Product Description

Fireworks are synonymous with celebration in the twenty-first century. But pyrotechnics—in the form of rockets, crackers, wheels, and bombs—have exploded in sparks and noise to delight audiences in Europe ever since the Renaissance. Here, Simon Werrett shows that, far from being only a means of entertainment, fireworks helped foster advances in natural philosophy, chemistry, mathematics, and many other branches of the sciences.

Fireworks brings to vibrant life the many artful practices of pyrotechnicians, as well as the elegant compositions of the architects, poets, painters, and musicians they inspired. At the same time, it uncovers the dynamic relationships that developed between the many artists and scientists who produced pyrotechnics. In so doing, the book demonstrates the critical role that pyrotechnics played in the development of physics, astronomy, chemistry and physiology, meteorology, and electrical science. Richly illustrated and drawing on a wide range of new sources, Fireworks takes readers back to a world where pyrotechnics were both divine and magical and reveals for the first time their vital contribution to the modernization of European ideas.

Customer Reviews (1)

Fabulous "Fireworks"
Simon Werrett has written a fascinating book on the history of pyrotechnics that is as learned as it is accessible. After reading this book, no one will ever look up at a night sky lit by fireworks with the same eyes. ... Read more

Product Description
Teach Yourself VISUALLY™ Macromedia® Web Collection uses the proven Visual step-by-step approach to learning the best of Macromedia products - in full color! Coverage includes Flash animation, Dreamweaver page design, and Fireworks integration. This is a full-color tutorial with clear, concise, jargon-free instructions with over 500 color screenshots throughout. Jam-packed with information, this book goes beyond the basics. The book covers the latest versions of Macromedia's popular Web software tools: Flash 5, Fireworks 4 and Dreamweaver 4. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

wasn't what I expected from the series
I have had a lot better results from this series with other products... but this fail short.Perhaps because it's more than one program into one book.It's not thorough and it's pretty basic!

Great Value!
If you hate reading like I do, buy this book.It has killer colorful pages.If you are a beginner and would like to get your feet wet, look no further!If you are advanced user, you might want to think it over.Look at the index first before deciding on buying it. ... Read more

Product Description
Because of they make the best fireworks in their Mexican village, Pepito, his sister Amelia, and their parents are asked to create a grand firework castle to honor their village's patron saint, but a clever pickpocket threatens to ruin the celebration. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a long-time favorite
My son (now 8) and I have read and re-read Fabulous Firework Family numerous times; it's still a favorite for both of us! The book is about a family in a little mountain town of Mexico whosepassion, livelihood, andspecialty it is to make fireworks. It's a charming look at a culture verydifferent from ours- each family member (even the parrot and the burro!)has his or her part in building this huge castillo. The castillo is astructure made of bamboo and moving, pinata-like fireworks that is set offat a fiesta honoring the town's patron saint. The illustrations are vivid,and many of them are labeled in Spanish - good for vocabulary building.Fabulous Firework Family is full of delights for children - animals, humor,bright colors, excitement, the fiesta, a pickpocket! The only aspect of thebook I'm not crazy about is that it's a bit boy/man-centric. ... Read more

Product Description
This stunning, four-color book features a unique Q&A format built around hundreds of lavishly illustrated, step-by-step techniques. It also features guest artists throughout. The Q&A format makes for easy, instant access to solutions. The extensive, step-by-step color figures make following and understanding the steps and their effects even easier and more compelling. Links and references make access to additional information easy and fast. And a cross-platform CD-ROM includes all the files from the book, plus tryouts of Fireworks, Dreamweaver and other products.

This full-color step-by-step techniques book is designed to be the ultimate Fireworks reference. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Very nice
This was good for a first book. There's lots of cool stuff you can learn from it that works in later editions of the software too. The author has written a follow up in e-book format that you might like too. It's called Razzle Dazzle. You can read more about it at
http://www.webdevbiz.com/pwf/

This Is The One
If you buy one Fireworks book - this is the one!

As a web developer, I have to have a working knowledge of many different skills and I readily admit that graphics is not my strongest area. Even when I develop a specific graphics skill, I may not use it again for six months, and well, to use a cliché - lose or use it.

That's why this book is so important to me - I can find the answers to my real-world, and I stress real-world, questions without having to read 5,000 newsgroup posts, browse through 50 other books, or the worst - actually pay a professional to do my graphics work!

Best Book on Fireworks out there
Highly recommend this book - great examples that WORK.Have found this book an invaluable resource for my web graphics work! Worth every penny!

Worth every cent
Playing with Fire is worth every cent. Great information on ways to do things with Fireworks. It was lots of fun.

Get this book!!
I picked this up having browsed through it in the store. By doing so was as if I went to class! Within a few moments of going through the tutorials I had created some really cool graphics. By using those principles I learned, my web graphics have taken a giant leap forward. ... Read more

Product Description

Learn Adobe Fireworks CS3 quickly and painlessly through step by step exercises from Noble Desktop, New York’s premier computer graphics training facility.

The best way to learn a new software is to jump right in and create projects using step by step exercises. Noble Desktop has perfected the art of step by step exercises after training thousands of students since 1991. This workbook is the one we give to students of our classes, and is used by teachers and colleges worldwide. Noble Desktop is an Adobe Certified Training Facility.

With This Workbook & CD You Will Learn How To:

• Optimize Web Graphics as JPEG or GIF
• Slice Images
• Create Rollover Graphics
• Create Animated GIFs
• Quickly Create Rollover Graphics/Buttons
• Quickly Mockup an Entire Website Design
• Create Image Maps
• Edit Pixel-based & Vector-based Graphics
• Integrate with Flash & Dreamweaver
• Create Pop-Up Menus
• And much much more...

Customer Reviews (3)

Adobe Fireworks CS3 - Training Materials
Upon receipt of the merchandise, you will get a jolt: how can such a skinny booklet justify spending $75? Its contents are specific exercises, to be performed using the data files in the accompanying DVD. It walks you step by step and the underlaying intention seems to be to teach the basics, for you to extrapolate to your own needs.Not a word about why, just do what I say and shut up.Obviously, someone will write the manual later on... I gave it three stars because it really teaches you the basics... I did not fill the remaining two stars because of my too many why's... A tad expensive (it wants to be $34.95)...

Clear Concise Instruction
I'd heard that Fireworks could do web graphics much better than Photoshop so gave this book a try based on my previous good experience with a Noble Desktop book. It completely met my expectations and now I am amazed at how easy it is to mock up and prepare graphics for my websites. As for the comments of the gentleman who wanted more explanation of why you do things -- it's true, this book is nuts and bolts on how to get things done. But I'd have to disagree that you need the "why." I already know what I want to do -- this book tells me how to do it, in the most concise and efficient way possible.

Don't throw your money away on this
Yeah, it's a "workbook" format -- as advertised -- BUT: there's absolutely no explanation of what you're doing or why. It's 63 pages of "click this icon; save that file; click 'Done' ".

With some context, these might be useful exercises. Without any, they're pretty much what you'd do to figure out how any new app works - only it costs $75.00!I just got ripped; don't YOU do the same. ... Read more

Product Description

How do fireworks get their colors? And why do they explode? Read this book to learn all about the chemical and physical properties of materials, as well as firework safety.

... Read more

Product Description
Fiction. FIREWORK is the story of a man, who, though ill-equipped to help himself, attempts to help someone else, and the beautiful catastrophe that results. Often unbearably intense, it is also an exhilarating expression of the nobility of the all-too human impulse to be more than what we seem to be. ... Read more

Product Description

New to Dreamweaver and Fireworks 8? How to Use Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 and Fireworks 8 will quickly teach you the basics of the software so that you can get your websites up and running. More than 150 two-page, full- spreads will visually take you through the process of how to use each program to create everything from a simple personal website or a more involved e-business website. Illustrations and figures will lead you through each task with easy-to-follow directions and visual cues. You will learn how to:

• Work with text.
• Reuse information.
• Optimize images.
• Use behaviors and scripts.
• Create forms.
• Use external media.
• Create dynamic webpages.
• Work with CSS.

Customer Reviews (16)

Exactly what it says
I thought this book was great. It does exactly what it says. Sure, if you have ever used Dreamweaver and Fireworks before the first few chapters may be really basic but, there is a lot of information here.

The book starts out very basic but then, gets into CSS style sheets, layers, frames, and forms in Dreamweaver. The Fireworks section is a bit more basic (at least for me) but then, it explains 3D buttons, pop-up menus, image maps, slices, and even creating animated elements.

If you are a professional web designer, this book may be too basic for you. But for the hobbyist or beginner, this book is the perfect place to start.

Not helpful for creating buttons
I bought Fireworks MX to create buttons for use in navigation bars, and I bought this book to learn how to accomplish that, as Fireworks did not come with a manual. The book has 12 pages on buttons and nav bars, and at first glance it looks good, lots of pictures and step-by-step instructions. The only problem is that I did not get working buttons by following the instructions. I called Macromedia and found out that several important steps had been left out, steps that you would never guess on your own. With help from Macromedia I managed to make one set of working buttons, but when I tried to edit the buttons something went wrong and the buttons have been mangled. I am ordering more books from other authors in the hope one of them will give me complete instructions on how to make a button and edit it later.

Great help
I first bought Creating a Web Page in Dreamweaver 8. It sucked, bad. Probably the worst book I ever bouhght. Then, I found this book, really made a lot of sense. Great for beginners, and it is real in depth as well. I would recomend it, and might even buy a second copy for myself.

The author walks you through slowley, but informs you of all the details, so you can design a snazy site. Someone spent a lot of time reviewing the book before it went to print, because it doesn't skip a step, as other books can do in the design area.

The best thing I did was to buy the CNET CD on Dreamweaver/Flash/Fireworks. I paid about $80, but a class would have been thousands. The CD this book were all I needed.

Nice Pics .... but that's about it.
This book is severely lacking.The book uses a lot of pictures and poor descriptions in an attempt to teach you how to use dreamweaver functions.The result is that you get an idea of how to do certain functions but never get the feeling of how to effectively put them together.The book is in limbo between catering to beginners and being a mere reference book for someone trying to remember 'how to create an input form'.Had this book provided a simple web project that the readers could complete while teaching us the program; then everyone (readers and author) might have been able to stay on the 'same page'.

Not for Dreamweaver MX 2004
I am finding this book helpful, except I am using Dreamweaver MX 2004 and this book is apparently for the previous version.Enough has changed that it is frustrating trying to figure out where things have moved to.I have to pull up the help screen to compare how the book says to do it with how you actually do it in the updated version.Use caution when using this book for the 2004 software.Otherwise, I personally like the pictures--being a visual learner. ... Read more

Product Description
This book provides in-depth projects with instruction and practice for courses involving Web site production with interactive graphics, animation, and sound.It is an excellent addition to any curriculum on multimedia and Web site design and offers instruction on the latest versions of Macromedia Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Contribute. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Macromedia Studio 8 Step-by-Step
Very good, clear step-by-step instructions for beginning Studio 8 users. It could use a little more explanation on the use of CSS, but overall a very useful book.

Could be a lot better.
This book really leads you step by step -- without explaining much, to the point that you don't know why you're doing things or how to use the applications when trying to create your own webpage (you're fine as long as you're doing the exercises in the book). If you're an absolute beginner, choose something else. ... Read more

Product Description
Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004 enables you to design, optimize, and add basic interactivity to your graphics and is mainly used for designing and optimizing web graphics, then exporting them to website creation programs like Dreamweaver or Flash.

With extensive tools for editing bitmap and vector graphics, Fireworks makes collaborative site design much quicker with improved integration of the Studio products. Graphics in Flash or Dreamweaver libraries can be quickly edited in Fireworks and instantly updated throughout your website. Extra photo-editing tools, Auto Shapes, Live Effects animation, and additional anti-aliasing options provide more creative scope and developers can extend Fireworks image-editing capabilities into Dreamweaver. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Macromedia Fireworks book
The book arrived quickly and in great shape. Thank you. I haven't finished it yet, but is proving to be a big help in developing my website.

This is a great resource
The authors do a great job introducing Fireworks MX 2004 to new users.They take readers on a thorough tour of the features and tools sets available in Fireworks.Experienced readers can also learn from this book as it talks about more advanced topics and even highlights the Fireworks Exchange by Macromedia which is one of the most powerful assets available to Fireworks users.If you want to learn Fireworks MX 2004, this is the book for you.

What a great resource to insert creative ideas to websites
This book really helped me out with learning how to implement creative thoughts/ideas into a working navigation system. When read, it sounds like the authors are right there walking you through each and every step you need to understand and master FireworksMX 2004. As you read through the book, you'll find a lot of helpful tips that are in each section. I almost liked reading the tips rather than focusing on the main sections. Be sure to work through the tutorials, I picked up a lot of tidbits that I didnt think were possible.

:)

Alan ... Read more

Product Description
Describes how fireworks came to be invented, how they are made, the different kinds and their uses, and some of the disasters they have caused. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Tying up loose ends
As the closing book in a trilogy should, this third in the "Ozark Fantasy Trilogy" ties up not only the dangling ends of plot left behind in its predecessor (The Grand Jubilee), but finally answers several of the questions readers may have had about Planet Ozark and its peculiar society and situation.When we pick up the story, Responsible of Brightwater has lain in pseudocoma for going on two years, and her world is in big trouble: for reasons no one seems to fully understand, her absence as a functioning, if much-resented, female Magician has lain the planet open to plague, war, crop failure, and all the host of little mortal ills ordinarily kept at bay by the Magicians and Grannies--who've lost the power to do so.A deputation of Grannies therefore seeks out Responsible's exiled older sister Troublesome, asking her to sail to the continent of Kintucky and approach Lewis Motley Wommack the 33rd, whom they believe to be somehow connected with Responsible's state.Troublesome at first is loudly skeptical of any such possibility, but go she does in the end, and much to her astonishment learns that the Grannies guessed right.After that it's up to her and the mystic Silverweb of McDaniels to find a way to bring Responsible out of her pseudocoma--something the no-longer-magical Magicians of Rank, try though they have, haven't been able to do.But there isn't much time, for the skies of Ozark are suddenly filled with huge, humming crystals sent by the mysterious "Garnet Ring," a self-described organization of planets whose society, like Ozark's, is based on magic, and who have decided, in the wake of the events of the previous volume, to take the place over!

Shorter than the previous book and headlong in pace, this closing volume is a masterful finish to a delightful trilogy.

An exciting mix of science fiction and fantasy!
This book will soon be back in print through the University of Arkansas Press! The whole trilogy is a wonderful walk through a society which escaped from a polluted Earth to find a new place to live, bringing along aunique social structure. The characters are engaging and interesting, withthe heroine Responsible of Brightwater leading the pack. I highly recommendthis trilogy. ... Read more

Product Description

In the spirit of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, join Jonny Button for a wild ride through Boomtown, where everyone's favorite thing to do is blow stuff up!  After an explosion at Chang's Famous Fireworks Factory, the Button family is pulled into a mystery that keeps Sheriff Burton Ernie and the rest of Boomtown guessing. Exploding Elves, Rocket Reindeer, amazing inventions and adventure, this story starts with a boom and ends with a bang.  The fuse is lit!  Things are about to explode!

Visit the website www.visitboomtown.com for more information on the book, author, free teacher guides, and more! But stay away from the chickens!

Customer Reviews (34)

Boomin' fun
Have haven't read all of this, but have read parts with my kids.What I read was great writing and good clean fun.My 9-year-old son got this from one of his friends for his birthday and he LOVES it.He read it on his own and now is reading it as a read aloud with us at bedtime.He is an advanced reader so I'm not sure all 9-year-olds would be able to read it on their own, but they would certainly like it read to them if they couldn't get all the words.My son also just bought this for a friend for his birthday.

Boomtown Reveiw
Boomtown: This book sort of reminded me of Charley and the Chocolate factory. It was kind of quirky that way. As an adult, I had a hard time sticking with this book. As an adult female I should say. My 12 year old started to read the book. He has to be coaxed into reading. Although he hasn't finished the book, what he had read, he seems to enjoy at this point.

I felt the story was a little choppy...seemed to not flow well through out the book. I think a young boy would find the humor in this book.

This is a Christian author. There isn't much Christianity taught through out the book, however the father is a pastor.

Boomtown is a qwarky little place for the Buttons to live...They have interesting things happening to them, even before they got the Boomtown. Things keep going haywire..there are many celebrations that involve fireworks at every turn.

As I stated above, I think young boys will enjoy this book. I generally enjoy other types of books. But if you are looking for something for a young boy, with a great imagination, and clean writing, then this is the book.

My son, age 13, devoured this book!
I bought this book at a Christian bookstore because I am concerned about the content my 13 year old boy, Peter, is exposed to. I was so glad that he really liked the book and am sorry there is not another one out yet written by the same author. I would highly recommend this as a safe and entertaining book for your early adolescent!

Boomtown: Neither Boom nor Bust
Boomtown is a fun story, overall. Zany and goofy characters and plot twists abound, and in general I like that in a book. It may be a tad too colorful and crazy, but I can forgive that. Clearly, the author was influenced in some respects by one of my favorite children's books, the Twenty-One Balloons.

In spite of these positives, it's supposed to be a story for tween readers, and I am struggling to see how they will connect with a story told by a forty-something minister narrator. He was hard for ME to relate to. In general, he seemed weak and ineffective as a father, and not especially pastoral. Actually, the church/pastor angle bothered me quite a bit, I would have rather him have another profession than have the church seem to be just another civic organization or gathering as it appeared in this book.

The main mystery of the story is overshadowed by descriptions of the town (and its peculiarities.) Developing that part more, particularly the involvement of one of the characters, would have added a great deal to the story.

Boomtown is clean and fun. If some of the plots of the novels aimed at this age group are of concern to a parent, this book might be enjoyed by child and appreciated by grown-ups for its lack of questionable content (other than pyromania.) I wish I could give it a more glowing review.

Just too much to believe
As a former ninth-grade English teacher, I was curious about this work of juvenile fiction. Non-Christian YA literature can be dark and raw, as it handles the problems of adolescence. I wondered how this Christian YA literature would compare. Dark it is not. It shines with fun and energy. There are conflicts, of course, but nothing that forgiveness and trust won't solve. Perhaps the author chose this cheerful tone because the tale is set in the proverbially happy post-World War II period. Perhaps I am too cynical, but eventually the lack of plausible problems soured me on the story.

Boomtown, Book One is stuffed full of ideas that are supposed to be cool and motivating. I get the impression this book is trying to be the next Harry Potter, albeit a benign, Christian one: adolescents running around without adults, gleeful special effects, and of course plenty of explosions. It should work, right? The author's imagination and humor don't give out, but I kind of wished he would settle down and tell a story I cared about - and I have a feeling the teens I've known would wish for the same thing.

The tale's greatest asset is the many graphics illustrating the story. They are genuinely enjoyable and obviously a labor of love. Overall, however, I was disappointed. Meanwhile, I keep waiting for some truly creative, dynamic, well-crafted Christian fiction. ... Read more

Product Description

The Learning series provides readers with a total-immersion, hands-on tutorial that walks them step-by-step, mouse-click by mouse-click, keystroke by keystroke through all the features of the software application. The well-illustrated, spiral-bound text contains easy-to-read, appealingly formatted procedural explanations and step-by-step exercises in a multi-part Lesson format.

Customer Reviews (6)

Finally, someone who made a book for use with a computer!
If nothing else, this book gets a high rating from me because someone FINALLY understands the imporantance of a book being able to stay open to work the lessons!

Easy to use lessons gets you up and running with Fireworks to get the most of the program.

Easy to learn but lean on content...
DDC's Macromedia Fireworks is great if you have a limited background in graphics.I teach High School Technology and use the DDC books for various subjects.My biggest complaint about this book is that the lessons are pretty lean.I have a hard time keeping my students busy for 48 minutes with the length of each lesson.I also think that the book could have been a little more creatively done.I wouldn't necessarily call the lessons boring, but they definitely aren't very enticing for the average high school student. Overall I'd say the book is a good resource for the average beginner to learn Macromedia Fireworks, but it could have been so much more!!

Comprehensive instruction in Fireworks
This book focuses on the Fireworks component of Macromedia's Studio 8.I started with no knowledge of Fireworks and feel very comfortable with the application after having finished this book.
The table of contents for this book is very detailed, which makes this book a great reference in addition to a tutorial.There are 9 lessons, and each lesson is divided into several exercises.I won't list all the exercises for each lesson here, but these are the lesson titles:

1) Get to Know Fireworks
2) Work with Bitmap Images
3) Create Vector Objects
4) Use Text
5) Use Layers and Masking
6) Create Buttons and Menus
7) Use Slices and Rollovers
8) Create Animations
9) Optimize anad Export Images

This book is in color with lots of pictures.It is also spiral bound, making it easy to work with.It comes with a CD to use with the exercises.Each exercise describes certain tasks and how to perform them, and then provides exercises that you can do to master each task.This book is very thorough, I can't imagine anyone needing any other book on Fireworks after they have this one.

Great Book for Beginner and Advanced
This book with CD has lessons and if you're new to Fireworks it gives a step-by-step explanation within the lessons, The CD is terrific that comes with the book.

It was shipped in a timely manner, and hope to purchase from them again.

Teach yourself Fireworks 8
I'm a web developer student; our college doesn't offer classes in Fireworks at this time.This text ranks up with the best I've used to date.

Learning Macromedia Fireworks 8 by Brian Underdahl explains how to create, edit, and publish images for the web.It clearly illustrates the user interface, gives an overview of what each exercise will teach you, with step-by-step instructions on specific procedures.Each exercise can be done in less than an hour.You can work the text beginning-to-end, or go directly to specific tasks, such as creating custom buttons, animations, and cascading style sheets.

Since buying this text, I haven't opened Photoshop once!Dreamweaver users, you've got to try Fireworks, which I find to be a much more intuitive and user-friendly program.This book will help you get comfortable with the software in short order. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

A rediscovered gem
In addition to his eleven novels, Huxley's fiction included five collections of shorter works in which he worked out, as he did in dozens of non-fiction books and essays, many of the ideas that found their most elaborate expression in the novels. Each story collection included a short novel--"The Farcical History of Richard Greenow," "Two or Three Graces," "Uncle Spencer," "The Gioconda Smile" (really a long story), and "After the Fireworks," one of his own favorites: it was collected in both of the Huxley readers published during his lifetime. I had long hoped that, as the short stories had been collected, the novellas might also be published in one volume. In terms of length, a few of them are actually longer than some of his proper novels, but they have the anecdotal precision and formal directness that defines this often neglected form.
Perhaps we can now expect them to appear in individual volumes, as Hesperus has handsomely done with "After the Fireworks," including a page of notes that will please all Huxleyans who are driven bonkers by his tendency to assume that we all can quote from memory Dante and other poets in the original Italian or French or German. An Annotated Aldous is long overdue! "After the Fireworks" is a delight, concerning a pompous but extremely well-educated 50-year-old novelist whose works excite romantic young women looking for a great love to begin their lives. Such is the 20-year-old tourist in Rome, Pamela, who is determined to make the writer Miles Fanning her first lover. He tries to resist, but when overpowered becomes infatuated with her fresh and eager sexuality. (If this sounds like recent Philip Roth--"The Dying Animal," "The Humbling"--the clash of young and old is hardly new, yet the similarities here are striking.) Pamela is, of course, appalled that Miles sees her as an infinitely entertaining sex toy, hardly the cosmic romantic knight she envisioned. She is especially outraged that he can't talk to her as he does to contemporaries who recall 1914 and all that followed. And when he falls ill with a humiliating intestinal complaint, she is determined to move on.
There are the usual Huxleyan sidebars about Homer, the Etruscans, Chaucer, Dante, and the dishonesty of literature, but there is also a marvelous lyricism in the passages about Monte Cavo and the natural wonders of Rome, and a passage of true linguistic virtuosity regarding the fireworks (Roman candles) that precede the sexual fireworks. There are also passages that are as funny as anything Huxley wrote, which is saying a lot, particularly those from Pamela's diary, the letter Miles doesn't get to finish, and life at a spa. This is a comedy--no one, not even Miles, dies, and there are memorable supporting characters, not least the dead mother of Pamela, recalled as having had her own needs.
"After the Fireworks" appeared in 1930, midpoint between his two masterpieces, "Point Counter Point" and "Brave New World." A section on opium and the need for people to turn on and tune out is especially prophetic of his later work.
... Read more

Product Description
Fireworks CS4 is a hybrid imaging and rapid-prototyping application with an enhanced toolset and a greater variety of options. In Fireworks CS4 Essential Training, Jim Babbage demonstrates how to navigate and customize the workspace in this design and production hub. He then provides a primer on the array of graphics that can be created and combined in Fireworks, including bitmap and vector art, layered Photoshop and Illustrator files, and files in the native Fireworks format, enhanced PNG. He demonstrates creative uses of text, animation, and effects. Jim discusses how to generate optimized web graphics as well as entire interactive prototypes based on CSS, HTML, PDF, and AIR. This training is intended for those who are new to Fireworks or who are seeking insights into the techniques made possible by the latest version. Exercise files accompany the course. ... Read more

Product Description
1923, the First World War has ended, the second has yet to begin, and Italy is torn between the Socialist and Fascist parties. A rend that would threaten to tear not only the country, but families apart! This is the true story of one family in Maropati, Italy, during the Feast of the Epiphany. Beautifully illustrated, this embellished tale comes directly from Cavallaro's grandparents, in stories passed down from generations into a master storyteller's hands. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Little wars.
by Ian Chant
http://www.popmatters.com

Even when the fighting on one of the world's many battlefields sees a rare moment of silence, the little wars of our own lives rage on without pause. We are, it would seem, destined to move from one conflict to another - with our families, our friends, ourselves and the world around us. It is these little wars that Mike Cavallaro delves into in his Eisner nominated short series, Parade (with fireworks).

On the heels of the First World War, Italy was a nation in turmoil. Members of the burgeoning fascist and socialist parties struggled publicly and privately for the future of the country. This story is an adaptation of an oral history passed down through generations of the author's family, the tale of Cavallaro's grandfather, Paolo. The oral history put to paper here is a charming and poignant relic, an entertaining and enlightening slice of history that is both personal and political, exploring the subtle battles between family members and the louder ones between ideologies.

In telling an oral history, much less one that is deeply entwined with his own family and has been passed down through the generations, Cavallaro understands that he can't craft an objective history, and doesn't try to. Instead, he transforms an old family story into a near-fable. Private conversations are filled in and details assumed as necessary. Most strikingly portrayed are the fascists in the piece, almost comically villainous, all bristling moustaches, barking insults and disgusted sneers. They are, without exception, a group of guys you wouldn't be surprised to find tying a hapless maiden to a railroad track in their off hours, cackling maliciously. But ultimately, it is this very cartoonishness that makes the sudden violence of the tale all the more shocking and effective.

Parade (with fireworks) is a pugnacious sort of story - spanning only a short time it covers a lot of ground, touching on the time between wars, of struggles for national power writ small, and of silent conflicts that rend families. Clocking in at just over 60 pages, it's a little story, a small tale of family, violence and betrayal set in a time of turmoil and mistrust, and the tale is lent a formidable nostalgic quality by Cavallaro's gorgeous, singular artistic style.

The beautifully painted pages of Parade (with fireworks) take as much inspiration from classic art styles, notably Impressionism and Futurism, as they do from the classic Sunday funnies. The work's climatic gunfight brings to mind Will Eisner channeling Umberto Boccioni. Brilliantly cartooned figures battle it out against striking red backdrops, dotted with brilliant blues. The tip of the hat to futurist elements does much to help cement the story in a unique place and time, a strange but somehow fitting homage to the work of a generation of Italian artists who were by and large proponents of fascism, placing them firmly in the villainous camp according to the logic of the tale.

Whether he's portraying sunlit festivals and bloody gunfights or dank prison cells and tense courtrooms, Cavallaro's mastery of light and shadow is as impressive as his versatility as a visual storyteller. Cavallaro displays a great talent for telling a whole story in just an image or two, but also knows when to play a scene along for maximum dramatic effect.

And while the artwork is haunting and gorgeous, Cavallaro is also a terse and talented writer, displaying a gift that seems drastically undervalued in many current comics: brevity. While the narration can go a bit talky at times, the dialogue throughout Parade (with fireworks) is downright Chandlerian. Each line feels totally necessary. Every word has a purpose, providing context for relationships or fleshing out characters. In two full issues, not one word feels wasted or excessive, a true feat in an industry whose writers more and more tend towards chatty, Sorkin-esque exchanges between characters that spend sentence after sentence without advancing a plot or even expressing an idea.

Born as a labor of love on web comics collective Act-i-vate, Parade (with fireworks) was eventually picked up by the Image Comics imprint Shadowline, a studio run by creator Jim Valentino that is dedicated to bringing singular new voices and styles to mainstream comics. And while it has taken some time for it to get its due, it's a credit to the industry that what began as a little web comic inspired by the stories of previous generations can get picked up by a major publisher and end up an acclaimed miniseries nominated for the industry's highest honor. ... Read more