Burton Silver
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Burton Silver is a cartoonist, parodist, writer, art critic and inventor. He lives in Wellington, New Zealand.
His best known cartoon series was written for the New Zealand Listener - Bogor, which dealt with a lone woodsman and the forest animals that were his only companions (especially a hedgehog). An earlier cartoon, OB (written under the pseudonym "Roux"), had as its main characters a bird, a snake, and a rock, and was initially inspired by Silver's time spent in the Australian outback. Bogor originally appeared in the Listener in 1973, and was New Zealand's longest-running published cartoon series.
He is also known for his humorous cat art books (created in collaboration with painter and photographer, Heather Busch): Why Cats Paint, Why Paint Cats, and the popular Dancing with Cats, as well as his spoofs Kokigami: The Intimate Art of the Little Paper Costume (Japanese paper decoration for the genitals also in collaboration with Heather Busch), and the self-explanatory The Naughty Victorian Hand Book: The Rediscovered Art of Erotic Hand Manipulation(with illustrator Jeremy Bennett. Other books include "What Bird Did That? A Driver's Guide to Some Common Birds of North America" (co-authored with Peter Hansard), "The Kama Sutra for Cats" (illustrated by Margaret Woodhouse) and "Versability", a poetry game similar to "Dictionary", were players create new lines for poems rather than new meanings for words (co-authored by his wife Melissa da Souza.) His most successful book to date is "Why Cats Paint" which has sold over 700,000 copies worldwide. He has over one million books in print.
One of his more recent inventions is the sport of Golfcross, played on a golf course with aerial goal-nets and a golf ball in the shape of a rugby ball. There are GolfCross courses in Germany, Argentina, Scotland, England, Ireland, and New Zealand.
Silver's latest project (co-authored with Martin O'Connor) is a relationship book titled 'Everything He Hasn't Told You Yet: A New Way to Get Men talking About Stuff That Matters". The book utilizes the Scenario Method which works by putting a man at the center of hypothetical situations thus allowing him to share what he really thinks and feels. Francis E. Steinberg calls the book " a highly effective way of building a stronger relationship". 'Everything He Hasn't Told You Yet' is due to be released in the United States in October 2007. The book recently received a starred review in the US Library Journal. Limited free scenarios from the book are available at www.everythinghehasnttoldyouyet.com
He has also developed "The Fringe Games" which is an international festival of new and experimental sports designed to run in conjunction with the Olympic Games.
