already said this, but I really think his work captures something uncanny about San Francisco, and even his unique way of showing contemplative landscapes and haphazard scenes, the kind you are likely to view by accident over the ordinary course of traversing in the city, and combining those scenes with dialog coming from somewhere/when else. This kind of reflects how thoughts invade sight in a way. I think he also captures something of the character of San Francisco life: thoughtful, at times melancholy, often finding itself at the cross-hairs of many clashing thoughts, experiences and histories.
I copied out several of these comics to stick on my wall. I only saw Paul Madonna's work in the actual SF Chronicle like once or maybe twice before, but those times definitely stayed in my mind and I got really excited to see a compendium.
I don't like *all* of his comics to the same degree, but of course not all can be jems, and he's said that he's not as enthused by all of his comics to the same level either.
I'm sure lots of other people will have already said this, but I really think his work captures something uncanny about San Francisco, and even his unique way of showing contemplative landscapes and haphazard scenes, the kind you are likely to view by accident over the ordinary course of traversing in the city, and combining those scenes with dialog coming from somewhere/when else. This kind of reflects how thoughts invade sight in a way. I think he also captures something of the character of San Francisco life: thoughtful, at times melancholy, often finding itself at the cross-hairs of many clashing thoughts, experiences and histories.
August 30, 2008
Awesome snippets of conversation paired with beautiful drawings of San Francisco.
April 2, 2023
Whoever had this book out at the library FINALLY returned it at the end of last month, so I was able to get my grubby little hands on it hEHEHE. I read this book in one sitting at the library, and bruh me with my little coffee in my fancy ass library with my shoes off......I honestly could not imagine a better place to kick back and crush this book (excepting maybe an actually cute little coffee shop). I was living my best Montreal Sunday!!!!
Anyway, Montrealais manic pixie dream girl experiences aside, this book is a perfect companion to a contemplative weekend day. Beautifully detailed drawings paired with vignettes of strangers lives that are able to draw you in with just a few sentences, Paul Madonna really hit it out of the park with these comic strips. His sparing use of colour was EXQUISITE, because when he DID use colour, it just POPPED out to your eyes and made the whole strip itself feel special. In his afterword, he was talking about viewing scenes in the city around him as if it was new and he was a tourist. On my walk back home I tried exactly this, and I was overcome with the feeling that Im always hit with whenever I'm visiting another city. It's like this feeling of "I could live here", and you know what, I DO!!! HOW WONDERFUL IS THAT!
Anyway, Montrealais manic pixie dream girl experiences aside, this book is a perfect companion to a contemplative weekend day. Beautifully detailed drawings paired with vignettes of strangers lives that are able to draw you in with just a few sentences, Paul Madonna really hit it out of the park with these comic strips. His sparing use of colour was EXQUISITE, because when he DID use colour, it just POPPED out to your eyes and made the whole strip itself feel special. In his afterword, he was talking about viewing scenes in the city around him as if it was new and he was a tourist. On my walk back home I tried exactly this, and I was overcome with the feeling that Im always hit with whenever I'm visiting another city. It's like this feeling of "I could live here", and you know what, I DO!!! HOW WONDERFUL IS THAT!
November 4, 2018
I almost never rate books 5/5, to best make use of the full rating range.
This book is a series of short descriptions - overheard conversations? people in the coffee shop? - with a backdrop of drawings of San Francisco. It's strangely haunting. I spent a lot of time exploring the city alone when I first moved here and it really captures that very nonspecific feeling, the sense that there are a million worlds around you that you will only get a glimpse of.
This book is a series of short descriptions - overheard conversations? people in the coffee shop? - with a backdrop of drawings of San Francisco. It's strangely haunting. I spent a lot of time exploring the city alone when I first moved here and it really captures that very nonspecific feeling, the sense that there are a million worlds around you that you will only get a glimpse of.
July 10, 2022
This is a book of strips (I leave out “comic” intentionally) that ran in the SF Chronicle. They are generally one-frame gorgeous India ink drawings of SF locales accompanied by thoughts or stories. The two things may or may not feel related but are certainly my contemplative. I very much enjoyed reading through these a few at a time.
September 20, 2022
For those of us who don't subscribe to the San Francisco Chronicle, an opportunity to see Paul Madonna's beautiful drawings of landscapes, combined with brief interludes of conversations and thoughts. They don't need to obviously relate to one another, and yet they do.
The essay at the end is perfect.
The essay at the end is perfect.
July 4, 2017
"I don't get superheroes," she says, "if you could see through everything you'd see nothing at all." (p.19)
We've all thought these kinds of things and Madonna has actually written them all down, alongside his beautiful pen and ink wash drawings. A great coffee table book!
We've all thought these kinds of things and Madonna has actually written them all down, alongside his beautiful pen and ink wash drawings. A great coffee table book!
February 23, 2020
Excellent art, but I didn’t really understand what he’s going for with the “story”.
I’d give it a 4/5 for the art, but I don’t think he did the series for the drawings. Strange book.
I’d give it a 4/5 for the art, but I don’t think he did the series for the drawings. Strange book.
May 4, 2020
Magnificent. Marvelous. Paul Madonna is a huge creative inspiration for me and I aspire to be half as good as him when I grow up.
December 26, 2023
One of the most beautiful books.
Words and art are simple and complex at the same time.
Words and art are simple and complex at the same time.
January 30, 2024
A slow, scenic eavesdrop through San Francisco.
April 13, 2024
Five stars for the illustrations, two for everything else
August 19, 2018
I picked up this gem at the City Lights Bookstore while attending a 3-day workshop in San Fran. I had snuck away from my tour group and had wandered through Chinatown and alleys spray-painted with Tupac-faced dragons to get to CLB. Once there, I rummaged through some Ferlinghetti tomes and stared at old pictures of Ginsberg before I spotted this book on a rickety display by the register and coughed up nearly $35 impulsive dollars. I had to lug it all the way back through Chinatown to the bus, and it was heavy and cumbersome to manage that while eating dragon's breath, but now that I've had the chance to crack it open, I can say with all confidence it was worth it. I had been searching for something more substantial than a postcard to remember San Fran by (mostly because I'm deathly afraid of earthquakes and probably won't be back). Paul Madonna really captures the foggy, zany spirit of the place and its locals - some vignettes are heart-warming, some heart-breaking, all relatable. Some are like entire journal entries, others as short as a haiku, but they linger pleasantly, like the taste of Earl Grey after breakfast, and I savored them. Definitely a coffee table book that deserves the light of day.
May 13, 2023
The analogue version of OverheardSF, pre-subprime mortgage crisis. Seems idyllic now!
December 31, 2007
This is a strange, beautiful book that I hardly know how to describe. It's a collection of what for lack of a better term I have to call comic strips that ran in the San Francisco Chronicle between 2003 and 2006. Each consists of one or two illustrated panels and some text that often has no apparent connection to the artwork. The illustrations are lovely sepia-toned pen-and-ink drawings of scenes from San Francisco (or, in a couple of cases and without explanation, Paris); they might depict a familiar landmark, or an off-kilter view out the window of a café, or a building glimpsed between two others; some are hyperrealistic and others wildly distorted. There are no people — the presence of humanity in All Over Coffee is restricted to the accompanying text, which is even more enigmatic than the drawings, taking the forms of aphorisms, snippets of dialogue, or weird little modern kōans, which are usually mysterious, often desolate, sometimes funny, and very rarely not there at all.
It all adds up to something I can't say I really understand but I was completely taken by it anyway. The sheer beauty of the artwork has a lot to do with that; these strange, barren renderings capture something of what originally captured me about San Francisco. In fact I bought it almost entirely on impulse based on the cover art, a gorgeous view over Russian Hill out to Alcatraz and Angel Island. I'm not regretting it.
(Best of all, All Over Coffee is still running in the Chronicle, and fully archived on SFGate.)
It all adds up to something I can't say I really understand but I was completely taken by it anyway. The sheer beauty of the artwork has a lot to do with that; these strange, barren renderings capture something of what originally captured me about San Francisco. In fact I bought it almost entirely on impulse based on the cover art, a gorgeous view over Russian Hill out to Alcatraz and Angel Island. I'm not regretting it.
(Best of all, All Over Coffee is still running in the Chronicle, and fully archived on SFGate.)
February 6, 2018
Great pictures!
Here are the questions discussed at the Reading the Western Landscape Book Club at the Arboretum Library of the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden on December 20, 2017:
Here are the questions discussed at the Reading the Western Landscape Book Club at the Arboretum Library of the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden on December 20, 2017:
August 15, 2007
i try to avoid buying books on impulse since i have at least 30 in my shopping cart on amazon, but i walked by all over coffee in borders, and the pictures drew me in. it was one of two books autographed by the author that i purchased on a whim that day (thankfully the other was from a smaller neighborhood bookstore). i had high hopes and figured i would buy a large scale print of one of the drawings. execution, however, falls short of concept, and i found the stories interesting but not particularly engaging--not the types of stories that might have many layers of additional meaning when i pick the book back up. the art is captivating, but i am surprised that no particular image or images emerged as my favorite(s), other than the one stretched across the inside cover. the drawings appear to be complex, but i still can't find one i would necessarily want to look at every day. overall, i enjoy the sense of place that the book communicates, but it's not the magical little piece of san francisco i wanted it to be and that i would gift to those who mean the most to me and should love the city like i do.
February 6, 2010
He's like a west coast Maira Kalman, which is a good thing. These pieces originally ran in the newspaper, one at a time, so they tend to be very self-contained and it's better to space out the reading over time to keep them from all mushing together. Although I really like how he draws buildings, San Francisco ends up not very attractive. Maybe it's just the sort of grimy color wash. Trees and clouds, on the rare occasions where they appear, don't look quite right, although they improved significantly towards the end (the strips are chronological). The text is a nice series of little moments. I'm glad he put his explanation of the process in the back of the book instead of in the front, leaving you to make your own impressions first. Particularly liked the one on Emil (?) Hopper and the xkcd-esque one about whether the devil is self-aware. I understand how making it a horizontal book with pages you turn up rather than to the left makes for neater shelving, but it was still a pain to flip through that way.
February 8, 2012
We didn't get the San Francsico Chronicle when we lived in the Bay Area, so I did not see these drawings of San Francisco by pen and ink master Paul Madonna back then, but have just discovered him now, via his Album series of balsa airplanes. http://www.kqed.org/arts/visualarts/a...
Paul Madonna is also classified under graphic novels by some, though, as one reviewer says: he "deconstructs storytelling." The language is sparse, but elegant and visual. This excerpt explains: http://www.escapeintolife.com/artist-... I am also reminded of some of the work of Chris Van Allsburg, both in the delicacy of the line-work, and in the idea of an artist who can both write and draw their stories.
Last but not least, I found this mini graphic novel 'Darwin's Kitchen," on his blog site; it is a literally "graphic" story, surprisingly violent given the players involved. http://therumpus.net/2011/08/darwins-...
Paul Madonna is also classified under graphic novels by some, though, as one reviewer says: he "deconstructs storytelling." The language is sparse, but elegant and visual. This excerpt explains: http://www.escapeintolife.com/artist-... I am also reminded of some of the work of Chris Van Allsburg, both in the delicacy of the line-work, and in the idea of an artist who can both write and draw their stories.
Last but not least, I found this mini graphic novel 'Darwin's Kitchen," on his blog site; it is a literally "graphic" story, surprisingly violent given the players involved. http://therumpus.net/2011/08/darwins-...
January 14, 2008
all over coffee is a visual love-letter to the beautiful city of san francisco. alongside highly vivid and dramatic, yet simplistic and bold, drawings of SF's landscapes, architectures, and skylines, are notes...jottings...literal impressions also written by paul madonna himself. visually, the attention to detail for every drawing really WOW'd me. for the drawings alone, it's worth the purchase. as a new resident of SF, all over coffee provided me with a much better...a more personal... and sentimental viewpoint & understanding of a city i admittedly know very little about and am eager to learn more of. ...forget lonely planet... and to hell with tourist maps. all over coffee is the most perfect guidebook and first introduction to SF you'll ever need as a newcomer.
thanks for the present. i really loved it :)
thanks for the present. i really loved it :)
September 8, 2009
I think this book, All Over Coffee, a compendium of Paul Madonna's sketches and musings, would be most enjoyable if you like his work. Frankly, as a longtime reader of the San Francisco Chronicle, I always looked forward to his spidery ink drawings that took little nooks and crannies of the City, held them up close, and were accompanied with pithy, witty, and sometimes downright sad (and also sometimes a little kooky) quotes of unseen characters who habituated these environs he so painstakingly put to his pad. Sometimes hokey, sometimes insightful, sometimes beautiful -- but never dull; I'd like to think of Madonna as the unofficial cartographer of San Francisco's psyche. It's a wonderful art book; but I think it's more a slice of the soul of the City. Very well put-together mural of a City that exists half in and half out of the shadows of everybody's imagination. Check it out ...
January 29, 2012
Beautiful drawings done in pencil and pen and ink combined with poetry...sigh.
This collection comes from a comic strip that ran in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Madonna's art is beautiful and from the heart. They show the corners and scenes that form the backdrop of everyday life in SF. Coupled with the drawings are "conversations", presumably taking place over coffee.
It's a beautiful book. My only comment would be that the poetry was rather forced. If it was meant to portray conversations over coffee, it should have-there is nothing more truly engaging that honest human nature.
This collection comes from a comic strip that ran in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Madonna's art is beautiful and from the heart. They show the corners and scenes that form the backdrop of everyday life in SF. Coupled with the drawings are "conversations", presumably taking place over coffee.
It's a beautiful book. My only comment would be that the poetry was rather forced. If it was meant to portray conversations over coffee, it should have-there is nothing more truly engaging that honest human nature.
January 6, 2013
4.5 stars. Loved the art and it made me miss the Bay Area, even though the strip was new to me (I didn't read it when I lived in the area). The dialog was harder for me to get into at first...I had trouble finding its voice (and sometimes, the more simple narratives read in my head like the voice of SNL's "Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy"...that made it hard to take seriously). But by the middle of the book the narrative improved for me, and the artwork became more and more beautiful. I will be reading this book again, and would definitely give it as a gift (especially to people with ties to SF).
December 18, 2007
This is one of the graphic novels that were newly processed and ready to circulate at my library. So I snagged this one to look at during Club Anime today. It's a very interesting book with thoughtful snippets of conversation or observations that one could/would make while drinking coffee, or looking out the window.
The artwork is amazing and deserves to be appreciated in good light and not in the darkened basement auditorium while voluptuous anime women are pulling tiny cell phones out of their bosoms!
The artwork is amazing and deserves to be appreciated in good light and not in the darkened basement auditorium while voluptuous anime women are pulling tiny cell phones out of their bosoms!
December 23, 2020
The day the strip launched, e-mails poured in. There was anger, confusion, and praise. One letter was from a man who’d read the paper on an airplane. He was moving back to Ireland after two years in San Francisco, retreating home to sort out his life. While the plane sat idle on the runway, stewardesses offered newspapers to the passengers, and opening to the cover of the Datebook section, the man saw the building he’d been renting an apartment in. “I knew then that leaving was the wrong choice,” he wrote to me. [169, from the Afterword]
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