A Is for Armageddon
A Catalogue of Disasters That May Culminate in the End of the World as We Know It
By Richard Horne
(Harper Paperbacks, Paperback, 9780062005939, 272pp.)
Publication Date: January 2011
Categories: Disasters & Disaster Relief
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Doomsday . . . Judgment Day . . .
Day of Reckoning . . . The Apocalypse . . .
As the man with the sandwich board might say, "The end of the world is nigh." Nobody knows for sure whether it will be an act of God, a natural event, or a man-made disaster that causes the final bell to toll for humankind, but it is surely primed and ready to clang.
A Is for Armageddon is your ruthlessly clever and gorgeously hopeless guide to the possible—if not imminent—ultimate destruction of our civilization and planet. From animal flatulence to economic collapse to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—from lethal genetic modification to runaway obesity, super volcanoes, and World War III—the seeds of our doom have been sown . . . and our most dire possible fates have been stunningly illustrated in this edifying and uniquely entertaining volume of inescapable horrors, fatal missteps, and the end of everything.
Richard Horne is a British writer, graphic designer, and artist whose bestselling books (published in sixteen languages worldwide) include 101 Things to Do Before You Die, 101 Things to Do Before You're Old and Boring, and 101 Things You Need to Know . . . and Some You Don't! The illustrator of The Dangerous Book for Boys, Horne also designed and illustrated the covers for J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter School Books for Comic Relief series, including Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages. He lives in London.
“For real calamity, Richard Horne is your man, and “A Is for Armageddon” is his illustrated catalog of all the ways you and the world might bite it. In his hands the means to the End become wonders to behold...[A] Technicolor parade of visual metaphors.”
-New York Times
“Richard Horne’s beautifully illustrated new book ‘A Is for Armageddon: An Illustrated Catalogue of Disasters’ is the perfect last-minute gift for the end of days alarmist on your holiday list.”
-Flavorpill
“Horne gives us an Armageddon that’s vivid and flashy with hip characterizations and humor that’s the equivalent of the comic relief in a Shakespearean tragedy….Don’t let the jokes and splashy colors fool you, though. He’s as thoughtful as he is comprehensive.”
-Los Angeles Times
“A beautifully illustrated, delightfully dystopian guide to the apocalypse.”
-BrainPickings.org
“A catalog of potentially life-on-earth-ending catastrophes that will warm a pessimist’s heart…Horne takes a decidedly tongue-in-cheek approach to the end of days, reveling, like any good pessimist, in the sheer misery of it all. His compendium is colorfully illustrated and quite exhaustive.”
-The New Yorker
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