Books published by Visible Spectrum

The definitive book on Australian punk and post-punk music, long unavailable, now reissued in a much-expanded new edition with 175 photos. Stranded offers the inside story of the emergence of the Saints, the Birthday Party, the Laughing Clowns, the Go-Betweens, Nick Cave, the Triffids, the Moodists, the Scientists, and many more great Australian bands, told by a writer who witnessed it all first-hand and is acknowledged as the leading chronicler of the Australian music scene.

<b>When does the shadow of a legend merely block out the sun?</b><br><br>Everyone remembers <i>The Rest of Quiglet,</i> that heartwarming sitcom starring Grace Mannix. For four years it told the story of a typical teenage girl, her widowed father, and their robot maid (played by the exotic ''Biltong''). The legend was made complete by the chance casting of the show''s composer, Sherman Schiegel, in an onscreen role as Quiglet''s boyfriend.<p>In perpetual syndication, the show still has many avid fans. Elyse Argawal, following its progress and absorbing its teachings, has made it the focus of her successful academic career, while teenage twins Tabby and Billy Tibbins have pursued their obsession with the show''s machinations in their fanzine, <i>Silent Zone</i>.</p><p>A crucial part of <i>Quiglet</i> mythology is its much discussed but long suppressed finale: the so-called ''murder episode.'' But while doing research in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Elyse stumbles upon a copy of this jewel in the <i>Quiglet</i> crown. And when she and Billy fall in love, she faces the same dilemma the show''s cast has long faced: what is their identity without the myth that brought them fame and fortune?</p><p>Extending over four decades and told from a range of perspectives and paradigms, this debut graphic novel from renowned Australian cultural historian David Nichols is a pitch-perfect satire that explores ambition, desire, and the pursuit of perfection.</p>

Life After Death is a deep dive into the subcultures of Los Angeles and London in the 1980s as glam turned to punk and goth. Susan Compo captures the lives of aspiring musicians, scenesters, and obsessive fans-lives in which reality is a constant threat to cherished illusions, and death, while never far away, is sometimes not the end of the story.