Cartoonist and national treasure Ralph Steadman's unique take on a variety of extinct birds.
When Ceri Levy asked Ralph Steadman to produce one piece of art representing an extinct bird for a recent exhibition, Ghosts of Gone Birds, Ralph said 'yes'. Then 'yes' again...and again...and again. An astonishing 100 paintings later, Extinct Boids was born.
Ralph got carried away by the birds, taking Ceri with him. This book details the discoveries they made on their travels through the savage seas of extinction. After stumbling on the previously hidden Toadstool Island, where the extinct birds of the world live on in secretive harmony, the duo spent nearly a year in close proximity to a host of fantastical avian creatures.
Ralph documents them all in this series of remarkable paintings, featuring unique interpretations of well-known birds such as the Great Auk, Passenger Pigeon and Dodo, along with less familiar members of the feathersome firmament - Snail-eating Coua, for example, or the Red-moustached Fruit Dove - and a variety of bizarre beasts including the Gob Swallow, the Long-legged Shortwing and the Needless Smut. All are captured in a riot of expression and colour, with a slice of trademark Steadman humour.
Based on emails, diary entries and phone conversations, Ceri's accompanying text provides a running commentary, detailing the unfolding madness behind the creation of each piece in Ralph's extraordinary work. Things got tough as the pair discovered just how many amazing birds have been lost from our world forever.
'But,' as Ralph said 'it did, after all, make a nice change from drawing politicians.'
Table of Contents:
His Nibship in the Midship
HMS Steadmanitania
Ghosts of Gone Birds
So I said, then he said, then…
Japanese Egret
Great Auk
North Island Giant Moa
Choiseul Crested Pigeon
Black Mamo
Guadalupe Caracara
Mauritius Owl
Rodrigues Solitaire
Oahu ‘O’o
Jamaican Red Macaw
Liverpool Pigeon
Purple Gallinule
South Telly Chat
Chatham Rail
North Island Takahe
Pallas’s Cormorant
Dodo
Blue Slut
Rodrigues Blue-black Throstle
Lesser-blotted Bitwing
Mauritius Night Heron
Mechanical Botanical Spunt
Imperial Woodpecker
Martinique Amazon Parrot
King Island Shtum
Orange-beaked Mwit
Huia
Red-footed Booby
Bonin Wood Pigeon
St Helena Giant Hoopoe
Red-moustached Fruit Dove
Snail-eating Coua
Ula-’ai-Hawane
Greater Amakihi
Biship’s ‘O’o
Honduras Banana ‘O’o
How a Bird is Born
Pale Blue Piddle
Carolina Parakeet
North Island Piopio
South Island Piopio
Red Rail
Moor Pen
Needless Smut
Réunion Sacred Ibis
Quink
Spundwick’s Fret
Cuban Macaw
Labrador Duck
Mauritius Blue Pigeon
Dusky Seaside Sparrow
Lord Howe Swamphen
Bar-winged Rail
Norfolk Island Kaka
Ex-Stink Boid
Blue Lidwink
Blackened Thront
Gould’s Emerald
Aldabra Brush Warbler
Stephens Island Wren
Grand Cayman Thrush
Robust White-eye
Splindwilf
Orange-beaked One-wing Jurassic
Atitlán Grebe
Laughing Owl
Double-banded Argus
Lanai Hookbill
Humpbacked Blue Mult
York Island Fright
Chatham Island Bellbird
Dieffenbach’s Rail
Lord Howe Gerygone
Robust White-eye
Guam Flycatcher
Aldabra Brush Warbler
Blue-winded Gasp
New Zealand Quail
Wizened Twit
White-winged Sandpiper
Auckland Island Merganser
Nasty Tern
Gob Swallow
Once Bittern
Lousy Grudgian
Mauritian Shelduck
New Zealand Little Bittern
Colombian Grebe
Mascarene Parrot
Channel-beaked Murdoch Cuckoo
Broad-billed Parrot
Spotted Wingless Strut
Mottled Splatwink
Angered Maggot Sleet
Crested Honeycreeper
Pueo
‘Apapane
Maui Creeper
Omao
Common ‘Amakihi
Palila
Hawaiian I’iwi
Hawaiian Ariapola’au
Lanai Oloma’o
Greater Koa Finch
Kona Grosbeak
Lanai Hookbill
Kioea
Laysan Rail
Hawaiian Rail
Bishop’s ‘O’o
Hawaiian Crow
Canary Islands Oystercatcher
The White-winged Gonner
Tanna Ground-dove
Spittle’s Yerk
Northern Bald Ibis
Lesser Peruvian Blue-beaked Blotswerve
White-winged Feathered Dinosaur
Tristan Moorhen
Hawaii Mamo
The man who hated birdshit
Tahiti Rail
Réunion Gallinule
White Gallinule
Guadalupe Ponce
Oceanic Eclectus Parrot
Kakawahie
Lesser-blotted Kamao
Guadeloupe Amazon Parrot
Oahu Nukupu’u
Lesser ‘Akialoa
Purple Swamphen
White Gallinule
Tahiti Sandpiper
Yooo-eeee Bluebreast
Dickie Bird
Nested Lemon Tweet
Jail Bird
Yuleiptopede Nativitaurus Willychick Tweet
Long-legged Shortwing
Passenger Pigeon
Orange Thronk
Pink Twisted Thrisp
Branch Fling Schwing
Pink Rotten Scrawl
Random Blotted Slumley
Splattered Shag
Desert Bluebeak
Pink-headed Duck
Giant Elephant Bird
Green Twot
Yellow Twet
Pink Twit
‘Smy Egg
Acknowledgements
About the Author :
Ralph Steadman was born in 1936. He began his career as a cartoonist, and through the years has diversified into many creative fields. Ralph collaborated with Dr Hunter S. Thompson in the birth of 'gonzo' journalism, with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; he has illustrated classics such as Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island and Animal Farm, and written and illustrated his own books, which include Sigmund Freud, I Leonardo and The Big I Am. Steadman is also a printmaker, and has travelled the world's vineyards, culminating in his books The Grapes of Ralph, Untrodden Grapes and Still Life with Bottle.
Ceri Levy is a film-maker, who started out making music videos before moving into the world of documentaries. His works include Bananaz, a film about the inner machinations of the group Gorillaz, and the forthcoming The Bird Effect; he is also co-curator of Ghosts of Gone Birds, and therefore a crucial cog in the boids' creation myth.
Review :
Not since Adam named the beasts ... has anyone so enriched the language of ornithology as Mr. Steadman and his co-author, Ceri Levy, in Extinct Boids.
A characteristically madcap and often very funny voyage through the dark tale of extinction.
While Steadman gives us paintings of the dodo, the great auk and other familiar lost species in burning, unforgettable colours, we also find the nasty tern, the wizened twit, the dickie bird, the jail bird, and the lesser Peruvian blue-beaked blotswerve. The film-maker and conservationist Ceri Levy anchors it all in sanity with an appealing running commentary.
Every turn of the page reveals a bird brought to life in Steadman's inimitable style.
Ralph's remarkable paintings... pay a tribute to some of the most beautiful creatures ever to have lived.
Each species is splashed across the page in Steadman’s unique style, accompanied by a witty and informative commentary by Levy.
The illustrator Ralph Steadman has used his weird imagination to conjure up colourful, faded feathered friends.
The national treasure that is Ralph Steadman utilises his trademark cartoon-style to document those “ghost birds” whose demise stands as an indictment of mankind’s destructive tendencies.
A riotous flight of imagination with a serious message.
