Capolan: Travels of a Vagabond Country Artbox

by Nick Bantock

When the Capolanian government wanted commemorative stamps and postcards created in honor of their 650th anniversary, they turned, quite naturally, to artist and writer Nick Bantock. Who better to capture the mythical nation's enigmatic spirit? The result is a sumptuous treasure box of history, legend, and fantasy. Inside, the curious will find the very postcards and stamps Mr. Bantock created for this commission, along with a book -- not much larger than a passport -- in which he introduces the history, philosophy, customs, and traditions of this mysterious nomadic tribe.

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Genres: Fiction, Art, Fantasy

Paperback

Published April 1, 1997

About the author

Nick was schooled in England and has a BA in Fine Art (painting). He has authored 25 books, 11 of which have appeared on the best seller lists, including 3 books on The New York Times top ten at one time. Griffin & Sabine stayed on that list for over two years. His works have been translated into 13 languages and over 5 million have been sold worldwide. Once named by the classic SF magazine Weird Tales as one of the best 85 storytellers of the century. He has written articles and stories for numerous international newspapers and magazines. His Wasnick blogs are much followed on Facebook and Twitter. His paintings, drawings, sculptures, collages and prints have been exhibited in shows in UK, France and North America. In 2010 Nick's major retrospective exhibition opened at the MOA in Denver. His works are in private collections throughout the world. Nick has a lifetime BAFTA (British Oscar) for the CD-ROM game Ceremony of Innocence, created with Peter Gabriel's Real World, featuring Isabella Rossolini and Ben Kingsley. He has two iPad apps, Sage and The Venetian and is working on a third. Three of his books have been optioned for film and his stage play based on the Griffin & Sabine double trilogy premiered in Vancouver in 2006.

Produced artwork for more than 300 book covers (including works by Roth and Updike), illustrated Viking Penguin's new translation of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. He's designed theater posters for the London plays of Tom Stoppard and Alec Guinness.

For 20 years Bantock has spoken and read to audiences throughout North America, Europe and Australia. Given keynote and motivational speeches to corporations and teachers state conferences. He's given dramatic readings on the radio and the stage and has been interviewed (way too many times) for TV, radio and print.

Bantock has worked in a betting shop in the East End of London, trained as a psychotherapist, designed and built a house that combined an Indonesian temple and a Russian orthodox church with an English cricket pavilion and a New Orleans bordello. Between 2007 and 2010 was one of the twelve committee members responsible for selecting Canada's postage stamps.

Among the things Bantock can't do: Can't swim, never ridden a horse, his spelling is dreadful and his singing voice is flat as a pancake.

Source: Nick Bantock - profile

Reviews

[Degan Walters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful book of Bantock's art, disguised as a souvenir book put out by the post office of an imagined country. It contains a stamp, several postcards and a booklet inside of a box and the booklet contains the brief on the Capolan history and people. He does such a good job of packaging it that it feels weird to review it. It feels like a souvenir.

[Luke Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to own this soooooooo bad

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure what I think of Nick Bantock, but let me just launch in. He seems to be wildly popular for art boxes with love letters and other artifacts. This is an art box with a 48 page booklet written about an imaginary country, its history and customs and language and so on. There's a souvenir stamp sheet and 15 postcards to send from Capolan. I like multi-genre and multi-modal projects, and this is one. Textured story. And I think in that sense, as a collagist, and illustrator, and creator of imaganaria, Bantock is really good and seriously playful. There's not really much of a story here. It's a fictional history, and brief, in a cute mini-book form, of a place we would like to visit. It's an art box, colorful, fun. I guess I have over the years passed his projects by for one reason or the other, but when a friend put this in my hands today I sat right down and went through it. I think it can be a model for any writer, artist or for your student, if you are a teacher, for similar projects. Magical conception. But you know, having said all that, it still didn't really grab me that much….

[Diane]

Wonderfully illustrated, the art of Nick Bantock is mesmerizing and the philosoply of the Capolanians would be so nice to live with. Unusual format that is a visual delight.