Nostalgia Press's Horror Comics of the 1950's was, in 1971, the first high quality collection of stories from EC comics. It's 'oversized', as you can see from the photo above, although not quite as large as Taschen would go with their XXL comics line. I own their XXL History of EC Comics book. It's ridiculous. So big it hardly fits in the flat. So stunning, too, when you open a page featuring art on that scale.
Luckily I got this this Nostalgia Press book for a reasonable price from the US (where else?). It was cheaper than usual (they don't appear often) because of it's well-worn cover. Forget the cover, the contents are stunning - what colours! These colours zing in a different way to, say, modern Marvel omnibuses. That may be due to the nice, thick paper they were printed on. I know next to nothing about the dark arts of printing but this production looks special to me and to compare I have 90s reprints and contemporary ones. Note the Are You A Red Dupe? page, written at the height of the moral panic about comics in America. Ironically, it was in America, 'the land of the free', that comics were severely censored around this time (1954). Hope you enjoy a look at the book.
It's a mad, mad, mad etc world, yes. Hasn't it always been so?
Each side of every political divide views the other as mad.
Bowie sang he 'would rather stay here with all the madmen / Than perish with the sad men roaming free' (All The Madmen). Perhaps it is better to be mad...
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I've updated the Peter Finch Typewriter Poems book page having discovered that the images had disappeared. See some pages from this little gem here.
Saddened to hear that James Sallis is now sleeping The Big Sleep. I first discovered him as a crime writer in the 90s with a series of novels that broke the genre mold. At the time I was writing fiction, attempting novels that merged noir and sci-fi. I emailed a sample to Sallis and to my surprise he actually replied with some positive feedback. Despite his encouragement, I was unable to finish anything that I was really satisfied with. He worked on the new New Worlds magazine for a while in the late-60s and it was there that his first sci-fi short story was published. The editor, Michael Moorcock, introduced Sallis to the hardboiled crime classics which eventually lead him to writing novels that presumably made him money (Drive in particular) unlike the sci-fi. His sci-fi shorts are collected in Time's Hammers which has a fantastic introductory essay written by the man himself.
Took a punt on this seeing as it was reasonably priced online. The best feature is undoubtedly Joe Tilson's 'software chart questionnaire'. It reminds me of the art/text intersection explored by New Worlds magazine from the same period. I looked up the forthcoming 'book' mentioned on the final page but it turned out to be a plush portfolio of prints, therefore way out of my price range should any appear for sale. Never mind. I'm very happy with these pages in the ICA magazine.
No, he's not actually 100 years old - he would be. So what better excuse for celebrating Britain's greatest artist...
Is he Britain's greatest artist?
No, he is the Greatest Artist of the 20th Century!
Is he?
Here's how I know: of all the monographs on artists I have, anything about or featuring Paolozzi has been pulled from the shelves more than any other books. What other evidence do you need?
Do you need a book on Paolozzi? Yes. But I can't recommend just one. The Judith Collins one, simply called Eduardo Paolozzi, is very good and full of colour images. The other essential one is Writings And Interviews, edited by Robin Spencer. The link takes you to one available on Amazon at the cheapest I've seen (£92). It seems to be ex-library but I'd snap it up all the same if I was you because it's packed with interviews and texts by Paolozzi unavailable elsewhere.
My most treasured Paolozzi books are those he produced (with help) in the 60s, the 'artist's books', Kex, Abba Zaba and The Metallization Of A Dream. Another, Metafisikal Translations has eluded me so far, being too expensive. You can see my post on Kexhere. Abba Zaba is featured here. The Psychological Atlas is here. The brown book with the embossed cover is The Metallization Of A Dream...
Paolozzi was born in Leith, Scotland. To celebrate his 100 anniversary Leith Athletic F.C. have produced shirts and scarves inspired by The Man. Great idea, eh? I'd buy a scarf but they've currently sold out. Wearing it in London would certainly surprise any Scottish tourists.
I'll say no more because, as you'll see if you click on the Paolozzi tab on the side, I've said quite a bit about Him on this and my other blog. Suffice to say he has been and always will be a great inspiration to me through his writings and Art. So here are more pictures...
First art book purchase of 2024, found at a reasonable price on the Oxfam website (cheaper than anywhere else). Hardback edition, 1992...but...can you see anything wrong with the picture below?
Joseph Cornell was not an Abstract Expressionist, was he? Perhaps you agree with Waldman that he belongs in that category. She claims his works from the 1950s 'parallel the interests of the Abstract Expressionist painters' due to the 'painterly interiors' and 'paint...often layered, some of it intentionally chipped or left peeling'. OK, but I think it's stretching things a bit to place him in a chapter called Abstract Expressionism. He belongs more in the Surrealism chapter, surely. His work was not 'abstract', not did it demonstrate expressionistic tendencies. This fault aside, it's a good book.
Yes, inevitably, books on typewriter art/concrete poetry.
Typewriter Art: A Modern Anthology - Barrie Tullett (2014)
This one's creeping up in price so it's best to buy one as soon as you can. It's the best contemporary coverage of typewriter art, not just because it's well designed and written but because it contains interviews with exponents old and new.
Concerning Concrete Poetry - Bob Cobbing and Peter Mayer (1978/2014)
Probably the most interesting book on concrete poetry, consisting as it does of statements, manifestos and musings on both concrete and sound poetry, their meaning(s) and evolution. This facsimile edition naturally has that vintage/raw appearance/appeal. Unfortunately, it's now rather pricey but I got mine before it neared it's current values. You can see a few pages here.
The Art of Typewriting - Marvin and Ruth Sackner (2015)
The best book, visually, on typewriter art. Large format and a good, selective biographical section in the back with further examples of the artists' work. This one is very affordable and essential if you're interested in what has been done by hitting keys (and yes, applying other media too).
'It was intended as a poetic provocation to all the content of the architectural discourse...introducing words, music, drawings, film, fashion.' - Archigram
Architecture as...fantasy? As fantastical science-fictional buildings and cityscapes? But we've seen countless artistic visions of future cities in sci-fi magazines and on book covers...so what? But Archigram went further - they had the plans.
Schemers and dreamers, yes, but Archigram drew, photographed and collaged their ideas and they can be seen in this book - The Book, the best and only book you need on these architectural theoreticians. Wait though, in case the idea of 'theory' puts you off, fear not, their schemes are such that they are a visual delight...
...a dash of situationism and a splash of Pop art sparked, to some degree, by the famous This Is Tomorrow exhibition...'Always definitively incomplete', as they say in the text accompanying the Nottingham shopping viaduct project. Incomplete echoes the idea of the disposable culture so many were discussing as manufacturing and materials showered the post-WW2 world with all manner of goods...an incomplete satisfaction, perhaps? The instantaneous consumer hit so quickly fading and needing to be found again and again.
Yet Archigram were no socialist, utopian idealists against shallow consumerism, Like so many Pop artists they cast enthusiastic eyes over the array of products, from film to pulp fiction and domestic goods and were inspired. The Book even contains a pop-up page...
...or should that be Pop-up?
Archigram seemed to exist on the cool outer edges of Swinging London's hot epicentre....outsiders looking in and visualising what they saw, or rather, offering an alternate vision because despite all that was happening in London during the 60s the collective was able to somehow mirror, without directly engaging in, The Scene. Such is my impression, although it's quite possible some of them were in contact with the scenesters.
The final photo may 'say it all' in terms of Cool sophistication combined with Pop domestic products. A living city survival kit indeed! Note the inclusion of both Ornette Coleman and Coltrane. Sunglasses, a gun, a pack of cigarettes and, of course, a copy of Playboy. All that a penthouse-dwelling urbanite needs to survive. This urbane hipster would, however, be living in an Archigram-designed pod in a mobile city.
Finally, I found this fantastic short film, made in 1967 and perfectly capturing the spirit of Archigram and the times...
